Celebrating the Plympic torch will not Gloss Over the situation in Tibet

‘Mental Complexes’ Result in Western Sympathy for Tibet

‘NO SMOKING’
Will it be possible to persuade Western governments and public opinion that China is the victim of Tibetan ‘running dogs’? In this op-ed from Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po, published before the voyage of the Olympic torch began, Hong Kong television commentator Dr. Qiu Zhenhai explains how the Beijing government can turn the public relations battle in its favor. Far more reasonable - even to the point of admitting error on the part of the Chinese government - the key, according to the author, is to understand the flaws and contradictions in Western thinking and to mount a massive new public relations campaign.
By Dr. Qiu Zhenhai, commentator for Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV
Translated By Mark Klingman
March 22. 2008
China - Wen Wei Po - Original Article (Chinese)
Tibet’s largest riot in 20 years has aroused international concern. Although over the past few days Chinese officials have released some news, they have yet to allow foreign reporters to interview the locals and the rumors are flying. Particularly European countries are of the belief that information from the Chinese government is wholly unreliable. This statement sounds harsh, but the Western world’s inherent thinking and feeling on the issue of Tibet is a reflection of this. If we carefully study the mentality behind this thinking and improve China’s international public-relations skills, we can try to overcome the limitations of the West’s political culture.
The Olympic Games in Beijing are still four and a half months away. Although this is a moment of crisis, the crisis may also offer opportunities.
Tibet is a complicated issue. There does need to be a deeper, more respectful, civilized dialogue and an improvement in relations between Han Chinese and Tibetans. But long-term delays and the way the Tibetan running-dogs have acted in their own political interests have resulted in the growing complication of Tibetan affairs. But looked at in isolation, it’s clear that the disturbances, rioting, vandalism and heinous disorder are being dealt with according to the law. If any incident of this kind took place in a Western country, regardless of the “complexity” of the surrounding issues, the local government would carry out effective programs to clamp down and maintain peace. The 1992 riots in Los Angeles as well as the 2005 riots in Paris are perfect examples.
Only on the Tibet issue do Western media and intelligentsia diverge from their usual thinking. In the past, Western intellectuals have almost unanimously condemned the Chinese government over Tibet. In regard to the current turmoil, they have condemned the use of force and demanded official Chinese restraint, regardless of the facts surrounding the riots. But the West’s criticism is in stark contrast to its long history of intellectual and empirical rigor, because it is fully aware that the question of Tibet is a deep and complex one. Therefore we must take the first step: We must study the Western position on the question of Tibet, along with the international public relations measures utilized by Western intellectuals.
TIBET: A WESTERN BLIND SPOT AND MENTAL COMPLEX
On the question of Tibet, Western intellectuals have multiple overlaid and intertwined complexes. So when they speak with the appearance of “rationality” on the issue of Tibet, they merely give vent to their own confusion and demonstrate the vicious circle that they’ve gotten themselves into.
COMPLEX NUMBER ONE: The long-standing, traditional liberalism and idealism of the West, which is concerned primarily with civil liberties, human rights, self-determination, and confidence in basic government, arose out of the Renaissance and the bourgeois [industrial] revolution. These ideas are the precious spiritual wealth of the West. The trouble is that for a variety of reasons, when this spiritual wealth encounters the Tibet issue, it gets twisted and perverted.
COMPLEX NUMBER TWO: Over the past few centuries because of the success of modernization, there has been a “tilting” process toward the West. The West has become a model for the world in human rights, democracy, freedom, civil law, and the self-determination of peoples. These have become so-called natural, mainstream values, and therefore in the exchanges between the West and China, the West has had a commanding position. China is not and should not reject these ideals due to their Western origins. Rather, China should take part in these universal values of freedom, democracy, and human rights, and should remain “inclined” toward dialog with the West.
COMPLEX NUMBER THREE: Along with the rapid development of the West and shift of the East-West balance toward the West (especially the major European countries), there has also come an odd spread of primitive “hippie” culture - those in search of novelty and interested in “finding themselves” - as well as religious fanaticism, the leading representatives of this being Africa and Tibet.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the controversy surrounding the 2008 Olympics as it relates to the United States. (The moderate voice)

