Posted by Damozel | The problems with China arise, I will always contend, from a complete disjunct between western assumptions and Chinese ones. Everything gets lost in translation. Here's what the Chinese president had to say about the Tibet crackdown:
[L]ast month's crackdown was a result of "conflict" with supporters of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama...."Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem," Mr Hu was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. "It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland," Mr Hu told visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. (BBC News)
In other words, it is---according to western standards---an ethnic problem, a religious problem, and a human rights problem. That the Chinese see it as a problem of safeguarding 'national unification' doesn't preclude its being all those other things as well.
I'd put it like this: the Chinese have an unrequited affection for Tibet, which just wants out of an abusive relationship with a controlling, exacting partner. The Chinese will do---or say---anything to keep Tibet under its control, even if some of those things defy credibility.
After all, it doesn't matter if people believe or disbelieve what you say as long as they can't prove it isn't true. I mean, come on: Buddhist monks making bombs at the behest of the Dalai Lama? No, sorry; not really credible.
China has arrested nine Tibetan Buddhist monks who have been accused of a bomb attack, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Chinese officials said the monks' homemade bomb exploded in a government building in eastern Tibet on 23 March.
Xinhua news agency did not explain why the alleged bomb incident was not reported at the time.....
Xinhua said the monks confessed to planting the explosive in Gyanbe township.
Beijing's claims that the recent Tibetan protests were part of a violent campaign by the Dalai Lama, the region's exiled spiritual leader, to disrupt Chinese rule in Tibet and sabotage the Beijing Olympics in August....
The Dalai Lama has denied involvement in violent acts and says he only wants greater autonomy for the remote mountain region.
He has also expressed opposition to a boycott of the Olympic Games. (BBC News)
While they haven't gone so far as to boycott the games, a number of western leaders have said that they will boycott the opening ceremonies.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing says China had been hoping for an impressive roll call of world leaders at the opening ceremony on 8 August for "the greatest show on earth".
But UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have said they will not go, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is undecided and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he may not make it.
US President George W Bush is under pressure from White House hopefuls John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama not to attend. (BBC News)
But I really don't think China gets it. I mean I think they literally don't understand why westerners are so outraged. The Chinese envoy to London claims that the western press 'demonizes' China. (BBC News). The comments were an interesting illustration of the way in which the Chinese and westerners tend to end up talking about completely different things. Here's what the envoy said:
"Of those who protested loudly, many probably have not seen Tibet. For the Chinese people, Tibet is a loved land and information about it is ample. "There may be complicated problems of religion mixing with politics, but people are well-fed, well-clothed and well-housed. "That has been the main objective of China for centuries. Tibet may not grow into an industrial place like the eastern cities in China, but it will move on like other parts of China." (BBC News)
In another piece I did a week or so ago on China's crackdown on its own dissidents, I discussed how our very different value systems prevents us from understanding one another.
In China, 'social harmony' and order is the goal---the greatest good for the greatest number---and individual assertions of autonomy and demands for more freedom are seen as pointless, egotistical displays intended to disrupt the peace of the nation. 'Human rights' are understood to mean the right to be 'well-fed, well-clothed, and well-housed.' They don't understand why we won't let them get on with silencing their dissidents or cracking down on Tibet. Don't we understand that they are just doing what is best for the nation as a whole?
Meanwhile, the Olympic torch continues to wind its way across the globe, to the din of many protests.
I wonder if the gap in basic values will ever be bridged. The divide between western values and Chinese is vast. I don't know how you reason with a government that is, by its own standards, doing only what it is expected to do.
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China's Preparation for the Olympics: Arresting Dissidents?
Gordon Brown refuses to show sufficient courage and invite the Dalai Lama into 10 Downing Street, what a cop out!
Posted by: Curly | May 12, 2008 at 07:15 AM