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25/03/2008

The twisted men who design China’s policies in Tibet and beyond

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below is the sunday times article; beijingwideopen.org is operated by a tibetan activist

From The Sunday TimesMarch 23, 2008

Ethnic repression in Tibet masterminded by faceless trioMichael Sheridan, Far East Correspondent

The architects of Chinese repression in Tibet are three senior bureaucrats little known to the outside world but destined to be the focus of condemnation from human rights groups in the months ahead.

China preserves the facade of an autonomous regional government and has paraded its ethnic Tibetan figureheads over the past week. Chinese researchers say they are political nonentities.

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

Wang has proclaimed himself to be the top terrorist target in China. Nominally, he heads the party in Xinjiang, which, like Tibet, is a vast, remote and resource-rich region troubled by separatism.

However, Wang sits on the powerful politburo in Beijing and has assumed overall direction of policy in both places. He devised the model that has stifled Muslim culture in Xinjiang, staged political trials and executions, poured in millions of Chinese settlers and extracted mineral and energy resources to feed the economy.

Wang almost never gives interviews and operates behind the scenes, but 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, 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”. He rose up the hierarchy in Xinjiang and was transferred to Tibet in 2005 as a reward for his loyalty.

He accelerated campaigns against Tibetan culture and religion, brought in more settlers and stepped up the commercial exploitation of Tibet’s huge reserves of raw materials.

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. Until recently the head of its innocuous-sounding Ethnic Affairs Commission, Li wrote the textbook on destroying independent cultures and disintegrating religious minorities by promoting materialism.

In 2007 he elaborated the theory of what he called “cultural security” for China in an article in a party journal called Seeking Truth. In it 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.

A Tibetan woman born and raised in Canada, Lhadon Tethong has traveled the world, working to build a powerful youth movement for Tibetan independence. She has spoken to countless groups about the situation in Tibet, most notably to a crowd of 66,000 at the 1998 Tibetan Freedom Concert in Washington, D.C. She first became involved with Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) in 1996, when she founded a chapter at University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Since then, Lhadon has been a leading force in many strategic campaigns, including the unprecedented victory against China’s World Bank project in 2000.

Lhadon is a frequent spokesperson for the Tibetan independence movement, and serves as co-chair of the Olympics Campaign Working Group of the International Tibet Support Network. She has worked for SFT since March 1999 and currently serves as the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet International.

Students for a Free Tibet works in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle for freedom and independence. SFT is a chapter-based network of young people and activists around the world. Through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action, SFT campaigns for Tibetans’ fundamental right to political freedom. SFT’s role is to empower and train youth as leaders in the worldwide movement for social justice.

Some Quotes from Lhadon:


“The Olympics is an opportunity to push China for change, and it’s our responsibility to take the mask off the face of the Beijing regime,” says Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet in Katmandu. “These four detained activists are just the beginning of a wave of protest” leading up to the 2008 Games.

- “The Olympic Effect”, Newsweek International, July 2007

“The Chinese government hopes to use the 2008 Olympic Games to conceal the brutality of its occupation of Tibet and win the international community’s acceptance as a modern power on the world stage,” Lhadon Tethong of the Kathmandu-based Students for a Free Tibet said on Wednesday.

“The International Olympic Committee has no business promoting the Chinese government’s political agenda by allowing the torch to be run through Tibet,” Lhadon Tethong said.

- “Olympic Torch for Everest, but doubts over Taiwan Leg”, EBCN, May 2007

Lhadon Tethong of Students for a Free Tibet spoke of the urgency Tibetans feel as their population dwindles and their culture is chipped away and the U.S. government goes along with it, claiming that China will change once in the WTO and subject to the pressures of globalization. ” ‘Constructive engagement with China’ is Clinton’s buzzword,” said Tethong, “but China has a strike-hard campaign in which people are arrested for any infraction—having a photo of the Dalai Lama, or participating in silent prayer.”