Muslims of Tibet

Masood Butt is a Tibetan, living in India. But, unlike most other Tibetans in exile, who are Buddhists, Butt is a Muslim. However, apart from his faith, there is little else to distinguish Butt from other Tibetans. He follows Tibetan customs, speaks the language fluently and regards the Dalai Lama as his leader. Yet, Butt's community - the Tibetan Muslims - are little known in India, even though they have shared with their Buddhist brethren, the plight of leaving their homeland. And they have been living in India for the last 50 years."Like other Tibetans, our community, too has faced tough times and undergone great mental and physical strain," says Butt, who now works with the Dalai Lama's office in Dharamsala. The story of the Tibetan Muslims is that of a unique community, that has blended different cultural strains to forge a distinct identity, that has been kept alive even in the face of adversity. What is interesting to know is that Islam arrived almost a 1000 years ago in Tibet - a region that has always been synonymous with a monolithic Buddhist culture. How the first Muslim settlers reached Tibet is an interesting tale. Sometime in the 12th century, it is believed, a group of Muslim traders from Kashmir and Ladakh came to Tibet as merchants. Many of these traders settled in Tibet and married Tibetan women, who later converted to the religion of their husbands. Author Thomas Arnold, in his book, The Preaching of Islam says that gradually, marriages and social interactions led to an increase in the Tibetan Muslim population until a sizable community came up around Lhasa, Tibet's capital. "The Tibetan government allowed the Muslims freedom to handle their own affairs, without any interference. This enabled the community to retain their identity, while at the same time absorbing traditional Tibetan social and cultural traditions," says Butt. The Tibetan Muslims followed the occupation of their ancestors and were mainly traders, who owned successful businesses. The community also contributed to Tibetan society and culture in many ways. For instance, the first cinema hall in Tibet was started by a Tibetan Muslim businessman. Also, Nangma - a popular classical music form of Tibet, is believed to have been brought to Tibet by the Muslims. In fact, the word 'Nangma' is said to be derived from the Urdu word, 'Naghma', which means song. "These high-pitched lilting songs, developed in Tibet around the turn of the century, were a craze in Lhasa, with musical hits by Acha Izzat, Bhai Akbar-la and Oulam Mehdi on the lips of almost everyone," says Butt. Many Tibetan scholars have commented on how religions as diverse as Islam and Buddhism could co-exist in peace in a traditional society such as that of Tibet. The credit for this, some feel, goes to religious leaders like the Dalai Lama, who took the lead in fostering this spirit of brotherhood. For instance, a history of the Tibetan Muslim community published some years ago relates how during the 17th century, the fifth Dalai Lama readily agreed to give the Muslims land within Lhasa for building a mosque. The story goes that when a delegation of Muslims approached the fifth Dalai Lama for space for a mosque and a burial ground for their community, the Dalai Lama shot an arrow, with the promise that the place where the arrow fell would belong to the Muslim community. The place later came to be known as Gyangda Linka or the park of the distant arrow. Tibetan Muslims also enjoyed other special privileges in Tibet. For instance, they were exempted from the 'no meat rule' when such a restriction was imposed in the rest of Tibet, during the holy Buddhist months. Besides, their commercial enterprises were exempted from taxation. All these special privileges, however were withdrawn, soon after the Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959. Most of the Tibetan Muslims, consequently, opted to leave rather than live under the Chinese occupation. Those who were able to cross over to India, settled in the border towns of Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Gangtok. Later, the community gradually started moving to Kashmir - the land from where their ancestors had gone to Tibet in the 12th century. In fact, the move to Kashmir was significant, says Butt. Even in Tibet, the Muslims were identified as Kashmiris, since Kashmir was known to Tibetans as Khache Yul and Tibetan Muslims were referred to as Khache. Thus, their status was that of a foreigner, even when they were in Tibet. On the basis of their Kashmiri ancestry, the Tibetan Muslim families who came back to Kashmir after 1959, were given Indian citizenship. Many of these families are still living in Srinagar, while a few have migrated to Nepal and the Gulf countries. Today, there are around 250 families of Tibetan Muslims in Srinagar, mostly in the Hawal and Idgah areas. A number of these families are engaged in fine embroidery work of Kashmiri carpets, while others have set up their own businesses, says Nasir Qazi of the Tibetan Muslim Youth Federation - a body that works for the welfare of the community. The community remains a close-knit one and, for many of them, Tibet remains an emotive issue. Recently for instance, the Tibetan Muslim Youth Federation took out a peace march in Srinagar to show solidarity with the Dalai Lama's views on granting of autonomous status to Tibet. And, in case a solution is found, would they like to go back to Tibet? "Maybe not for settling down, since most of us have been born and brought up in India," says Qazi. "But once, I would definitely like to go there - to visit the Potala palace, the landscape that we have heard so much about and to see for myself the land where our forefathers lived." (The New Nation)

Tibetan exiles compete in alternative 'Olympic Games'

By Sarah Harris in DharamsalaSunday, 25 May 2008

An alternative "Olympic Games", organised by Tibetan exiles in India, has begun here. The aim is to draw international attention to the situation in Tibet, which is under Chinese rule, just three months ahead of this summer's official Games in Beijing.
The event was launched last week beneath grey skies in the peaceful Himalayan village of McLeod Ganj, or Upper Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and Tibet's government-in-exile. Twenty-three Tibetan athletes have gathered to compete in four days of archery, running, swimming, track and field events. Dressed in bold red and white tracksuits emblazoned with the familiar interlocking rings of the Olympic logo and the slogan, "One world, many dreams", the Tibetan competitors are none of them professional athletes – but all are passionate about the spirit behind the games.
"In Tibet we may not have basic human rights, but at least this event has given us a platform to celebrate the spirit of the Olympic Games," says one competitor, 20-year-old Dawasango. Speaking after the first day of events, the Tibetans' archery coach commented: "They had never touched a bow in their lives and only received six hours training but it had a symbolic importance to them: their target is a free Tibet."
The unofficial games follow a bout of violent unrest in Chinese-controlled Tibet in March, in which the country's government-in-exile says 203 Tibetans were killed and 1,000 injured. China says Tibetan "rioters" and "insurgents" killed 21 people, and has accused the Dalai Lama of trying to boycott the Olympics – an accusation he firmly denies. Since then Dharamsala has been the centre of resistance against the Olympic Games, with hunger-striking Buddhist monks on street corners, and posters carrying the messages "No Torch in Tibet" and "Boycott the Beijing Olympics".
Last Thursday the Tibetan Olympic torch was carried through the crowded streets of McLeod Ganj after passing across five continents and 12 different cities worldwide, including Delhi, Tokyo, Sydney, London and New York. The welcome it was given was in direct contrast to the protests that have dogged the Chinese Olympic torch relay around the world. But organisers of the Tibetan Olympics are keen to stress that the focus of these games should be sport, and not politics.
"The Tibetan Olympics says that Tibetan people love sport, that we are united and that we are still alive and kicking," said the event's director, Lobsang Wangyal, who has been working for the past two years to organise it. "As soon as China was appointed the host of the 2008 Olympics back in 2001, we knew Tibet would never be allowed to take part. We had to organise our own sporting event to provide an opportunity for Tibetan people to unite, to be themselves, assert their identity and fulfil their sporting aspirations.
"We support the Beijing Olympics, but we are also running towards our final destination: a free Tibet."
The Dalai Lama has been conspicuously absent from the Tibetan games, which the Tibetan administration views as insulting to China and likely to damage the prospect of future talks. Last week his government-in-exile called for a suspension of protests against China as a mark of respect for the victims of this month's earthquake. (The Independent)

Chinese see Dalai Lama as 'devil'

