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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:22 am Post subject: Beijing Olympics disruption: Covert US operations in Tibet
Plans to Disrupt Beijing Olympics organized by 3 Canadian women with US/UK support
Kate Woznow, a 28-year-old Vancouverite, BC, Canada, another B.C. woman, 28-year-old Freya Putt and another young B.C. woman, Lhadon Tethong, Ms. Tethong, 34, is the charismatic executive director of Washington-based Students for a Free Tibet, with 650 chapters around the world, and is perhaps the leading figure in the international Olympic-protest campaign.
Lhadon Tethong (917) 418-4181 (New York)
Kate Woznow (778) 322-3071 (Vancouver)
China's week has become Tibet's moment. Tibetans and their supporters are being driven by the belief that this Olympic year and its vast media attention are a last opportunity to challenge Beijing's rule. It now looks like activists have succeeded in making China's 57-year occupation of the territory the dominant issue of the 2008 Olympic Games.
Behind this dramatic capture of the world's attention are three young women from British Columbia, who have spent much of the seven years since China won the Games organizing thousands of international volunteers and hundreds of Tibet-related organizations into a six-month campaign of stealth activism intended to humiliate China before an international audience.
###
Last May, the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government-in-exile put together a meeting in Brussels of all the major Tibet organizations — there are hundreds, and they're organized under a Washington-based umbrella group, the International Tibet Support Network. There, the exiled Tibetans decided that the Olympics should be the single focus of their activities for the next 15 months, and they hired a full-time organizer for the Olympic-disruption campaign.
They picked Ms. Putt, a University of Victoria graduate who had spent years in the student movement. When Tibet activists disrupted then-prime-minister Jean Chrétien's 2001 visit to China, Ms. Putt was there, directing it and communicating with the media as students unfurled a protest banner behind the Chinese and Canadian leaders. One of the demonstrators was Ms. Woznow, who was arrested and detained by Chinese authorities.
From Washington, Ms. Putt has steered a disorderly circle of thousands of volunteers on six continents into a carefully designed campaign that will combine Greenpeace-style attention-getting techniques with the Buddhist country's traditionally non-violent values, all directed at the thousands of media outlets that are converging on Beijing.
###
"The Chinese government wants something from this; they want world acceptance. That's why they're taking the risk of inviting the world in for these Games. They want to be part of the club and to be liked. And our job as young activists is to deny them this, to tell them that their approach to Tibet is going to cost them something, it'll cost them face. And loss of face is the most serious thing we can deliver."
The three women have been campaigning around the Olympics since 2000, when Beijing was bidding to be host of the 2008 Games. At the time, they were simply trying to prevent China from getting the Games. When that campaign failed, there was a mood of dismay, and the issue was dropped for a couple years.
###
Their biggest plans, however, are for August, when Beijing will be on every TV station and the front page of every publication. "We are determined to have non-violent direct action in the heart of Beijing, inside the Games, every day," Ms. Tethong says.
"We know that Tibet won't be free in September, but we want the next generation of Chinese leaders to know that this occupation is very costly for them, that its cost to their reputation outweighs any benefits. That's what we want to accomplish this summer."
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:27 am Post subject: International Tibet Support Network (ITSN)
The International Tibet Support Network (ITSN) is a global coalition of Tibet-related non-governmental organisations. Its purpose is to maximise the effectiveness of the worldwide Tibet movement, which is dedicated to ending human rights violations in Tibet and to working actively to restore the Tibetan people's right under international law to determine their own political, economic, social, religious, and cultural status.
ITSN pursues its goals by working to increase the capacity of individual member organisations, by developing coordinated strategic campaigns, and by encouraging increased cooperation among organisations, thereby strengthening the Tibet movement as a whole.
ITSN's day to day functioning is managed by a small Secretariat whose work is overseen by an elected Steering Committee. The Steering Committee members represent all the regions of the world where there are Tibet Groups. The Steering Committee is responsible for setting policy, and for ensuring ITSN fulfils its financial and legal commitments.
