Currently, there's a lot of Western pressure on China for not talking to the Dalai Lama even though he claims to only want autonomy. China held talks with his holiness for years, but they went nowhere. Why? You kind of have to look at what the Dalai Lama really meant when he says "autonomy not independence". Starting with his "proposal for peace" in 1987 (yr?) the Dalai Lama has offered as his terms as:
1. The Greater Tibet region should be combined into one autonomous state. This includes Tibet, Qinghai province, Gansu province, and parts of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, equaling about a quarter of China.
2. Chinese military must leave the greater Tibet region. The whole region would become a gianormous region of peace with no military ever to be needed.
3. China must restrict even voluntary migration of people to Tibet.
So if China doesn't get to govern Tibetan internal affairs, can't have a military presence, there's no free flow of people across borders, and the Dalai Lama isn't about to give up his international popularity on diplomacy, you have to ask, exactly which part of His Holiness's proposal differs from independence?
Friday, April 18, 2008
Darn those brainwashed goons and thugs
People don't seem to understand why many Chinese people are angry. In the Chinese perspective, there was a riot in Tibet and its suppression became the rallying point of world angst against what most of them think of something that's symbolic of Chinese success much more than Chinese government success. They look at the suppression of LA race riots in the 80s and last year's riots in France and feel that the "free world" is being hypocritical. That's not something the government has taught them. So right or wrong, it is their own judgment.
Of course, people would be absolutely right to implore the Chinese to look beyond the riots themselves and at the underlying causes. But the Chinese people are asking, where is this introspection when it comes to the Middle East?
Bottom-line is you have to ask yourself what your goal is. If your goal is to improve the situation in Tibet, then you have to understand that the Chinese people are not a bunch of brainwashed goons and thugs and you cannot treat the Chinese government as a unitary actor. There are liberalizing forces and there are hardline ultranationalistic forces in the CCP and in the population. You have to enable the former to gain more power in China. Protesting the Olympics, attacking torch bearers, and telling Chinese people they're brainwashed goons and thugs will only achieve the opposite.
It will, however, provide you with a lot more publicity and a sense of moral superiority. And sadly that's enough for most people in the free and morally superior world.
Of course, people would be absolutely right to implore the Chinese to look beyond the riots themselves and at the underlying causes. But the Chinese people are asking, where is this introspection when it comes to the Middle East?
Bottom-line is you have to ask yourself what your goal is. If your goal is to improve the situation in Tibet, then you have to understand that the Chinese people are not a bunch of brainwashed goons and thugs and you cannot treat the Chinese government as a unitary actor. There are liberalizing forces and there are hardline ultranationalistic forces in the CCP and in the population. You have to enable the former to gain more power in China. Protesting the Olympics, attacking torch bearers, and telling Chinese people they're brainwashed goons and thugs will only achieve the opposite.
It will, however, provide you with a lot more publicity and a sense of moral superiority. And sadly that's enough for most people in the free and morally superior world.
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