May 25, 2008
THE Dalai Lama said today he was saddened that Beijing's state "propaganda" had left many Chinese considering him a "devil with horns".
On the first of five days of talks and teachings in the central English city of Nottingham, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said Beijing's control over information left millions thinking he was a "demon".
Emotional human values were lacking in modern China, he added.
"Millions of innocent Chinese will have no other way to get information except government propaganda," he said in a talk at Nottingham Arena.
"If millions feel that the Dalai Lama is a demon, then I feel very sad.
"This is no help to solve the problems." His strength of character and inner peace lay in the fact he, and other Tibetan Buddhists, had truth, he said.
"Violent methods cannot eliminate truth. Through violent suppression, truth becomes stronger." The 72-year-old monk called for a renewed emphasis on compassion and affection in the world. (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/)

The Tibet issue (China's view)

Wednesday, 21 May 2008 07:06 UK

As the Dalai Lama visits Britain, the BBC outlines Beijing's stance on Tibet, based on various official Chinese sources.
Is Tibet part of China?
For more than 700 years, the central government of China has continuously exercised sovereignty over Tibet, and Tibet has never been an independent state. No government of any country in the world has ever recognised Tibet as an independent state.
(People's Daily, April 2008)
What was Tibet like before the Communists established control in 1951?
Even in the first half of the 20th Century, Tibet remained a society of feudal serfdom under a theocracy, one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe. The ecclesiastical and secular serf owners controlled the personal freedom of the serfs and slaves who made up more than 95% of the population of Tibet. By resorting to... extremely savage punishments, including gouging out eyes, cutting off ears, tongues, hands and feet, pulling out tendons, throwing people into rivers or off cliffs, they practiced cruel economic exploitation.
(Xinhua News Agency, March 2008)
What has happened since then?
Since its peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet has undergone profound social changes, including democratic reform, reform and opening up, and has achieved remarkable social and economic progress.
(China's Foreign Ministry handbook, July 2007)
Who was behind a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, after which the Dalai Lama fled to India?
In face of the ever-growing demand of the people for democratic reform, some people in the upper ruling strata of Tibet, in order to preserve feudal serfdom and supported by imperialist forces, staged an armed rebellion all along the line on 10 March 1959 in an attempt to separate Tibet from China.
(Xinhua News Agency, March 2008)

Who was responsible for the recent unrest in Tibet?
We now possess sufficient evidence to prove that the Lhasa incident is part of the 'Tibetan people's uprising movement' organised by the Dalai clique. Its purpose is to create crisis in China by staging co-ordinated sabotage activities in Tibet. 'Tibet Independence' separatist forces led by the Dalai Lama takes the 2008 Beijing Olympics as their last straw to realise 'Tibetan independence'.
(China's Ministry of Public Security press release, April 2008)
The Dalai Lama keeps talking about a peaceful way. However, solid facts prove that his much-vaunted 'middle way' policy and 'peaceful demonstrations' are blatant lies fabricated by the Dalai himself and the Dalai clique.
(China's Ministry of Public Security press release, April 2008)
What does the Chinese government think about reports by the Western media about the recent events in Tibet?
It is unfortunate that a few Western media outlets, including some from the United States, are ignorant of the obvious truths and are basing their reports on distorted facts and unfounded claims.
(Zhang Yun, Chinese consul general for Los Angeles, Xinhua, April 2008) (BBC News)

Don't forget Tibet - Dalai Lama

London,Thursday 22.05.08

The Dalai Lama has appealed to Britain not to forget Tibet in its efforts to forge stronger relations with China.
On the second day of his visit to the UK, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and political leader brushed aside criticisms of Gordon Brown's refusal to meet him in Downing Street.
At a packed Westminster news conference he insisted that his visit had always been intended to be "non-political".
He also went out of his way to praise the response of the Chinese authorities to the Sichuan earthquake, and even suggested that he would be prepared to attend the Beijing Olympics in August.
But while he acknowledged that building economic relations with China was important for Britain and the West, he said that they should not forget their commitment to human rights.
"The economy is important, but human values are more important. Human issues like human rights," he said.
"While you are making close relationship in the business field, there is no point in forgetting about principles. I think that is very important."
The Dalai Lama rejected suggestions that Britain and other Western nations had been "cowed" by China's economic power.
Mr Brown has been accused of "kow-towing" to the Chinese by arranging to meet him at Lambeth Palace - the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury - in his capacity as a spiritual leader rather than receiving him at No 10. However, the Dalai Lama said: "Basically, my visit is non-political. The media have politicised it."
He said that he would express his appreciation to Mr Brown for the "genuine concern" he had shown over Tibet when they meet on Friday. (thisislondon.co.uk)

The Tibet issue (Tibet's view)

Wednesday, 21 May 2008 07:05 UK

As the Dalai Lama visits Britain, his director of information, Thubten Samphel, outlines the Tibetan government-in-exile's stance on the China-Tibet issue.
Is Tibet part of China?
It is beyond dispute at various periods of its long history that Tibet came under differing degrees of foreign influence: the Mongols, the Gurkhas of Nepal, the Manchu emperors of China and the British rulers of India all played their parts. At other periods in the plateau's history, it was Tibet which exercised power and influence over its neighbours - including China.
It would be hard to find any state in the world today that has not been subjected to foreign domination or influence at some era in its history. In Tibet's case the degree and duration of foreign influence and interference was relatively limited.
What was Tibet like before the Communists established control in 1951?
Traditional Tibetan society - like most of its Asian contemporaries - was backward and badly in need of reforms. However, it is completely wrong to use the word "feudal" from the perspective of medieval Europe to describe traditional Tibetan society. Tibet before the invasion, in fact, was far more egalitarian than most Asian countries of that time. Hugh Richardson, who spent a total of nine years in Tibet as Britain's last and independent India's first representative, wrote: "Even communist writers have had to admit there was no great difference between rich and poor in [pre-1949] Tibet."