International Tibet Support Network
c/o Free Tibet Campaign
28 Charles Square
London
N1 6HT
United Kingdom
New Strategies:
The ITSN Steering Committee has been considering for some time how to focus the movement around new strategies at a time when many Tibet Groups are finding their advocacy yields fewer results in the face of China’s increasing political and economic power and, furthermore, the dialogue between envoys of the Dalai Lama and China has reached a critical stage where progress has slowed.
At its 2006 Regional Meetings ITSN proposed to Members to commence a new planning process to consider new “strategic concepts” around which to build campaigns, once the current priority campaign on the Olympic Games is over. This proposal received enthusiastic support. A seven-person “Task Force” of respected people in the movement was set up in Spring 2007 which is currently engaged in consulting the Membership by means of a stimulating and challenging set of questions about China and Tibet. The Task Force’s goal is to produce a shortlist of proposals for consideration at the Spring 2008 Regional Meetings, with a new strategy being in place for the autumn of 2008.
Representatives From May 2007:
Natalia Barahona, Chile (Latin America)
Zoe Bedford, Australia (Australasia)
Dorothy Berger (USA) Co Chair
Benoit Camard, France (Western Europe)
Piotr Cykowski, Poland (C&E Europe and Russia)
Sonam Dagpo, TGiE Observer
Jamyang Dorjee, India (South Asia), Co Chair
Larry Gerstein (USA)
Dan Haig (USA)
Marco Antonio Karam, Mexico (Latin America)
Vijay Kranti (India)
Mary Beth Markey (USA)
Charlotte Mathiassen, Denmark (Northern Europe)
Ran Natanzon, Israel (Middle East and Africa)
Sonam Sangmo, TGiE (Observer)
Wangpo Tethong, Switzerland (Western Europe)
B Tsering Yeshi, India (South Asia)
Yael Weisz-Rind, UK (Western Europe)
Kate Woznow (Canada)
Financial Report 1 January to 31 December 2006:
Income:
Grants: $124,132 from Isdell Foundation.
Membership Fees: $18,439
Donations: $3,306
Refunds for costs incurred on behalf of Tibet Groups: $12,922
Bank interest: $408
Total Income: $159,207
Expenditure:
Program Services: $124,461
Management and General $29,380
Fundraising $10,954
Total Expenditure: $164,795
2006 Balance Sheet:
Opening Balance $97,087
Deficit for the Year: -$5,588
Closing Balance: $91,499
Reserve:
The Steering Committee has a policy to retain a modest reserve of US$30,000.
Funding:
ITSN receives approximately 12% of its income from Membership fees. This includes fairly substantial fees from the small number of larger Tibet Groups, which represents considerable buy-in to ITSN on their part. In 2007, in addition to its continuing grant from the Isdell Foundation, ITSN secured one further grant of $45,000 from the National Endowment for Democracy and campaign donations from a number of Member organizations in Switzerland.
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:25 pm Post subject: CIA's Secret War in Tibet
Free Tibet movement has its original open support and funding from the American Secret Service, the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), until 1972 with Nixon's visit to China. Currently, the support and funding are more covert. Funding is channelled through many "Buddhist" organizations, "human rights movements" and University student bodies with Free Tibet agenda. Student activists abound and are well organized as indicated by Smalltok in his articles in this thread. Below are reprints of an article relating to a book that documents the CIA involvement.
Quote:
On March 25, 2008, Mr. Kenneth Conboy, the book - CIA's Secret War in Tibet's only author alive, readily accepted an exclusive interview by People's Daily staff editor Dr. Liu Chao. The following are excerpts from Dr. Liu's exclusive interview with Mr. Kenneth Conboy, as well as some excerpts from his renowned book.
Original Excerpts from the Book:
"In 1928, Chiang Kai-shek's regimented Kuomintang party took the reins of power within the republican government. The Kuomintang reemphasized the goal of a unified China -- including Tibet. To realize this goal in part, that same year it announced plans to formally absorb Amdo and Kham as the new Chinese provinces of Tsing-hai and Sikang, respectively.