- “Attack of the Killer Kapitalists”, November 1999

Posted by: yuen | 25/03/2008

I myself dont see what is so twisted about
the guys or their policy - I assume she
meant mass han immigration to assimilate
the minority regions

Posted by: yuen | 25/03/2008

Tibetan assassins, you have my full support should you decide to take these monsters out.

Posted by: Matilah_Singapura | 26/03/2008

told you already - dont just talk; go find mas selamat and ask him to go there; also, ask Richard Gere to send you money and buy plane ticket, warm clothing, etc

in any case, I posted some comments on beijingwideopen - but they practise censorship, unlike singabloodypore, so I guess these wont appear:

not sure what you find so twisted and sick about the people and their policy (I assume you meant the one about assimilating minority regions by han migration); just realpolitic; why have the tibetan exiles had so little success? why do the nepalese and australian police treat the demos so harshly? realpolitic

to engage in realpolitic, you need to know your opponent and yourself; for knowing yourself: remember your leader was not democratically elected; he was proclaimed by senior monks when he was a child; tibet against china is not democracy against totalitanianism; richard gere might find this OK; people engaged in realpolitic do not

china, in its democratic way, says tibet (and taiwan) cannot declare independence without the agreement of the rest of china, because all chinese are entitled to take part in this decision; the argument might not appeal to people because of their belief in democracy, but people engaged in realpolitic find this an excellent excuse

tibetans need to figure out how to survive in a world of realpolitic; calling your enemies names might feel nice, but it solves no problems


I see a real dilemma for both dalai lama and his followers; they need each other, yet they cannot work together

dalai wants a deal with beijing so that he can live his final years back home, but his followers make such a deal impossible

the followers need him to bring attention, even admiration, to their cause, but having a living buddha as leader is contrary to democracy; it even makes the other side sound politically more up to date

so what is they way out? well you wont get much useful advice from britain or india, both with a suspect past in their relation to tibet; not from taiwan, which has messed up its own independence dream through corruption; not from usa, because it is too busy in the middle east

Posted by: yuen | 26/03/2008

many years ago Ian Buruma, who writes mainly on travel, commented on singapore, including a debate with Kishore Mahbubani concerning the book "Can Asians Think"; he is pessimistic about tibet's survival, a pessimism I share

The last of the Tibetans LATimes

Their culture may survive only outside of China's sweeping modernization.
By Ian Buruma
March 26, 2008
ARE THE TIBETANS doomed to go the way of the American Indians? Will they be reduced to being little more than a tourist attraction, peddling cheap mementos of what was once a great culture? In Tibet

itself, that sad fate is looking more and more likely. And the Olympic year is already soured by the way the Chinese government is trying to suppress resistance to just that fate.

The Chinese have much to answer for, but the end of Tibet is not just a matter of semi-colonial oppression. It is often forgotten that many Tibetans, especially educated people in the larger towns, were so keen to modernize their society in the mid-20th century that they saw the Chinese communists as allies against rule by monks and serf-owning landlords. The Dalai Lama himself, in the early 1950s, was impressed by Chinese reforms and wrote poems praising Chairman Mao.

Alas, instead of reforming Tibetan society and culture, the Chinese communists wrecked it. Religion was crushed in the name of Marxist secularism. Monasteries and temples were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution (often with the help of Tibetan Red Guards). Nomads were forced into concrete settlements. Tibetan arts were frozen into folkloric emblems of an officially promoted "minority culture." And the Dalai Lama and his entourage were forced to flee to India.

Such destruction was not peculiar to Tibet. The wrecking of tradition and forced cultural regimentation took place everywhere in China. In some respects, the Tibetans were treated less ruthlessly than the majority of Chinese. Nor was the challenge to Tibetan uniqueness only typical of the communists. Gen. Chiang Kai-shek declared in 1946 that the Tibetans were Chinese, and he certainly would not have granted them independence if his Nationalists had won the civil war.