What has happened since then?
An internal Chinese military document states that from 1952 to 1958, the People's Liberation Army crushed 996 rebellions and killed over 10,000 Tibetans in the north-eastern region of Kanlho. Golog, another Amdo area, saw its population halved from an estimated 140,000 in 1956 to about 70,000 in 1964.
Referring to this area, the late Panchen Lama [the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama] told Beijing's leaders: "If there was a film made on all the atrocities perpetrated in Qinghai Province, it would shock the viewers. In Golog area, many people were killed and their dead bodies rolled down the hill into a big ditch. The soldiers told the family members and relatives of the dead people that they should celebrate since the rebels had been wiped out. They were even forced to dance on the dead bodies."
Who was behind a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, after which the Dalai Lama fled to India?
The '59 uprising against Chinese rule was a people's movement to resist all the changes the Chinese Communist Party were introducing in Tibet.
In the 17 Point Agreement signed between Tibet and China in 1951, the Chinese Communist Party promised that in return for Tibet coming to the fold of motherland, China would not change Tibet's traditional social system or tamper with the powers of the Dalai Lama. Both these promises were not kept, and the introduction of collectivisation and other aspects of the social system in Tibet forced the Tibetans to rise up.
Who was responsible for the recent unrest in Tibet?
In the early 1980s, a liberal policy was introduced in Tibet. This policy dismantled collectivisation and there were plans to withdraw 85% of the Chinese cadres working in the Tibet Autonomous Region. This policy was aimed at letting Tibetans govern themselves.
However, in 1994, all these liberal measures were withdrawn and a new policy called "grasping with both hands" was implemented in Tibet. This policy continued Tibet's economic development while reimposing political repression targeted at undermining Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism. The recent widespread protests in Tibet are Tibetans' resistance to this hardline policy.
What does the Tibetan government-in-exile think about reports by the Western media about the recent events in Tibet?
The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) thinks that the international media coverage about the recent events in Tibet is the most extensive. The media reports were, by and large fair, accurate and balanced. (BBC News)

India, the incredible and the vulnerable THE VIEW FROM NEW DELHI

By Stanley A Weiss
It’s tempting to dismiss as excessive the Indian government’s efforts to protect the Olympic torch run last week from Tibetans protesting the Chinese crack down in their homeland—sealing off much of the historic heart of this city, shrouding the relay in a veil of secrecy and surrounding the flame with 15,000 police and soldiers.
Likewise, it’s easy to brand New Delhi’s muted response to the repression as “overcautious,” as did the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader. For merely saying it was “distressed,” the Indian government is accused of sacrificing its moral authority as the world’s largest democracy to avoid upsetting China, now its largest trade partner.
A more accurate reading of New Delhi’s stance, however, reveals a far more complex picture, one that stretches beyond Tibet and trade.
In virtually every direction, India faces what national security advisor MK Narayanan tells me are “existential threats”—failed or fragile states that claim Indian territory, support anti-Indian insurgencies or threaten the very idea of India as a secular, multi-ethnic, pluralist democracy.
Indeed, alongside the tourism campaign proclaiming “Incredible India,” there’s also a sense of Vulnerable India. A quick 360-degree tour of India’s neighborhood reveals how this Asian giant—with its roaring economy and rising global profile—faces a tyranny of geography.
To the west lies historic nemesis Pakistan and, beyond that, Afghanistan—two Muslim nations in the grips of Al Qaeda and Taliban terror, whose collapse could send waves of refugees and violence into Hindu-majority India.
After three wars, contested Kashmir remains a tinderbox, and the loss of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim majority state, could ignite a chain reaction of separatism among India’s kaleidoscopic regions, races, religions and languages.
To the north, it’s China—and territory, not trade—that unnerves Indians. It wasn’t geography but guns—China’s 1950 invasion of Tibet—that first made these two Asian powers next-door neighbors.
“The Humiliation”—India’s defeat in its 1962 border war with China—remains etched in the Indian psyche. To New Delhi’s eternal frustration, China still occupies the Aksai Chin region in the western Himalayas and claims the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing refers to as “lower Tibet.”
Indeed, it was China’s nuclear arsenal, not Pakistan, that Indian leaders say justified their nuclear tests a decade ago. Indian officials speak openly of being “encircled” by China, with its new deep-water navy and naval facilities stretching from Pakistan to Bangladesh to Burma—a “string of pearls” that could turn the Indian Ocean into the Chinese Ocean.
In tiny Nepal, also to India’s north, New Delhi fears that this month’s election victory of former Maoist rebels could energize the Maoist revolt raging across rural India that has killed thousands. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called it “the single biggest security challenge” India has ever faced.
To the east, Bhutan, Burma and Bangladesh have served at times as sanctuaries for the dozens of ethnic, tribal and separatist groups in northeastern India that have killed more than 50,000 people during decades of resistance to Indian rule. Thus New Delhi’s controversial aid to Burma’s junta, which returns the favor by attacking anti-Indian insurgents.
Finally, to the south, Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war is the headache that won’t go away—in memories of the Indian military intervention that led Tamil militants to assassinate Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 and in fears that any independent Tamil state would stoke separatist passions among the 60 million Tamils living in southern India.
“India’s neighbors use all these cards in an attempt to keep India in check and it constrains our foreign policy options,” says Brahma Chellaney, a leading strategic analyst. “Given the looming threat that neighbors could step up their claims or interference, India has to follow a fine balance.”
As a result, India faces a paradox of proximity. New Delhi enjoys strategic relationships with Russia, the European Union, the United States (including a tentative nuclear pact) and Japan and signs major arms and trade deals with partners from Brazil to Nigeria and Israel to Iran to Indonesia. Meanwhile, South Asia accounts for an estimated two percent of Indian trade.
To its credit, New Delhi has undertaken what Shyam Saran, the prime minister’s special envoy, tells me is a “steady rethink” toward its neighbors—a realization that it can neither insulate itself from them nor achieve India’s full economic potential “unless we can ensure a relatively peaceful and stable periphery.” Farooq Sobhan, a former Bangladesh high commissioner to India who heads the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, credits this recent “turnaround in India’s thinking” for turning India from a skeptic to a champion of regional economic and political integration. “We are poised to build a new and better relationship,” he said. After Burma’s military regime crushed democracy protests 20 years ago, a Western diplomat confessed that a far-away America, with “very little strategic interest” in Burma, had “the luxury of living up to its principles” and condemning the crackdown.
For now, with so many claims on its territory, Vulnerable India has no such luxury with Tibet. That comes later, when, free of today’s existential threats, Incredible India can act more confidently in both its interests and its ideals.
(The writer is founding chairman of Business Executives for National Security, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington.){ Kantipuronline)

