March 31, 2008
Dalai Lama sows seeds of selfish plan in Tibet
Yale Daily News
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Published: Thursday, March 27, 2008
Dalai Lama sows seeds of selfish plan in Tibet
By Robert Li
Guest Columnist
Partly because of his own mysteriousness and partly because of the time-honored Western romanticization of Tibet as an unpolluted Shangri-La, the Dalai Lama’s popularity has increased tremendously over the past five decades. He took full advantage of every opportunity to appeal to the media with benevolence, resulting in a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
But despite his popularity, beneath the Dalai Lama’s romantic aura we can only find violence covered by well-calculated political propaganda and maneuvers. Three press releases issued by the Dalai Lama regarding last weeks’ riot in Tibet distinctly reveal his true political cunningness and hypocrisy.
The Dalai Lama always praises compassion as “the core of all the religions, all our humanities and all our existence.” Contrary to his own preaching, however, the Dalai Lama expressed no sympathy to the victims of the Tibet riot, nor to their families; nor to the innocent passersby killed in Lhasa; nor to the foreign service employees attacked in Chinese consulates-general in Munich, Toronto, San Francisco and London; nor even to the 18-year-old Tibetan girl, one of his “fellow countrymen,” who was swallowed in the brutal fire set by the mob in a fashion store on March 14.
Instead, in his press release on the same day, the Dalai Lama called the wild riot in Tibet “peaceful protests” and pressed the Chinese authority to “stop using force” even before any forceful measures had been taken by the local government.
In a subsequent statement made on March 18, the Dalai Lama continued to avoid denouncing the violence by depicting the demonstration “a spontaneous outburst of public resentment built up by years of repression.” Knowing the importance of seizing the moral high ground, the Dalai Lama was smart enough to urge his fellow Tibetans not to “resort to violence” at the very end of the statement; he even threatened to resign as leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile “if the majority of the Tibetans resort to violence.”
This well-dressed political appeal to nonviolent resistance seemed perfect, but its timing and diction leaked the Dalai Lama’s true intention. It’s worth noticing that the gesture only came after his ludicrous insistence that the Chinese authorities sit back, relax and let their police force go on vacation during an impossible situation. In addition, the implausibility of more than four million people (half of Tibet’s population) fighting in the streets at the same time guaranteed the Dalai Lama’s resignation a sheer political play. Had he been sincere and responsible, he would have resigned back in 1987 when much blood was spilled in Lhasa during a riot on Chinese National Day.
The Dalai Lama uses the bulk of his three press releases to condemn the Chinese authority’s “cultural genocide” in Tibet. He said the “distinctive Tibetan cultural heritage” is “fading away” due to the deliberate measures by the Chinese government. While the Dalai Lama and his elite priestly class might think otherwise, those “cultural heritage” points that dictate that serfs can be beaten at their masters’ will, that one-third of one’s personal income must be contributed to the temple and feed the labor-free monks, and that only selected males (and no females) can have access to education, are inconsistent with basic human rights, and thus it is legitimate that they be eliminated.
The rest of Tibetan culture, contrary to the Dalai Lama’s description, is well-preserved under the current authority. His claim that “Tibetan monasteries … have been severely reduced in both in number and population” was based on no evidence. Not only do monasteries in Tibet, including the Zeban Monastery in which the riot originated, receive more than 200 million RMB in funding each year, but the number of Tibetan monks has hovered around 2 percent of the entire Tibetan population through the years. Anyone who has ever traveled to Tibet could tell that the recently renovated Potala Palace, the holy place of Tibet, is a perfect counterexample of the “destruction of Tibetan culture.”
Patrick French, former director of the Free Tibet Campaign in London, published an article in The New York Times yesterday admitting that the Dalai Lama’s long-claimed 1.2 million Tibetan casualties in 1950 were supported by “no evidence.” Moreover, the Dalai Lama deliberately let the Tibetan Youth Congress use his popularity to spread violence and do the dirty work, while keeping his own image as a peaceful, Gandhi-like god of Tibet.
