I am a Buddhist myself, and respect people’s rights to protest, but on this particular issue, I think the “free” media in the west present a much distorted picture of what’s really happening in Chinese Tibet. They keep talking about Chinese government’s crack-down of “peaceful protests”. They make it sound as if the Chinese government is the “bad guy” and that the Dalai Lama people are some kind of angels who “bring peace” to the world. But wait a minute, who’s killing whom in Tibet? The “Tibetan protestors” are the ones that are destroying shops, burning cars, and killing innocent Chinese people who are just trying to make a living. If they are peaceful protestors, fine, it’s their right. But they are anything but peaceful, they are violent rioters. What about the people that were killed or injured during those riots, don’t they deserve some kind of respect? How come no one in the west is criticizing the rioters?
It is one thing for Tibetans to protest, it is another thing for westerners to join them. Most westerners can’t even tell the difference between an ethnic Han Chinese and an ethnic Tibetan Chinese. But they hear words like “human rights” and “religious freedom”, exactly what they mean or how subtle the issues are, they don’t have a clue. This allows the few separatists in Tibet to sugar-coat themselves with these keywords, because they know that they will get westerners’ attention this way. They are taking advantage of the stereotype in the west that all people under a communist country must somehow suffer. When in fact, China today is anything but a communist country, and the vast majority of the people are much much much better off.
Another misconception is that if somehow China grants Tibet independence then there will be true democracy and prosperity in Tibet. Let’s face it, Tibet is probably one of the most isolated places on earth, and if it wasn’t because of the Chinese, Tibet would be hundreds of years behind the rest of the world in terms of industrialization and modernization. Do you really believe that in a place as poor and backward as Tibet, there would be “true democracy”? Wouldn’t it be more likely that Tibet will fall into the hands of a few “Buddhist fundamentalists”, and maybe even become the next Afghanistan?
Moreover, people in the US like to compare China’s Tibet to US’s Iraq, or Soviet’s Afghanistan. It’s not really an appropriate analogy, because Iraq and Afghanistan are sovereign countries, but Tibet, whether people like it or not, is part of China. In fact a better analogy would be:
Tibet is to China
Texas is to US
A majority of the Tibetans are now much better off than they were before. China has spent hundreds of millions of dollars building schools, hospitals, transportations in Tibet. The vast majority of Tibetans now have access to running water, education, something that they could never have dreamed of before the revolution, when they had a feudalist slavery society.
China has come a long way. Remember, China used to be called the “sick man of Asia”, but now it’s hosting the Olympics. Obviously, China still has a lot of problems, and is still learning the ropes. The international community should help and encourage China, not boycott it. Having the Olympics in China sheds light on a lot of China’s problems. I genuinely hope and am confident that China will emerge as a better country after the games, so let’s give China a chance.
Finally, I just want to say to all the athletes, American, Chinese, Russian, etc, that you are innocent, and wish all of you the best of luck at the Olympics.
Peace
— Posted by Charles Harris
Loading ...