Our Tibet Protests Won't Work

Fareed Zakaria
Editor of Newsweek International, columnistPostGlobal co-moderator Fareed Zakaria is editor of Newsweek International, overseeing all Newsweek's editions abroad. He writes a regular column for Newsweek, which also appears in Newsweek International and often The Washington Post. more »
Public humiliation does not work nearly as well on the regime in Beijing as private pressure.At first glance, China's recent crackdown in Tibet looks like a familiar storyline: a dictatorship represses its people. And of course that's part of the reality -- as it often is in China. But on this issue, the communist regime is not in opposition to its people. The vast majority of Chinese have little sympathy for the Tibetan cause. To the extent that we can gauge public opinion in China and among its diaspora, ordinary Chinese are, if anything, critical of the Beijing government for being too easy on the Tibetans. The real struggle here is between a nationalist majority and an ethnic and religious minority looking to secure its rights.
In these circumstances, a boycott of the Olympics would have precisely the opposite effect that is intended. The regime in Beijing would become only more defensive and stubborn. The Chinese people would rally around the flag and see the West as trying to humiliate China in its first international moment of glory. (There are many suspicions that the United States cannot abide the prospect of a rising China.) For most Chinese, the Games are about the world's giving China respect, rather than bolstering the Communist Party's legitimacy.
For leaders to boycott the Games' opening ceremonies alone is an odd idea. Is the president of the United States supposed to travel to Beijing to attend the women's water-polo finals instead? (Britain's Gordon Brown, for instance, has said he'll attend the closing, but not the opening ceremonies.) Picking who will go to which event is trying to have it both ways, voting for the boycott before you vote against it. Some want to punish China for its association with the Sudanese government, which is perpetrating atrocities in Darfur. But to boycott Beijing's Games because it buys oil from Sudan carries the notion of responsibility too far. After all, the United States has much closer ties to Saudi Arabia, a medieval monarchy that has funded Islamic terror. Should the world boycott America for this relationship?
China's attitude toward Tibet is wrong and cruel, but, alas, not that unusual. Other nations, especially developing countries, have taken tough stands against what they perceive as separatist forces. A flourishing democracy like India has often responded to such movements by imposing martial law and suspending political and civil rights. The Turks for many decades crushed all Kurdish pleas for linguistic and ethnic autonomy. The democratically elected Russian government of Boris Yeltsin responded brutally to Chechen demands. Under Yeltsin and his successor, Vladimir Putin, also elected, the Russian Army killed about 75,000 civilians in Chechnya, and leveled its capital. These actions were enthusiastically supported within Russia. It is particularly strange to see countries that launched no boycotts while Chechnya was being destroyed -- and indeed welcomed Russia into the G8 -- now so outraged about the persecution of minorities. (In comparison, estimates are that over the past 20 years, China has jailed several hundred people in Tibet.)
On this issue, the Bush administration has so far followed a wiser course, forgoing the grandstanding taking place in Europe and on the campaign trail. It has been urging the Chinese government quietly but firmly to engage in serious discussions with the Dalai Lama. Diplomacy can be scoffed at, but every multinational business that has had success in persuading the Chinese government to change course will testify that public humiliation does not work nearly as well on the regime as private pressure.
Negotiating with the Dalai Lama is in Beijing's interest as well. It faces a restive population that lives in about 13 percent of the land area of China. Many Tibetans want independence. But the Dalai Lama has repeatedly said that he does not seek independence, only cultural autonomy. Even last week he rejected any boycott of the Olympics and urged his followers to engage in no violent protests whatsoever. If there were ever a leader of a separatist group whom one could negotiate with, he's it. And once the 72-year-old Dalai Lama passes from the scene, Beijing might have to deal with a far more unpredictable and radical Tibetan movement.
So why doesn't the Chinese regime see this? Beijing has a particular problem. Now that communism is dead, the Communist Party sees its legitimacy as linked to its role in promoting and defending Chinese nationalism. It is especially clumsy when it comes to such issues. Clever technocrats though they are, China's communist leaders -- mostly engineers -- have not had to refine their political skills as they have their economic touch. In the past they have stoked anti-Japanese and anti-American outbursts, only to panic that things were getting out of control and then reverse course. They fear that compromising over Tibet would set a precedent for the unraveling of the Chinese nation. China has grown and shrunk in size over the centuries, and its dynasties have often been judged by their success in preserving the country's geography.
In fact, in almost all cases -- Turkey, India -- granting autonomy to groups that press for it has in the end produced a more stable and peaceful national climate. But that is a lesson the Chinese government will have to learn for itself; it is unlikely to take instruction from outsiders. Its handling of the protests in Tibet is disgraceful. But humiliating the entire country over it would make matters worse. (Washington Post.com)

Tibet Government Issues Warning Ahead of Olympic Torch Arrival

By Jill DrewWashington Post Foreign Service
BEIJING, April 24 -- Tibetan government authorities warned today that there would be severe consequences for anyone who spreads rumors that "excite popular feeling," as the region braces for the arrival of the Olympic torch sometime in the next couple of weeks.
"We will severely root out and give no indulgence to people with ulterior motives who spread rumors or excite popular feelings," the Tibetan government said in a notice posted on its Web site.
Chinese officials are sticking to a controversial plan for torchbearers to bring the Olympic flame over the top of Mt. Everest and into downtown Lhasa, the scene of a deadly riot against Chinese rule last month. Reports of scattered protests continue to seep out of Tibet, even though armed police have flooded the area, searching monasteries and houses and sometimes confiscating cell phones and computers, exile groups say. The region is off-limits to foreigners.
Local government officials are under pressure to ensure a smooth running of the torch and are tightening an already strict security regimen in the area. Selected foreign media will be allowed to accompany the torch onto Mt. Everest and into Lhasa, though government officials have this week been trying to reduce the length of time reporters will be permitted in the region. read more http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/24/AR2008042401485.html

