Photo taken on Aug.26,2014 shows Redi (left) and the Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu (right),attended the opening ceremony of Mount Qomolangma Cultural Festival in Shigatze Prefecture,Tibet.[Photo/China Tibet Online]

BEIJING, May 12 (China Tibet Online) Redi, vice chairman of the 10th Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, sent a letter to the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region to express his sympathies for the victims of the recent earthquake, offer his condolences to the relatives of those injured or killed, and pay his respects to the relief workers on May 8, 2015.

Redi was born and raised in Tibet who also spent many years working there. In the letter, he said that the hard-hit quake areas are all border regions, and he has visited those areas many times. In that alpine area, the mountains are high, valleys are deep, and the geology is complex, which makes it very difficult to carry out relief work.

"In such a serious disaster, it is really not easy to have achieved such results in the phased earthquake relief efforts," said Redi.

Redi recalled that the recent earthquake relief efforts in Tibet reminded him of the massive 8.6-magnitude earthquake on August 15, 1950, in between Medog County and Zayü County in Tibet.

He was 12 years old at that time. At the quake’s epicenter, there were landslides from the mountains and the ground opened up, and the Yarlung Zangbo River was divided into four parts. Some villages were thrown on the opposite of the river and houses collapsed. Even places that were far from the epicenter, like Lhasa, Chamdo, and Nagqu, were also greatly affected. According to incomplete statistics from the time, more than 2,000 people were killed, countless people went missing, and the disaster area was covered in ruins.

He said in the letter that at the time, Tibet was still ruled by the old Tibetan government. Led by the 14th Dalai Lama, not only did the government not care about the lives of common people, but they also increased several taxes. According to archive records of earthquakes in Old Tibet, after an earthquake disaster in 1897, the people from Pagri and Yadong County requested aid from the government. The report states that due to 'an innumerable errands like ripples in the water; there is no alternative but to ask for a loan and do forced labor, making people fall into a predicament of debt but could not escape from.'

According to Redi, after the 1950 earthquake, resulting in a state of 'human and financial decline beyond repair', three major lords became rich as a result of the disaster, and the Tibetan government implemented a grain lending system of 'lend 9, return 10' or 'lend 10, return 11'. Monks and aristocrats alike engaged in high-interest loans. A majority of the quake victims suffered twofold with effects from the earthquake and then the high-interest loans, being forced into 'bankruptcy' or 'becoming a fugitive'.

Redi said he particularly noted that after the earthquake, many monasteries and monks reported losses to the government, requesting financial aid for repairs, but the government did not grant it. This is what an earthquake disaster was like under the old government of Tibet.

"There is a sharp contrast between the earthquake relief in Old Tibet and in New China," said Redi.

He stressed that this shows that only under the leadership of the CPC, in a socialist society can the Tibetan people have the confidence, courage, and ability to overcome any disaster and rebuild their homeland. Thus Tibet, especially those areas affected by the recent earthquake, will achieve leapfrog development and long-term stability.