The Dalai Lama has always portrayed himself as a pure religious leader, but in reality he’s never abandoned the dream to seek a combined spiritual and secular power in a so-called “Greater Tibet,” including Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan provinces, which have never even been under the control of the Lhasa authority. In order to achieve that goal, he has become a great actor attracting the spotlight of the international community. As the old Tibetan saying goes, “Watch whether the dog barks, but also whether it bites.”
Robert Li is a sophomore in Ezra Stiles College.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/printarticle/24045
Posted by google at 04:46 PM | Comments (0)
Dalai Lama demonstrates will to end violence
Dalai Lama demonstrates will to end violence
Newsvine Reddit Jeffrey Sun
Guest Columnist
Published Friday, March 28, 2008
I write in response to Robert Li’s editorial (“Dalai Lama sows seeds of selfish plan in Tibet,” 3/27) published on these pages yesterday. His unreasonable attacks on the Dalai Lama completely ignore the fact that the root cause of much of the conflict today is not the Dalai Lama at all, but has been the result of the Chinese government’s occupation of Tibet and its refusal to grant it meaningful autonomy. His article, which lauds China’s “achievements” in Tibet and largely ignores historical truth, rips a page right out of the Chinese Communist Party’s playbook for Tibet.
I had the opportunity to visit Tibet this past summer and the country is anything but a “perfect counterexample of the destruction of Tibetan culture.” Sure, the Chinese government is “preserving” Tibetan culture by renovating the Potala Palace. But let’s not forget that the Potala Palace, the historical seat of the Tibetan government for hundreds of years, only fell into disuse and disrepair because China essentially forced the Dalai Lama to flee.
Sure, the Chinese government subsidizes Tibetan monasteries, but the 200 million RMB (equivalent to approximately $28 million) paid apparently is not enough to wipe away the Communist graffiti still faintly covering that wall of a monastery I visited. These words are a painful memory of the Cultural Revolution, which brought thousands of Chinese youth to Tibet to destroy a culture that the Chinese government is now trying to “preserve.” This money is the least China could do to remedy years of destruction of Tibetan monasteries and religious relics.
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A visit to any number of Tibetan monasteries today would certainly make one think twice about Li’s denial that Tibetan monasteries have been negatively affected since the Chinese arrived. My trip this summer included visits to over 10 monasteries, many of which still contain the footprints of buildings destroyed during the Cultural Revolution as stark reminders of the former grandeur of these monasteries and the large monk populations that once supported them.
Lastly, Li’s reference to Patrick French, the former director of the Free Tibet campaign, and his New York Times article admitting that the 1.2 million Tibetans reportedly killed since 1950 was based on no evidence is a gross misrepresentation of the author’s intent. If one reads his article, it is clear that French is by no means suggesting that the assertion that many Tibetans have died at the hands of the Chinese is completely baseless, as Li’s words would imply. Instead, French, who is still a supporter of Tibet, only cites this number to question the tactics pro-Tibetan groups have used in order to achieve their aims. I’ll concede. Perhaps only 500,000 people have died since 1950 as a result of the Chinese occupation. But is that an acceptable statistic?
I agree with Li that the Dalai Lama is not a flawless individual. But at least his expressed willingness to talk to the Chinese government demonstrates his humility, something the Chinese Communist Party sorely lacks. Only when the Chinese government recognizes that the problems it faces today are largely the result of the many years that they have oppressed the Tibet people, and seeks to open dialogue with representatives of Tibet, will the issues facing both be meaningfully addressed. Perhaps if the Chinese government ever bids again for the Olympics, it won’t need to throw a tantrum over a problem it caused in the past but presently refuses to solve.
Jeffrey Sun is a senior in Silliman College
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24066
Posted by google at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2008
Down with the CCP?
Posted by: SamMarvin from Univ. of Michigan
I won’t pretend to be an expert on China, but I like to think I know quite a bit.
China has had territorial claims of Tibet since the early Qing dynasty in the 17th century. In fact, the first Dalai Lama was installed as the political and spiritual leader of Tibet by Qing emperors. The same emperors also intervened militarily several times on the behalf of the Dalai Lama. I’ll avoid a lengthy recounting of history, but the facts are that China has legitimate historical claims to sovereignty over Tibet.