The Dalai Lama’s Realism

By Pico Iyer
The situation in Tibet cannot be resolved until and unless the future of Chinese individuals is resolved, too; the majority of the citizens of Lhasa, after all, are already Han Chinese. And one of the Tibetans in exile who knows China most intimately, and over more than half a century, is the Dalai Lama, who has been working with the Beijing leadership since the early days of Communist rule, 58 years ago, and who traveled for a year across China, against his people’s wishes, in 1954, meeting Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.
The fact that so much of the world is rising up in support of the Tibetans, and their rightful need for freedom, is clearly a wonderful thing, and this may be the one moment when China needs and seeks the approval of the larger world, and therefore might be moved to be more accommodating. But the fact remains that the Middle Kingdom, with its great tradition of pride and not taking advice from outsiders, will only respond with more violence if confronted too violently, and a delicate touch is needed if more suffering is not to descend on Tibetan and Chinese citizens who have suffered too much already. As the Dalai Lama has been saying for a long time, the important thing right now is not to focus only on right now, but on what happens after the Games are over, when the world is looking elsewhere (at Iraq, at the U.S. presidential election, at our many other problems), and China is free to execute its policies behind a curtain and with maximum ruthlessness.
That is part of what moves him to urge the world to speak out on behalf of Tibet, but not lash out at the Chinese; to call passionately for the restoration of Tibet’s basic rights to freedom of speech and thought, but not to denigrate the Chinese in the process (in part because so many Chinese individuals live and suffer under similar restrictions). All the world feels, acutely, the completely understandable human frustration and sorrow of the Tibetan people, after five decades and more of oppression; but impatience always backfires, and throwing a stone through your neighbor’s window will only lead to more ill-will and possibly decades of unwanted and unanticipated consequences — especially if, as in the case of China and Tibet, you are likely to be living next to one another for many more years to come.
It is disingenuous for the Chinese leadership to claim the Olympics is just a sporting occasion (I know, as one who has covered five Olympiads for Time magazine); the Games are a chance for China to show off its stunning recent accomplishments to the world, as Japan did in 1964 and South Korea in 1988. But if it opens its doors truly to the world, it cannot expect the world to look past all that is so egregious and inexcusable in the Chinese government’s denial of basic freedoms to its people. The world needs China, and China needs the world, as the Dalai Lama said when I traveled across Japan with him five months ago; freezing China out might only prompt it to create demons in its head instead of the humans who are waiting to talk tom it.
But tolerance does not mean accepting what is clearly wrong, as he always stresses, and if China indeed seeks the world’s friendship, that means frank and trusting criticism and suggestions as well as mere approval. The world can be expected to listen, but not to kowtow to a China that has not shown itself hitherto very eager to listen to the world.
At the same time, though, it is folly for the Tibetans to put their hopes on gestures and protests alone, when they are outnumbered by 200 to 1, and facing a neighbor who is so easily offended. The greatest asset Tibet has is a leader who speaks always for dialogue and friendship, who also happens to be the most seasoned ruler on the planet (head of his people for 67 years) and the most realistic and pragmatic political leader I have encountered in my 26 years of covering the world as a journalist. The Dalai Lama’s difficult life has never allowed him to entertain wishfulness or abstraction; he is an empiricist who works in and with the circumstances of the moment. China must be reminded of its larger responsibilities, but without excessive force; and those who despair might think of the Dalai Lama’s friend and champion Vaclav Havel, one day in prison and eight weeks later unanimously chosen president of Czechoslovakia, or his friend and colleague Desmond Tutu, one day waking up in a land of apartheid, where for 62 years he had never been allowed to vote, and the next morning in a free (but still troubled) South Africa. “Until the last moment,” as the Tibetan leader always says, “anything is possible.”
Pico Iyer is the author, most recently, of “The Open Road,” an account of 33 years of talks with the Dalai Lama and more than 20 years of travels through China and Tibet. (2008, Knopf) (

Dalai Lama's Realpolitik: Gold Medal versus Human Rights

Dalai Lama’s Realpolitik: Gold Medals versus Human Rights
By Satis Shroff
The Chinese poet Dong Guanfu writes in his blog: “We cannot win the heart of the Tibetans if we only develop their economy. If we cannot manage to understand this, then many other conflicts will follow. There’s no denying that one of the reasons of staging the Olympic Games is that we want to make money. But the greater value of the Games is to strengthen and rejuvenate the spirit of a nation. How many spiritual values can we convey by way of the Olympic torch? This is a question that has to be weighed by the whole Chinese folk, especially the ruling part members (in Beijing). ” Read this heart touching article in full click the link Read the whole article

Tibet News from here and there

Chris Buckley in Guardian writes that Tibetans accused of rioting and protesting against Chinese rule will face swift trials and harsh sentences, state media said on Friday, vowing that Communist Party-run courts will back a campaign against the Dalai Lama.
Tibet's regional capital Lhasa was last month hit by Buddhist monks' protests against Chinese rule that gave way to deadly rioting on March 14, and since then security forces have poured in to reimpose control there and in other restive Tibetan areas.
Chinese officials have accused the Dalai of organising the unrest to press for Tibetan independence ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August, and vowed to come down hard on rioters and on protesters supporting him.
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied the accusations and said he wants true autonomy, but not outright independence, for Tibet. Click to read more Tibet's courts vow swift, harsh punishment for unrest Breaking news guardian.co.uk Sport

Similarly ABC Radio Australia writes http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/200804/s2208507.htm?tab=latest An envoy of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has urged Beijing to cancel what he calls provocative plans to run the Olympic torch relay through Tibet.The recent crackdown by China on Tibetan protestors, has put Beijing in the spotlight ahead of the Games in August.The envoy, Lodi Gyari, has told a US Congressional hearing that Beijing's Communist leaders should abandon plans to bring the Olympic flame through Tibet, saying it would be insulting in light of recent events.The torch will pass through Tibet in May, then again when it goes through the capital Lhasa, in June. China says any protests along the torch route would not be in the proper Olympic spirit, with reports that activists' plan to use the relay to highlight the country's poor human rights record.
Larry hales under the heading Cultural genocide: In Tibet or New Orleans? Writes the Dalai Lama claims that China is committing “cultural genocide” against the Tibetan people, and his claims and news of the events unfolding in the regional capital of Lhasa have captured a great deal of attention in the major media outlets in the U.S.The “cause” of Tibet and the accusation of “cultural genocide” are not new. “Free Tibet” bumper stickers can often be seen at peace rallies, and it would seem that the case of Tibet is a real national liberation struggle of an oppressed people struggling for independence from an imperialist or colonial master.However, the issue of Tibet has been foisted upon some sectors of the movement in the U.S. in order to weaken China. The relationship between the U.S., with its aim to undermine the gains of the Chinese revolution, and the Dalai Lama and his clique is an old one and goes all the way back to the CIA manufactured “uprising” of 1959. Read more