On 1 October 1949, a victorious Chairman Mao formally inaugurated the People's Republic of China (PRC) from a new capital in Beijing.The PRC saw itself as heir to the Kuomintang claim over Tibet. Making no secret of its intentions, on 1 January 1950 communist state radio declared that the liberation of all three -- Taiwan, Hainan, and Tibet -- was the goal of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for the upcoming calendar year."
"During World War II, top State Department officials, out of deference to America's Chinese allies, did not want to stray from U.S. recognition of what the Kuomintang declared was its sovereign jurisdiction (Tibet). But by the summer of 1949, with Kuomintang defeat in the Chinese civil war seen as increasingly likely, the United States belatedly entertained thoughts of a policy shift. The impetus for this rethinking came from American diplomats in both India and China, who suggested that the United States weigh the advantages of courting Tibet before control was forfeited to the communists.
Back in Washington, policy makers were not swayed. Even when members of the Tibetan cabinet made a desperate plea for U.S. assistance in gaining membership in the United Nations that December, Secretary of State Dean Acheson flatly discouraged the idea".
"(In July 1950,) US Embassy officials even flirted with fanciful plans for Heinrich Harrer, the monarch's former tutor, and George Patterson, an affable Scottish missionary who had once preached in Kham, to effectively kidnap the Dalai Lama and bundle him off to India."
"the Dalai Lama he had already voiced support for radical land reforms at home, although the landed aristocracy and religious elite had successfully thwarted implementation. During that same time frame, a hint of the dissatisfaction brewing in Kham reached the U.S. consulate in Calcutta via a different channel."
"In the fall of 1964, an initial group of four Tibetans arrived at the Cornell campus for nine months of course work. Midway through the semester, half of the class was quietly taken down to Silver Spring, Maryland, where they were kept in a CIA safe house for a month of spy-craft instruction.
These first dozen Cornell-trained Tibetans were put to immediate use. Three were assigned to the Special Center. Others were posted to one of the CIA-supported Tibet representative offices in New Delhi, Geneva, and New York. The New Delhi mission -- officially known as the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama -- was headed by a former Tibetan finance minister and charged with maintaining contact with the various embassies in the Indian capital. The Office of Tibet in Geneva, led by the Dalai Lama 's older brother Lobsang Sam ten, focused on staging cultural programs in neutral Switzerland.The New York Office of Tibet, which included three Cornell graduates, concentrated on winning support for the Tibetan cause at the United Nations."
xxxThe followings are excerpts of an interview between the Editor and Kenneth Conboy....
Editor: Why was CIA interested in Tibet but kept their actions in secret? What do you think prompted the CIA to sponsor Tibetan resistance to China? Did the CIA decide to do so out of its own interests or, as some claimed, upon the request by the Tibetans?
Kenneth Conboy: Because the U.S. government did not have diplomatic relations with Tibet, the Cold War operation in that region remained covert and was handled by CIA. Why did CIA sponsor the resistance? The resistance, in fact, was already in existence when the U.S. government stepped in. The U.S. government helped support the existing Tibetan resistance initially in an attempt to marginally expand their capabilities so that they might more effectively snipe at the PRC (and in an area that, for Beijing, would be relatively difficult to defend because of distances involved). Later, the operation was aimed in part to gather intelligence on what was then a very closed society inside China. Yet another part of the operation was aimed at bolstering India following the 1962 Sino-Indian War.
Did the U.S. government do so for its own interests, or upon the request of the Tibetans? It was a bit of both.
Editor: On http://time-blog.com/china_blog/, TIME magazine Beijing Chief Simon Elegant replied today to my Letter to Editor on Tibet's shared history with China. Did you take such history facts into account as your wrote the book? Do you share my opinion that the kind of Tibet Western media portray to ordinary Westerners is somewhat distorted, or at least could have been more unprejudiced/truthful?
Kenneth Conboy: In my book, I detail the type of society that existed in Tibet prior to the early fifties. I leave it to the reader to decide for themselves what Tibet was like during that timeframe, and how it historically interacted with China.