During the Republican and warlord era Tibet was autonomous from China and began to assert its independence. In 1951 the PLA invaded parts of Tibet and routed the Tibetan army. Following this military defeat the central government of Tibet negotiated surrender, acknowledging China’s suzerainty in a 17 point agreement. The agreement was between two legitimate governments and hence is the reason why almost every nation in the world recognizes China’s rule over Tibet.
The issue, according to the Dalai Lama himself, is not one of independence but of autonomy and he has called for Tibetans to accept Chinese rule.
None of this, however, excuses the particularly violent repressions of protesters at the hands of Chinese government forces.
I expect to see an easing of protests in the days to come. Tibetans obviously thought that China might succumb to international and media pressure to relax some of their policies and reactions. Unfortunately, China stuck to their old playbook of harsh repression.
If people want to talk more about China I encourage them to come the Roosevelt Institution’s China Policy Cente. We meet every Monday at 7pm in the Dana building.
Posted by google at 12:46 AM | Comments (0)
More brain, less adrenalin
by Iris from Univ. of Michigan
It holds true most of the time that the harshest condemnation of China comes from people who have little first-hand information about the country. Sure, China has a lot of problems, but if you have ever visited the country or talked to 10 people from China for a combined length of more than 5 hours, you wouldn’t picture China as a hell-like nation where miserable people are ruled by devils and subsequently reflect that imagination in your language. It is exactly the same on the other side of the earth. The majority of the Chinese Fen Qing (abbreviation of “angry youths”) who would never have enough trashing Japan and other “hostile countries” (U.S. included) are those who have never visited those countries and who know nothing about the place other than the tiny little bit they want to believe. So here comes Human Nature No. 1: the less you know about something, the more judgmental you allow yourself to be.
I guess most of you have no idea about the courteous receptions Deng Xiao-Ping received when he visited U.S. in 1979 and the subsequent honeymoon years of the Sino-US relationship. The human rights situation in China was far worse then compared with right now. Even after the Tiananmen Square Incident in 1989, China didn’t enjoy as much denunciation on its human rights situation as it does today. Why? First, China was barely off the brink of collapse and it was so feeble economically and militarily that it could be largely overlooked. Second, Soviet Union and its close allies occupied the top of the list of enemies and China just did not have the priority. But now, it disqualifies in both aspects, so who else? Here comes Human Nature No. 2: people’s negative force has to find a target, and the target is the most prominent (in terms of power) among the most different, no matter how its situation of the area being attacked compares with its past or with others in the absolute sense.
The aftermath of the Tibet Riot is analogous to a typical scene in Everybody Loves Raymond—although surveys show that people who watch Everybody Loves Raymond are more likely to vote for the Republican, I suppose you know that Marie, the mom, has an unconditional preference to her younger son Raymond over her elder son Robert. So, Marie saw Robert shove Raymond to the ground. “Oh my god! Robert, how could you be so cruel to your brother?” This is the reflex of the western media after they learned about the unrest in Tibet. Then witnesses came forward and told Marie that it was Raymond who started the skirmish and he had hit Robert with a baseball bat. Accordingly, the distortion of facts by the western media was pointed out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas), and as more foreign tourists provided their recounting of the incident, it is clear now that it was a violent ethnic riot during which innocent non-Tibetan Chinese were cruelly beaten and killed, their properties burned and looted (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/world/asia/24tibet.html?scp=5&sq=&st=nyt ). Marie’s reaction? “Robert, had you not mistreated your brother, how could Raymond have acted like that?” True, maybe Robert had indeed mistreated his brother before, but maybe not. No matter what, the truth of this very skirmish is covered up, because in Marie’s eyes, Raymond can never be wrong, and Robert can never be right.
I am blogging here not because people are outrageous in censuring China here. On the contrary, I see people who have the potential to listen and who are willing to reach out. You are the hope to act with more brain and less adrenalin.
Posted by google at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)