If Tibetan Buddhism has been severely damaged, Chinese communism has barely survived the ravages of the 20th century. But capitalist development in China has been even more devastating to Tibetan tradition. Like many modern imperialist powers, China claims legitimacy for its policies by pointing to the material benefits. After decades of destruction and neglect, Tibet has benefited from enormous amounts of Chinese money and energy to modernize the country. The Tibetans cannot complain that they have been left behind in China's transformation from a Third World wreck to a marvel of supercharged urban development.

Along the way, regional identity, cultural diversity and traditional arts and customs have been buried under concrete, steel and glass all over China. And all Chinese are gasping in the same polluted air. But at least the Han Chinese can feel pride in the revival of their national fortunes. They can bask in the resurgence of Chinese power and material wealth. The Tibetans can share this feeling only to the extent that they become fully Chinese. If not, they can only lament the loss of their identity.

The Chinese have exported their version of modern development to Tibet, not just in terms of architecture and infrastructure but people, wave after wave of them: businessmen from Sichuan, prostitutes from Hunan, technocrats from Beijing, party officials from Shanghai, shopkeepers from Yunnan. The majority of the people living today in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, are no longer Tibetan. Most people in rural areas are Tibetan, but their way of life is not likely to survive Chinese modernization any more than the ways of the Apaches did in the United States.

Because Chinese is the language of instruction at Tibetan schools and universities, anyone who wishes to be more than a poor peasant, beggar or seller of trinkets has to conform to it -- that is to say, in a crucial way, become Chinese. Even the Tibetan intellectuals who want to study their own classical literature have to do so in Chinese translation. Meanwhile, Chinese and other foreign tourists dress up in traditional Tibetan dress to have souvenir pictures taken in front of the Dalai Lama's old palace.

Religion is tolerated now in Tibet, as it is in the rest of China, but under strictly controlled conditions. Monasteries and temples are exploited as tourist attractions, and government agents try to make sure that the monks stay in line. As we know from recent events, they have not yet been entirely successful. The resentment among Tibetans runs too deep. In the last few weeks, that resentment boiled over, first in the monasteries, and then in the streets, against the Han Chinese migrants, who are the agents and main beneficiaries of rapid modernization.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said that he does not seek independence for his homeland. However, as long as Tibet remains part of China, it is hard to see how its distinct cultural identity can survive. The human and material forces against it are overwhelming. There are too few Tibetans and too many Chinese.

Outside Tibet, however, it is a different story. If the Chinese are responsible for extinguishing the old way of life inside Tibet, they may have been unintentionally responsible for keeping it alive outside. By forcing the Dalai Lama into exile, they have ensured the establishment of a highly traditional Tibetan diaspora society that might well survive at a level that would have been unlikely even in an independent Tibet. Diaspora cultures thrive on nostalgic dreams of return. Traditions are jealously guarded, like precious heirlooms, to be passed on as long as those dreams persist. Who is to say that they will never come true? The Jews managed to hang on to theirs for more than 2,000 years.

Ian Buruma is a contributing editor to Opinion. He is a professor of human rights at Bard College, and his most recent book is "Murder in Amsterdam: The Killing of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance."

Posted by: yuen | 26/03/2008

Dear Tibetans,

Remember -

1 Strike at the root (Beijing)

2 Disrupt the games = lost of face for China. In 1980 the world boycotted the Moscow Olympics because Russia had annexed and occupied Afganistan

3 Kill and maim as many Chinese aggressors in your country (leave the peaceful Chinese alone), such that the streets run red with their blood.

4 Target and assassinate those who've engineered and continue to engineer 'ethnic cleansing', social engineering and central planning.

For a culture to survive, it has to adapt - to remove what is no longer germane to the present and probably different context.

Non violence must be viewed in context: the party who INITIATES violence on peaceful individuals is in the wrong. The peaceful party who is aggresed against has the RIGHT (and I would add, the responsibility) to respond with VIOLENCE - directed ONLY toward the aggressor - to repel the aggressor or to render him harmless by any means possible.