Editor:You wrote in your prelude "That the free Tibetan community has been able to survive and even thrive--arguably, the Tibetan issue has a higher profile today than at any time since the 1959 flight of the Dalai Lama--is owed in no small part to the secret assistance channeled by the United States." Why do you think so? What strategic goals do they hope to achieve through this? If "containing Communist expansion" was politically right, why did it have to remain secret?
Kenneth Conboy: Had it not been for the assistance of the U.S., especially on a symbolic level, it is hard to imagine that the Tibetan Diaspora would have been able to remain coherent and focused during the sixties and into the early seventies. By the seventies, the free Tibet community was sufficiently developed to go from strength to strength.
What strategic goals were accomplished? As you note, there was an overriding concern about containing communism, especially following the 1962 Sino-Indian War. Why did it remain covert? In large part, the operation had to remain covert because it was staged from countries that, for a variety of reasons, did not want their involvement made public.
Editor: How did your co-author, James Morrison, contribute to the collection of facts and writing of your book? How did the two of you ensure first-hand interviews of CIA principals as well as Tibetan, Nepalese and Taiwanese agents to make your auguments more compelling and your history accounts most accurate?
Kenneth Conboy: The late James Morrison was an outstanding military historian. He focused on collecting research material within the U.S., while I focused outside the U.S. How did we gain first-hand interviews? One word: persistence. In addition, we did not operate to any deadline, so we were free to take our time to track down leads.
You can read more of the interview with this link:
Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 565 Location: Beautiful Island
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject: CIA Involvement Again ...
This article by Richard Bennett examines evidence of the CIA's hand behind the Tibet riots last month. The Olympics provides a golden opportunity for the CIA to revive its past operations in Tibet through its proxies and special forces among the Tibetan refugee and overseas community.
Dark Side -- Tibet, the 'Great Game' and the CIA
Quote:
By Richard M Bennett, Asia Times 26/3/08
Mar 26, 2008
... Similarly, the funding and overall control of the unrest has also been linked to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, and by inference to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) because of his close cooperation with US intelligence for over 50 years.
Indeed, with the CIA's deep involvement with the Free Tibet Movement and its funding of the suspiciously well-informed Radio Free Asia, it would seem somewhat unlikely that any revolt could have been planned or occurred without the prior knowledge, and even perhaps the agreement, of the National Clandestine Service (formerly known as the Directorate of Operations) at CIA headquarters in Langley.
Respected columnist and former senior Indian Intelligence officer, B Raman, commented on March 21 that "on the basis of available evidence, it was possible to assess with a reasonable measure of conviction" that the initial uprising in Lhasa on March 14 "had been pre-planned and well orchestrated".
Could there be a factual basis to the suggestion that the main beneficiaries to the death and destruction sweeping Tibet are in Washington? History would suggest that this is a distinct possibility.
The CIA conducted a large scale covert action campaign against the communist Chinese in Tibet starting in 1956. This led to a disastrous bloody uprising in 1959, leaving tens of thousands of Tibetans dead, while the Dalai Lama and about 100,000 followers were forced to flee across the treacherous Himalayan passes to India and Nepal.
The CIA established a secret military training camp for the Dalai Lama's resistance fighters at Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado, in the US. The Tibetan guerrillas were trained and equipped by the CIA for guerrilla warfare and sabotage operations against the communist Chinese.
The US-trained guerrillas regularly carried out raids into Tibet, on occasions led by CIA-contract mercenaries and supported by CIA planes. The initial training program ended in December 1961, though the camp in Colorado appears to have remained open until at least 1966.
The CIA Tibetan Task Force created by Roger E McCarthy, alongside the Tibetan guerrilla army, continued the operation codenamed "St Circus" to harass the Chinese occupation forces for another 15 years until 1974, when officially sanctioned involvement ceased.
McCarthy, who also served as head of the Tibet Task Force at the height of its activities from 1959 until 1961, later went on to run similar operations in Vietnam and Laos.
By the mid-1960s, the CIA had switched its strategy from parachuting guerrilla fighters and intelligence agents into Tibet to establishing the Chusi Gangdruk, a guerrilla army of some 2,000 ethnic Khamba fighters at bases such as Mustang in Nepal.
