Post-Olympic Tibet
I was concerned when I saw a white paper published in the China Daily a couple of days ago together with an article refuting accusations of cultural genocide in the region. It read (as CD usually does) like government propaganda, in this case designed to shore up domestic opinion ahead of a post-Olympic backlash.
The white paper begins:
China is a unified multi-ethnic country. Tibet is an inseparable part of China, and the Tibetan ethnic group is an important member of the big family of the Chinese nation. The Tibetan ethnic group has a long history and a splendid culture. Tibetan culture is a lustrous pearl of Chinese culture as well as a precious part of world culture.
Important eh? So their opinions and beliefs must count for something. You’ve probably guessed at this point that His Holiness is excluded from descriptions such as splendid, lustrous, or precious:
Before 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama, as a leader of Tibetan Buddhism and also head of the Tibetan local government, monopolized both political and religious power.
Sounds familiar. Anything else?
The serfs and slaves … suffered destitution, cruel oppression and exploitation, and possessed no means of production or personal freedom …
Unimaginable! That sounds awful - what happened next?
The founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 brought hope to the protection and development of Tibetan culture. Through the peaceful liberation in 1951 Tibet shook off imperialist invasion and trammels, ended its chronic isolation and stagnancy, and created the basic conditions for realizing progress and prosperity along with the rest of China.
My faith in human nature is restored. Is there more?
After the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the Central People’s Government actively helped Tibet protect and recover its traditional culture, and develop its modern cultural, educational and health sectors, opening up a completely new chapter for the development of Tibetan culture.
A new chapter? I’ll say!! What else?
This white paper is published to give the international community a better understanding of the reality of the protection and development of Tibetan culture, citing facts to expose the lie about the “cultural genocide” in Tibet fabricated by the 14th Dalai Lama and his cohorts…
How very thoughtful of the CCP to produce a white paper for the international community. One world, one dream? Not if you’re a Tibetan living on the soil of your forefathers, apparently. Timesonline today reports on the unrest that followed the latest episode of brutality dished out to the robed men of the plateau by armed police:
Other monks went to the police station to protest against the treatment of their colleague and an argument ensued. Police said that they would call local authorities to discuss the matter but shortly afterwards two truckloads of armed officers arrived and began to beat the monks.
I feel talk of a ‘free Tibet’ is counter-productive and naive if it is discussed in terms of independence. That’s never going to happen. True, there was a need for reform, long since acknowledged by the Dalai Lama, but not of the kind imposed by Beijing since 1951. Typically, the Chinese government propagandise their Tibetan intervention as ‘a backward people in need of a helping Han hand’. Some help.
Human rights activists would do better to concern themselves with the restricted freedoms of ethnic Tibetans (monks in particular) in a vast area of the country that was, irrefutably until the CCP era, an area dominated by Tibetan culture and governed (albeit undemocratically) by Tibetan people.
No longer.
Unlike the vast majority of Han Chinese, I’ve spent some time in the region. The ill-feeling towards Beijing is palpable and justified. Tibetan monasteries have been destroyed and plundered so that Han businessmen can sell artefacts to the highest bidder. At the same time Beijing seeks plaudits for having saved Tibetan culture and promoting tourism (nothing wrong with that) so that more Han businessmen can exploit and marginalise the very people on whose culture their wealth is founded (very wrong).
Further, Beijing’s idea of freedoms don’t extend to taking a walk if you’re a monk, or extend as far as decorating your home if it includes a picture of His Holiness. One can only imagine what ‘education’ for Tibetan children must look like.
The Olympics was the lull before the storm for Tibetans; now it really could be all over. I fear for them, as should any individual with a vestige of human compassion.