The Afgans repelled the USSR by armed force and fierce fighting. America repelled the British by violence.

The use of violence to repel an (unwelcome) occupier, conqueror is JUST.

Forget about the 'democratic process' in China. Pay no attention to those who will con you into believing it is somehow 'important'. Do you want your country back? Yes, or no.

If the anwser is 'yes', go out and kill those monsters from the Chnese state. Those who were captured by the Chinese state face torture, death and a minimum of very harsh jail time. Is is 'fair' or 'just' to treat these people this way? I think not. They were merely letting it be known that they want their country back, freedom to practice and continue their culture and live as they so choose.

I wish you well and hope that you win.

Remember - STRIKE AT THE ROOT

Posted by: Matilah_Singapura | 26/03/2008

China is a multi-ethnic country although predominantly Han, she has no less than 56 differently ethnic groups. Tibetans are not the only minority ethnic group and if Tibetan independence is to be encouraged based on their ethnic and cultural differences, China can be fragmented into many nations; likewise India, Russia, England, Europe, Canada and even the USA and other nations if the same principle is applied.

Tibet has historically been recognized as Chinese territory and since the 1700s this has been documented in treaties between the major powers. When China recovered from the invasion by a coalition of not less than 10 western powers (UK, USA, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Austro-Hungary, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Prussia and Japan) and the Sino-Japanese war, the return of a central unified China including Tibet was inevitable. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unequal_Treaties). Tibet and China signed a 17 points agreement in 1953 http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/in...el/ sintibet.htm. This treaty was working well and there was no oppression or mass killing until the 1959 revolt inspired and assisted by the CIA. What would the US government do if say the Texans and Hawaiians initiated a communist inspired rebellion in the USA? Would you then not expect a crack down by the federal government?

According to an article in Newsweek, the CIA’s covert operation in Tibet started in1956 and the US began training about 300 Tibetans at Camp Hale in Colorado. These activities led to an abortive uprising in 1959 which was suppressed by the Chinese. The Dalai Lama and his supporters fled to Nepal and India and established a government in exile funded by the CIA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Hale. The US then proceeded to transform the Dalai Lama into a celebrity, he was awarded a Noble peace prize and recently given the congress medal of honour by Bush; the enhancement of his image world-wide would make him a more useful pawn when needed.

The Dalai Lama left Tibet for India when he was 23 years old. It is easy to understand that he was then too young to resist the manipulation by the CIA but today at 72 he is a disgrace to Buddhism by becoming a willing pawn of a foreign power doing its bidding. Buddhists should chant for him and hopefully as Mr. Wang used to say “Bake good karma”. He is not a suitable role model for young Buddhist Tibetans and Buddhists everywhere. Kyentze Rinpoche is doing a much better job for Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing University; perhaps the Dalai Lama should read his book “What Makes You Not a Buddhist”.

China bashing will continue by western mass media as she continues to develop and make her presence more felt on the world stage and becomes a threat to the American driven western global paradigm. My observation is the USA is the last nation on earth qualified to preach to others about liberty. Excluding the thousands of covert CIA operations and World Wars, the United States has made armed invasions and interventions on more that 130 occasions into more than 30 countries in the world; China (on 18 separate occasions), Mexico (13), Nicaragua and Panama (9 each), Honduras (7), Columbia and Turkey (6 each), the Dominican Republic, Korea and Japan (5 each), Argentina, Cuba, Haiti, the Kingdom of Hawaii and Samoa (4 each), Uruguay and Fiji (3 each), Guatemala, Lebanon, the Soviet Union and Sumatra (2 each), Grenada, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Chile, Morocco, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Syria, Iraq, Peru, Formosa, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Afghanistan. This list compiled by the House Armed Services Committee published in America raised some eyebrows. None of the countries that were invaded by America were a threat to America or Americans nor did they provoke the Americans.