This base was only closed down in 1974 by the Nepalese government after being put under tremendous pressure by Beijing. After the Indo-China War of 1962, the CIA developed a close relationship with the Indian intelligence services in both training and supplying agents in Tibet.
Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison in their book The CIA's Secret War in Tibet disclose that the CIA and the Indian intelligence services cooperated in the training and equipping of Tibetan agents and special forces troops and in forming joint aerial and intelligence units such as the Aviation Research Center and Special Center.
This collaboration continued well into the 1970s and some of the programs that it sponsored, especially the special forces unit of Tibetan refugees which would become an important part of the Indian Special Frontier Force, continue into the present.
Only the deterioration in relations with India which coincided with improvements in those with Beijing brought most of the joint CIA-Indian operations to an end.
Though Washington had been scaling back support for the Tibetan guerrillas since 1968, it is thought that the end of official US backing for the resistance only came during meetings between president Richard Nixon and the Chinese communist leadership in Beijing in February 1972.
Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer has described the outrage many field agents felt when Washington finally pulled the plug, adding that a number even "[turned] for solace to the Tibetan prayers which they had learned during their years with the Dalai Lama".
The former CIA Tibetan Task Force chief from 1958 to 1965, John Kenneth Knaus, has been quoted as saying, "This was not some CIA black-bag operation." He added, "The initiative was coming from ... the entire US government."
In his book Orphans of the Cold War, Knaus writes of the obligation Americans feel toward the cause of Tibetan independence from China. Significantly, he adds that its realization "would validate the more worthy motives of we who tried to help them achieve this goal over 40 years ago. It would also alleviate the guilt some of us feel over our participation in these efforts, which cost others their lives, but which were the prime adventure of our own."
Despite the lack of official support it is still widely rumored that the CIA were involved, if only by proxy, in another failed revolt in October 1987, the unrest that followed and the consequent Chinese repression continuing till May 1993.
The timing for another serious attempt to destabilize Chinese rule in Tibet would appear to be right for the CIA and Langley will undoubtedly keep all its options open.
China is faced with significant problems, with the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province; the activities of the Falun Gong among many other dissident groups and of course growing concern over the security of the Summer Olympic Games in August.
China is viewed by Washington as a major threat, both economic and military, not just in Asia, but in Africa and Latin America as well.
The CIA also views China as being "unhelpful" in the "war on terror", with little or no cooperation being offered and nothing positive being done to stop the flow of arms and men from Muslim areas of western China to support Islamic extremist movements in Afghanistan and Central Asian states.
To many in Washington, this may seem the ideal opportunity to knock the Beijing government off balance as Tibet is still seen as China's potential weak spot.
The CIA will undoubtedly ensure that its fingerprints are not discovered all over this growing revolt. Cut-outs and proxies will be used among the Tibetan exiles in Nepal and India's northern border areas.
Indeed, the CIA can expect a significant level of support from a number of security organizations in both India and Nepal and will have no trouble in providing the resistance movement with advice, money and above all, publicity.
However, not until the unrest shows any genuine signs of becoming an open revolt by the great mass of ethnic Tibetans against the Han Chinese and Hui Muslims will any weapons be allowed to appear.
Large quantities of former Eastern bloc small arms and explosives have been reportedly smuggled into Tibet over the past 30 years, but these are likely to remain safely hidden until the right opportunity presents itself.
The weapons have been acquired on the world markets or from stocks captured by US or Israeli forces. They have been sanitized and are deniable, untraceable back to the CIA.
Weapons of this nature also have the advantage of being interchangeable with those used by the Chinese armed forces and of course use the same ammunition, easing the problem of resupply during any future conflict.
Though official support for the Tibetan resistance ended 30 years ago, the CIA has kept open its lines of communications and still funds much of the Tibetan Freedom movement.
So is the CIA once again playing the "great game" in Tibet?
It certainly has the capability, with a significant intelligence and paramilitary presence in the region. Major bases exist in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and several Central Asian states.
It cannot be doubted that it has an interest in undermining China, as well as the more obvious target of Iran.
