More Chinese speaking out for Tibet

More Chinese are speaking out against their government’s repressive policies in Tibet. Considering the censorship, disinformation, and nationalism that the Chinese government is purposely fomenting, this is an especially important development.

Tang Danhong (唐丹鸿) is a poet and documentary filmmaker from Chengdu, Sichuan. Here are some excerpts from her blog post (in Chinese here 这里是中文版):

Other than those voices that the rulers want to hear, have we ever heard the Tibetans’ full, real voices? Those Han Chinese who have been in Tibet, now matter if one is a high official, government cadre, tourist or businessman, have we all heard their real voices, which are silenced, but are still echoing everywhere? [...]

Why can’t we sit down with the Dalai Lama who has abandoned calls for “independence” and now advocates a “middle way,” and negotiate with him with sincerity, to achieve “stability” and “unity” through him?

Because the power difference of the two sides is too big. We are too many people, too powerful: Other than guns and money, and cultural destruction and spiritual rape, we do not know other ways to achieve “harmony.”[...]

Why can’t you understand that people have different values? While you believe in brainwashing, the power of a gun and of money, there is a spiritual belief that has been in their minds for thousands of years and cannot be washed away. When you claim yourselves as “saviors of Tibetans from slavery society,” I am ashamed for your arrogance and your delusions. When military police with their guns pass by me in the streets of Lhasa, and each time I am there I can see row upon row of military bases… yes, I, a Han Chinese, feel ashamed. [...]

Yes, I love Tibet. I am a Han Chinese who loves Tibet, regardless of whether she is a nation or a province, as long as she is so voluntarily. Personally, I would like to have them (Tibetans) belong to the same big family with me. I embrace relationships which come self-selected and on equal footing, not controlled or forced, both between peoples and nations. I have no interest in feeling “powerful,” to make others fear you and be forced to obey you, both between people and between nations, because what’s behind such a “feeling” is truly disgusting.

We previously posted a letter from a group of Chinese intellectuals (text here). (My own letter to the Chinese people 我的通信对中国人民 is here.)

The Chinese government is trying to control what its people think. But I hope and believe the Chinese people are too smart to be manipulated by their government. 中国政府试图控制了中国人的想法。我认为中国人是非常聪明的，与中国政府不能操控他们。

Puncturing the Olympic myths against boycott and protest

The ever-insightful Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post tears apart the myths spun by the IOC, Olympic corporate sponsors, and the Chinese government. These myths come from statements like:

“We believe the Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations, and we hope that all people attending the games recognize the importance of this.” (Samsung Electronics, when asked whether recent events in Tibet were causing it any concern.)

It would be inappropriate “to comment on the political situation of individual nations,” and the company firmly believes “that the Olympics are a force for good.” (Coca Cola.)

“A boycott doesn’t solve anything.” “It is always sad to see such a ceremony disrupted” (Jacques Rogge, chairman of the IOC.)

According to Ms. Applebaum, the myths are as follows (her piece has much further analysis):

Myth # 1: “A boycott doesn’t solve anything.” Well, doesn’t it? Some boycotts do help solve some things.

Myth # 2: “The Olympics are a force for good.” Not always! The 1936 Olympics, held in Nazi Germany, were an astonishing propaganda coup for Hitler.

Myth # 3: “The Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations.” Aren’t they? Actually, the Olympics seem an ideal place for demonstrations.

She rightly concludes:

No wonder then, that everyone who hates or fears China, whether in Burma, Darfur, Tibet or Beijing, is calling for a boycott. And the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee are terrified that those appeals will succeed. No one involved in the preparations for this year’s Olympics really believes that this is “only about the athletes,” or that the Beijing Games will be an innocent display of sporting prowess, or that they bear no relation to Chinese politics. I don’t see why the rest of us should believe those things, either.

China’s messed up priorities

The BBC reports:

China has condemned a protest over Tibet at the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece on Monday.

In the first reaction from Beijing, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said any attempt to disrupt the torch relay for the Olympic Games was shameful.

During the ceremony, campaigners broke through police lines and unfurled a Tibetan flag before being dragged away.

Meanwhile there are reports of more violence in and around Tibet, and the police are continuing to make arrests.

Let’s see, what’s more “shameful”? Protesters nonviolenly upholding human rights that are supposedly part of the Olympic spirit? Or the Olympic host country carrying out mass arrests and killings less than five months before the start of the Games?

It sounds like the Chinese government just doesn’t get it… or else it values Tibetan lives less than its international image.

Polish PM to boycott Olympic opening; pressure builds on China

The Prime Minister of Poland, Mr. Donald Tusk, became the first head of government to declare that he is boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics because of China’s brutal crackdown in Tibet.

Instead, Mr. Tusk said he would meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama if he visits Poland on invitation from the Speaker of the Senate, saying it would be a “great honour” for him. You can see Prime Minister Tusk’s interview with Polish TV here on YouTube.

The Polish people, who know something about being occupied by foreign powers, should be proud.

Global pressure is mounting. Due to China’s brutality in Tibet, already:

• The French Foreign Minister suggested that nations should boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies
• Prince Charles declared that he would boycott the entire Beijing Olympics
• Thai Olympic torchbearer Narisa Chakrabongse courageously withdrew in protest

The criminal masterminds of China’s policy in Tibet

There are three shadowy Chinese officials tasked with their government’s merciless policy toward Tibet and the restive region of Xinjiang. One day, these three men will be high on the list of indicted criminals when there’s a trial under universal jurisdiction or perhaps (one can dream) in a future democratic China.

As Slobodan Milosevic could have attested (before he died alone in a cell in The Hague), the world just isn’t safe like it used to be for people responsible for crimes against humanity. Justice has a way of catching up…

The Times reports:

The real mastermind of Chinese policy towards the restive ethnic minorities is a 67-year-old lifetime communist functionary named Wang Lequan (bio here).

[...]on March 10 he gave away the extent of his responsibility by telling China Central Broadcasting: “No matter what nationality, no matter who it is, wreckers, separatists and terrorists will be smashed by us. There’s no doubt about that.”

His henchman, now applying the master’s methods in Tibet, is Zhang Qingli (bio here), the region’s sharp-tongued party secretary. Zhang is the man who called the Dalai Lama “a wolf in monk’s clothes, a devil with a human face”. [...] Zhang is on record as saying that “those who do not love the motherland are not qualified to be human beings”.

The third most influential figure is Li Dezhu, the party’s racial theoretician. [...]he unfolded a radical change in Chinese policy, stating that its aim was no longer to preserve minority cultures such as the Tibetans but to refashion them.

Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch says Li is the first leader explicitly to state that the problem of minorities would be “definitively solved” by mass Chinese migration.

This is not to let Preident Hu Jintao (bio here) off the hook either. In addition to being responsible for the current crackdown due to his command-responsibility role, Comrade Hu brutally implemented martial law in Tibet in 1989 as party secretary there.

Interestingly, both Comrade Hu and Comrade Zhang covered their tracks in an attempt to avoid criminal liability and responsibility for the massacres in Tibet. Maybe they are afraid of being brought to justice (not a bad idea: Slobodan Milosevic never thought he’d die alone in a cell in The Hague):

Mr. Hu actually made himself unavailable during the 1989 [Tibet] riots when the paramilitary police needed guidance on whether to crack down. The police did so and Mr. Hu got credit for keeping order, but he also assured himself deniability if the crackdown had failed, the biographer wrote.

Mr. Zhang also has an excuse; he was at the National People’s Congress in Beijing. [...] It is unclear when Mr. Zhang was told of the violence, or if he made the final decision on how to respond.