A Buddhist theocracy in the 21st century would not serve Tibet well. The “long suffering Tibetan people” is a myth created by Tibetan exiles and western propagandists. China is a big country with a population of 1.4 billion people with a nominal per capital income of about $2,034 (2006 ranked 107th). It is not an easy task to transform Tibet from a backward medieval feudal society into a vibrant modern one. The sooner Tibetans realized this, the sooner Tibet can grow and proper like other regions in China. Buddhism together with Taoism and Confucianism has always been a part of the Chinese culture. If not for the 2008 Olympic, this incident may not have happened. Tibet chances of becoming independent are as good as that of Texas or Ireland.

Posted by: luxintenebris33 | 26/03/2008

So you must think that their chances of independence are pretty good - Ireland has been independent since 1922.

I think you are refering to Northern Ireland, which now has its own elected government. Independent in all but tax making powers.

Posted by: soci | 26/03/2008

>Kill and maim as many Chinese aggressors in your country (leave the peaceful Chinese alone

unfortunately your tibetan friends did not listen to you; they killed shopkeepers, even random pedestrians; maybe PLA soldiers have weapons so are a bit harder to kill for unarmed tibetans; we learn something every day, dont we?

I think you have lived outside singapore for too long; a bit of time back home, like in one of those ISD detention centres with friendly ghurkas, would cool you down; you learn to be docile, like mas selamat did before making his escape; you too can do this and get your picture published all over the world

Posted by: yuen | 27/03/2008

Soci, I thank you for the correction and update on Ireland. I was then recalling the long drawn struggle by the Catholic IRA for independence from the UK when I was a young man in the 60s. I believe my point is made and understood.

Western hypocrisy and violence against other nations continues for centuries until today. Every nation on earth was colonialised and exploited for centuries. Pre meditated murder and mass murders by western powers led by the US of citizens of weaker nations is now almost a daily affair, it has come to be accepted imperceptibly as “normal” by the populace of mega cities worldwide who are too preoccupied with their personal concerns.. Present national and world leaders all grew up in an environment of wars and conflicts. School children repeatedly bring guns to schools and kill large numbers of other students and teachers often enough in the US.

My generation celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall expecting it to usher in a new era of peace but that did not happened because the US then intoxicated by their success aspired to be earth’s sole superpower. Nations surrounding Russia and China (the two main obstacles to absolute US dominance) are being subjected to fragmentation or regime changes. Korea and Japan are not truly independent with the US bases on their soil armed to the teeth with tens of thousands of American soldiers – one only need to check their votes in the UN, they are in reality local autonomous regions of the US.

It is naïve to believe the US is a benign superpower. “You are for us or against us” is its foreign policy and preemptive strike including the use of strategic nuclear weapon is an official doctrine since 2004. There is now no more room even for peacemakers and those who choose to remain neutral. American and western capitalism driven by Yahwehism (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) is cultured by exploitation, wars, barbarism, greed and fear. Though they believe in the same god, they have been fighting amongst themselves and against others since the days of Moses until now. Yahwehism now threatens humankind with extinction by way of a nuclear holocaust.

The center for public integrity documented 935 lies by Bush and his cabinet ministers to pave the way for the war against Iraq and until today not a single politician from the more than 30 members of the coalition misled by Bush that participated in the war against Iraq has the honesty or courage to raise this question with Bush. Besides the pain and loss of lives inflicted on millions of Iraqis, it cost American taxpayers according to Nobel economic price winner Joseph Stiglitz more than 3 trillion dollars directly and indirectly the whole world is paying for Bush’s reckless folly. In the meantime, it has been reported Iraqi oil is being pumped by un-metered pipelines to American oil wells in Saudi Arabia for the last five years.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/23/bush.iraq/index.html

http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?q=center+for+public+integrity&date=2008-1-23&sa=X

There will always be homicidal power crazy freaks in societies but they should be in the fringe and not in the sits of government. The fact that Bush could be elected for two terms is due to the insanity of the theocratic neocons and the gullibility of the populace.