So the probable answer is yes, and indeed it would be rather surprising if the CIA was not taking more than just a passing interest in Tibet. That is after all what it is paid to do.
Since September 11, 2001, there has been a sea-change in US Intelligence attitudes, requirements and capabilities. Old operational plans have been dusted off and updated. Previous assets re-activated. Tibet and the perceived weakness of China's position there will probably have been fully reassessed.
For Washington and the CIA, this may seem a heaven-sent opportunity to create a significant lever against Beijing, with little risk to American interests; simply a win-win situation.
The Chinese government would be on the receiving end of worldwide condemnation for its continuing repression and violation of human rights and it will be young Tibetans dying on the streets of Lhasa rather than yet more uniformed American kids.
The consequences of any open revolt against Beijing, however, are that once again the fear of arrest, torture and even execution will pervade every corner of both Tibet and those neighboring provinces where large Tibetan populations exist, such as Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan.
And the Tibetan Freedom movement still has little likelihood of achieving any significant improvement in central Chinese policy in the long run and no chance whatever of removing its control of Lhasa and their homeland.
Once again it would appear that the Tibetan people will find themselves trapped between an oppressive Beijing and a manipulative Washington.
Beijing sends in the heavies. The fear that the United States, Britain and other Western states may try to portray Tibet as another Kosovo may be part of the reason why the Chinese authorities reacted as if faced with a genuine mass revolt rather than their official portrayal of a short-lived outbreak of unrest by malcontents supporting the Dalai Lama.
Indeed, so seriously did Beijing view the situation that a special security coordination unit, the 110 Command Center, has been established in Lhasa with the primary objective of suppressing the disturbances and restoring full central government control.
The center appears to be under the direct control of Zhang Qingli, first secretary of the Tibet Party and a President Hu Jintao loyalist. Zhang is also the former Xinjiang deputy party secretary with considerable experience in counter-terrorism operations in that region.
Others holding important positions in Lhasa are Zhang Xinfeng, vice minister of the Central Public Security Ministry and Zhen Yi, deputy commander of the People's Armed Police Headquarters in Beijing.
The seriousness with which Beijing is treating the present unrest is further illustrated by the deployment of a large number of important army units from the Chengdu Military Region, including brigades from the 149th Mechanized Infantry Division, which acts as the region's rapid reaction force.
According to a United Press International report, elite ground force units of the People's Liberation Army were involved in Lhasa, and the new T-90 armored personnel carrier and T-92 wheeled armored vehicles were deployed. According to the report, China has denied the participation of the army in the crackdown, saying it was carried out by units of the armed police. "Such equipment as mentioned above has never been deployed by China's armed police, however."
Air support is provided by the 2nd Army Aviation Regiment, based at Fenghuangshan, Chengdu, in Sichuan province. It operates a mix of helicopters and STOL transports from a frontline base near Lhasa. Combat air support could be quickly made available from fighter ground attack squadrons based within the Chengdu region. The Xizang Military District forms the Tibet garrison, which has two mountain infantry units; the 52nd Brigade based at Linzhi and the 53rd Brigade at Yaoxian Shannxi. These are supported by the 8th Motorized Infantry Division and an artillery brigade at Shawan, Xinjiang.
Tibet is also no longer quite as remote or difficult to resupply for the Chinese army. The construction of the first railway between 2001 and 2007 has significantly eased the problems of the movement of large numbers of troops and equipment from Qinghai onto the rugged Tibetan plateau.
Other precautions against a resumption of the long-term Tibetan revolts of previous years has led to a considerable degree of self-sufficiency in logistics and vehicle repair by the Tibetan garrison and an increasing number of small airfields have been built to allow rapid-reaction units to gain access to even the most remote areas.
The Chinese Security Ministry and intelligence services had been thought to have a suffocating presence in the province and indeed the ability to detect any serious protest movement and suppress resistance.
Source: Ocnus.net 2008
Last edited by XP on Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:25 am; edited 3 times in total
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:47 pm Post subject: The American white men's game?