Tibet today

Asia-Pacific News
1. Dalai Lama urges world community to pressure China on Tibet
New Delhi - The Dalai Lama has appealed to the international community for its 'continued support,' saying the Chinese authorities had deployed a large number of troops to crack down on the unrest in Tibet and had sealed these areas to the outside world. http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/news/article_1398141.php/Dalai_Lama_urges_world_community_to_pressure_China_on_Tibet

Just arrived: News On Tibet

US official to raise Tibet concerns

Before beginning his two-day trip on Wednesday, Paulson said he will pass on concerns by George Bush, the US president, as well as discuss economic issues.
"I'm also going to carry the message from the administration that we care a lot about what's going on in Tibet, and human rights and Tibet, and so they will clearly hear that from me," he told the CNBC television network before leaving the US. Read more http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B05C0DC5-1F6F-4CF2-BDCF-7742570E2F10.htm

After Tibet, protests reported in China's Xinjiang

BEIJING (Reuters) - As many as 1,000 or more members of China's Muslim ethnic Uighur minority staged protests in the restive region of Xinjiang last week and a local government administration said some were carrying separatist flags.
The unrest in the western city of Hetian, also known as Khotan, came about a week after monk-led marches in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, devolved into a citywide anti-Chinese riot, and as sporadic protests erupted in other Tibetan populated areas. Read More: http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-32805320080402

Aamir to run with a prayer for Tibet

“When I do run with the Olympic torch in New Delhi on April 17, it is not in support of China, but will be with a prayer in my heart for the people of Tibet”.
This is how Bollywood superstar Aamir khan reacted to the numerous requests urging him to boycott the relay. http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/article/37649.html

Paris to greet Olympic flame with protest--mayor

Agence France-PresseFirst Posted 19:01:00 04/02/2008
PARIS -- Paris city hall will unfurl a giant banner in defense of human rights when the Olympic flame arrives in the French capital Monday ahead of the summer Games in China, Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said.
"There will be a banner saying 'Paris defends human rights everywhere in the world' on city hall," Delanoe told a press conference on Wednesday.
The Socialist mayor said Paris hoped to defend the values "of all humanity and of human rights," saying all people "have the same right to dignity, and I am thinking in particular of the Tibetan people."http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080402-127972/Paris-to-greet-Olympic-flame-with-protest--mayor

Torch begins journey, will remind the world about Tibet

04/02/2008 13:45CHINA – KAZAKHSTAN:The Olympic torch is in Kazakhstan today. The journey to five continents is a showcase of China’s success but is likely to remind everyone about the crackdown in Tibet. In the meantime international groups denounce the worst repression China has experienced in years.http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=11913&size=A

Riot in Tibet: True face of western media

Worth watching this video. See the other face of reporting.

TIBET NEWS TODAY

For quick surfing on the events that happened in Tibet I am attaching the links that appeared in the last few hours on this day.:
1.Dalai Lama to visit Seattle as China tensions grow:(AP) http://www.katu.com/news/17188646.html
2. Pelosi wants international monitors in Tibet( NDTV): http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080045692
3.China Alleges Tibetan 'Suicide Squads'
By AUDRA ANG – 3 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — China has branded the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes" and his followers the "scum of Buddhism." It stepped up the rhetoric Tuesday, accusing the Nobel Peace laureate and his supporters of planning suicide attacks. Read more http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h5Z6bJwtN_roGSIUQiQnfbf2NkhgD8VPH7G00
4.For India, Tibet Poses Some Delicate Issues
By Rama LakshmiWashington Post Foreign Service Wednesday, April 2, 2008
NEW DELHI, April 1 -- Angry Tibetans in India chanted all kinds of anti-China slogans last month when they gathered to protest the crackdown in their homeland. But one chant, in particular, seemed to be an ominous warning to the government in New Delhi: "China-India brotherhood is a Chinese deception!" the Tibetans shouted. Read more http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102861.html
5.TIBET: CHINA CLAIMS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IS BIASED
AGI/EFE) - Beijing, 2 April - The regime in Beijing has rebutted Amnesty International claims, accusing the humanitarian organization of "harbouring prejudice against China." In a very recent report, Amnesty International has once again targeted the People's Republic for the human rights situation, especially concerning the repression underway in Tibet, and warned that the crisis is bound to grow worse as the Summer Olympic Games in August approaches: the latter will not result in an attenuation of the crackdown on dissidents, but the very opposite. "Amnesty International has anti-Chinese prejudices," said Jiang Yu, spokesman for the Beijing Foreign Ministry, "which is why it is easy to image how useful its report is." The humanitarian organization has spoken out on the increase in arbitrary arrests of its opponents, including the journalist Hu Jia, on trial for "subversion of public order," due to a series of interviews in which he criticized his countries' authorities, especially concerning the imminence of the Olympics. "No one in China," said the ministry spokesman in a press conference, "can arrogate the privilege nor the right to be above the law." http://www.agi.it/world/news/200804020932-pol-ren0002-art.html
6. CNN: What's wrong with you?(chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2008-04-02 15:38
Some foreign media fabricated lots of reports on severe riots that took place in early March in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The distorted reports triggered protests of netizens both at home and abroad. Netizens even established a website named anti-cnn.com that is aimed at opposing distorted reports from CNN, a well-known US news network. Read more:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-04/02/content_6587120.htm
Watch this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcCnFuVhwXI

TIBET HOT BENCH

"We must not develop anti-Chinese feelings. Whether we like it or not we have to live side-by-side" said Dalai Lama. The situation in Lhasa,Tibet has gone from bad to worse. I have tried to synthesize some of the news footage so that you can find many related stories in the same place. To read more click the given links.
Protests in Europe over Tibet
1:30PM Wednesday March 19, 2008
European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering on Monday urged politicians to consider boycotting the Beijing Olympic Games to protest against China's crackdown on demonstrations in Tibet in which dozens may have died.
As the pressure builds in Lhasa, Tibetans and their supporters spread their protests to the European Council and the International Olympic Committee. Read more
Olympic Games
Olympics: Horses face testing time in Hong Kong
Dalai Lama willing to step down to end Tibetan rioting (+video)
Chinese Citizens, Get Your Tibet Protest Videos Here
By Jason Silverman March 18, 2008 2:03:00 PM
As Sarah Lai Stirland reported at Wired's Threat Level blog, the Chinese government banned YouTube in the hopes of keeping videos of Tibetans protesting from going viral. The internet being the internet, videos and photos are popping up, albeit slowly, elsewhere. Most are news reports from official sources, including The New York Times, Reuters (above), BBC and MSNBC. The Guardian's Tania Branigan has been sending audio, video and print reports back from Lhasa. Read more and watch video
Ma won't rule out Olympic boycott over Tibet
By Mo Yan-chih and Ko Shu-lingSTAFF REPORTERS Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008, Page 1
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday reiterated his call for China to end its suppression of Tibet, and said that, if elected, he would not rule out boycotting the Beijing Olympics if the situation in Tibet deteriorated Read more
China warns of 'life or death struggle' in Tibet
20 hours ago
BEIJING (AFP) — China said Wednesday it was engaged in a "life or death struggle" over Tibet as it announced 105 people had surrendered over an uprising and exiled groups warned hundreds had been detained. Read More
Protesters 'surrender in Tibet'
Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 05:00 GMT
More than 100 people have turned themselves in to police following anti-China riots in Tibet's main city, Lhasa, Chinese state media has said.
People surrendered to secure leniency in response to a deadline set by the authorities, Xinhua news agency said.
China says it will harshly punish protesters who do not surrender. Police in Lhasa have been searching houses and making arrests, activists say.
China has blamed the Dalai Lama for the protests - a claim he roundly rejects. BBC NEWS Asia-Pacific Protesters 'surrender in Tibet'
March for ‘Free Tibet’
Posted by barunroy on March 18, 2008
Kalimpong, March 17: About 2,000 Tibetans marched through the main streets of the town today as the outrage against the Chinese crackdown on the protests in Lhasa found its echo in the hills.
The marchers carried placards and shouted slogans against the Chinese government and in support of Tibetan independence. Cries of “Free Tibet” rent the air. Women protesters were seen weeping to mourn the deaths of their brethren back home. (Read more: March for ‘Free Tibet’)

TIBET IS BURNING

PHOTOS FROM REUTERS:

DHARAMSHALA, India (AFP) 16.Mar.08:The Dalai Lama condemned on Sunday what he called China's "rule of terror" and "cultural genocide" in Tibet, calling for an international probe into unrest in his homeland.
Eighty people have been confirmed dead in the Himalayan region, the Tibetan government-in-exile said at its base in this northern Indian hill town, contradicting the Chinese official report of 10 fatalities in days of unrest.
The dead included 26 people shot near a prison in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, aides to the Dalai Lama said.
"They simply rely on using force in order to simulate peace, a peace brought by force using a rule of terror," the Dalai Lama said in Dharamshala, his home since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
The unrest in the vast Himalayan region, which began last week after the 49th anniversary of the 1959 revolt, is the biggest challenge to China's rule there in nearly two decades.
"Please investigate, if possible... some international organisation can try firstly to inquire about the situation in Tibet," the Buddhist spiritual leader said.
"Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some cultural genocide is taking place. There is some kind of discrimination: the Tibetans in their own land quite often are treated as second-class citizens," the Dalai Lama added.
"Some trusted group should go there and see how it happened," added the Dalai Lama, who has long complained that Beijing is flooding Tibet with Han Chinese in order to make the Tibetans a minority in their homeland.
But the Dalai Lama, a Nobel peace laureate, refrained from calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in August, as many Tibetan exiles have been demanding.
"The Chinese people... need to feel proud of it. China deserves to be a host of the Olympic Games," he said, saying however that Beijing also needed to be "reminded to be a good host."
His comments came hours after China declared a "people's war" in Tibet, and as witnesses reported repeated gunfire in the Tibetan capital on Saturday and a huge security build-up by Chinese forces there.
On Sunday, Chinese security forces were said to be patrolling the streets of the now-calm but tense Tibetan capital.
The Dalai Lama also appealed to China to recognise he wanted autonomy for Tibet, and not independence, and that his campaign was non-violent.
"We are not seeking separation -- that, everyone knows," he said.
The unrest in Tibet and a major Chinese crackdown prompted more furious protests on Sunday in Dharamshala, with activists nailing hundreds of Chinese flags to the ground for people to walk on.
"China should stop the brutal crackdown and genocide," said Sonam Darjee, a leader of the Tibetan Youth Congress -- a pro-independence group which views the Dalai Lama's call for greater autonomy as not going far enough.
When asked if he was able to bring an end to Tibetan protests, the Dalai Lama said, "I have no such power."
"It's a people's movement, I consider myself a people's servant, I cannot ask people not to do this, not to do that," he said.
But "everyone knows my principle -- knows (it is) completely non-violence... Violence is almost like suicide."
He denied Chinese charges he was linked to the unrest.
"The Chinese accuse me of creating these problems but I am actually not -- I consider myself a spokesman for the Tibetan people," he said.
At the same time, the Dalai Lama said a growing number of Chinese "are showing solidarity with us."
"Chinese scholars and government officials privately support our 'middle way' approach," he said.
"Genuine harmony must come from the heart on the basis of trust, free of fear."

Source: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5io5GuMgIy7aW7aitUDxeqKYC92aA

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