As a Buddhist icon the Dalai Lama is foolish to go to bed with the violent warlike US; puppets of the US are often used and discarded when they are no longer useful – one good recent example is Saddam Hussein who was given a world-wide public hanging when he decided to break free from Americanism. He was supported by the US in the war against Iran. Tibet without any natural resources cannot hope to survive on the export of Buddhism and Dalai Lama’s celebrity status – its greatest asset is perhaps its fresh air and scenery. As Yuan said, the Dalai Lama would most probably die in exile; I would like to add leaving behind a discredited legacy with a stain on the standard of practice of world Buddhism. You can’t achieve calmness by stirring and agitation. It would be a better fit for Tibet to remain as a part of China – prosperous Macao and Hong Kong are good examples. It would be interesting to see how Taiwan evolves under Ma, eventually it may follow the path of Hong Kong and Macao, its business community needs China as a hinterland for its products.

What is happening worldwide is a crisis of trust. Most politicians have become liars and cheaters. News headlines reveal this compelling truth; they have transformed themselves into self sanctifying saints, lifting themselves above prosecution by the laws which govern the common people. Continuous due diligence on politicians everywhere is essential for peace and stability. When the highest offices are corrupted, low trust is everywhere, permeating our global society, our marketplace, our institutions, political parties, our relationships and personal lives. It has become pathological, breeding suspicion and cynicism pushing us into a costly downward spiral.

The good news is it can't go on forever; already a counter-wave demanding change is in place. Bush partners in the war against Iraq are falling like dominoes. Be cautious and be happy, be a part of the change towards the building of a world-wide harmonious community, usher in a new 21st century era of peace and harmony. Don’t be easily hook-winked by western propagandists. Be the change you want others to be.

Posted by: luxintenebris33 | 27/03/2008

I dont think it would do to blame usa for the 1959 exile of dalai lama; colonial britain and post independence india had some responsibility in leading tibetans to think that an independence movement would attract foreign support, and CIA no doubt had some espionage operations in tibet, but the main cause of the 1959 disturbances was more extreme ideological attitude after the 1956 anti right movement and 1958 great leap forward; considering that the cultural revolution started a short time later, it is difficult to call dalai's escape a mistake

whether he should have made greater compromise to negotiation a return is debatable; a deal might have been possible when Hu Jintao was running tibet, but the 1990 demonstrations ruined any chance; these were definitely encouraged by the west - I remember monks holding signs in english "we want human rights" etc, i.e., they were meant to be seen by wester newspaper and TV audience; things have gone worse since then, and I dont see how dalai can avoid dying in exile

Posted by: yuen | 27/03/2008

Dear yuen,

Thank you for your psycho-ANALysis. It really feels great to be cared for ;-)

Incidentally, I do visit 'Hotel' Singapore quite a bit, and am quite aware of what the 'zeitgeist' of the society is.

Posted by: Matilah_Singapura | 27/03/2008

going to the negotiating table with historical baggages tend to lead to impermanent resolution. it's like squabbling couples who keep harping on past imperfections and mistakes instead of being current and moving on with life. truth is, historical grievances can be difficult to verify when accounts can potentially be twisted or dressed to suit one's agenda. granted, blood has been spilled for the most absurd reasons but that does not change the people's eternal quest for the right to life and peace . unfortunately, this quest has often been hampered by those who instigate violence because of ideological impasse. as long as we continue to accord powers to those we idolized, peace will continue to be elusive. as long as we practice a form of hypocritical compassion for the lowest denominator in society, we shall have wars.

how can violence for violence ever lead to liberation? never, what more against intellectual cowardice behind an army of tanks and bazookas. neither can peace be achieved through docile submission to the ravages of capitalistic opportunists.

but who knows, with greater awareness of its empty promises, more may subvert the order of damnation!

Posted by: gurunadum | 27/03/2008

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