CIA has continued to live to disrupt any form of government that it perceives to be harmful to US of America. Whether it is in Africa, Asia, Europe. Middle East or South America, CIA is determined to undermine any government even if the government is elected or supported by an overwhelm local majority. We have seen that in Chile, Nicaragua, Congo, Vietnam, Cuba, Iran, Syria and China. US just can't shake itself off the idea that the cold war is over and there is no need for a super policeman. Let there be peace and practise real democracy. Abide by the rules of majority rule. If the current trend of CIA continues, US foreign policy will not be one respected by the world, except by the "coalition of the willing", or US paid clientele states.
Joined: 20 Mar 2007 Posts: 1052 Location: Australia
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:25 am Post subject: Western Instigation to Humiliate China
The views of a sharp social critic based in London, Brendan O’Neill :
Tibet has become one of the rallying points for various vested interests in the west; some still consumed by Cold War mentality, envious of China's economic progress, or other non-material pursuits. These self serving interests use China as the whipping boy, tarnishing China's image and humiliating the emerging power by exploiting Tibetan elements as the Olympics draws near. Are they really interested in liberty, human rights for Tibetans or other self serving objectives?
Quote:
17 March 2008
Using Tibet to settle scores with China
Tibetans want to be free. But they’ve been given a green light to riot by Western elements driven more by spite and envy than a love for liberty.
Brendan O’Neill
xxxxx
But there’s another story behind the images of instability being broadcast around the world, a more complex, dangerous and difficult-to-spot story of cynical, spiteful political manoeuvring. Elements in the West have effectively encouraged Tibetans to riot, not because they are committed to democracy and liberty, but because they fear and loathe the Chinese. Western encouragement of Tibetan instability may dress itself in the rallying cry of ‘Free Tibet!’, but its real motivation is to ‘Humiliate China!’
The Tibetan protesters’ angry outbursts reveal their deep-seated dissatisfaction with life under the Stalinist regime. Yet the protests can also be seen as a physical, violent manifestation of Western China-bashing, which is increasing in intensity as the Beijing Olympics approach. For the past three months, Western officials and commentators have implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) encouraged Tibetans and others to ‘use the Olympics to humiliate China’. Taking their cue, at least in part, from Western culture’s feverish fear and suspicion of China, Tibetans have launched protests that seem designed as much to please Western observers as to push through real, meaningful changes in Tibet and China.
In both their timing and their presentation, the protests seem more a product of Western cajoling than of an independent, groundswell demand for liberty amongst Tibetans. It is no coincidence that the protests, reportedly the biggest amongst Tibetans since the late 1980s, have erupted in the run-up to Beijing 2008. Vast numbers of political entrepreneurs and activists are trying to transform the Olympics into a platform for moral posturing and China-bashing. According to the International Herald Tribune, such is the frenzied politicisation of the Olympics by Western officials and campaigners that athletes are becoming confused about which cause to support. They have found themselves ‘overwhelmed by menu choices’ and also by numerous ‘wardrobe decisions’: should they wear a ‘China, Please’ armband to protest against China’s links with Sudan, or a yellow ‘Livestrong’ bracelet to indicate their support for a ‘pollution-free games and lead-free toys’? An American triathlete has complained: ‘Every time you turn around, there is someone trying to make a statement about something.’ The relentless politicisation of the Olympics by Western elements, the widespread discussion of Beijing 2008 as an opportunity to ‘humiliate China’, has helped to create a volatile atmosphere in the more restive parts of China and its surrounding territories, including Tibet.
Presentation-wise, the protesters’ use of English slogans and their speedy dissemination of mobile-phone footage suggest the demonstrations are aimed very much at a Western audience. In the march of the Tibetan monks in northern India last week, and during the more fiery protests in Tibet and China over the weekend, Tibetans carried placards with English-language demands such as ‘Tibet Needs You’. They wore headbands saying ‘Free Tibet’ - the favoured slogan of Western middle-class and even aristocratic pro-Tibet sympathisers, such as Prince Charles. Tibetan monks in Dharamsala, India (where the Tibetan government-in-exile resides, led by the Dalai Lama) have put up English posters saying ‘Beijing 2008: A Celebration of Human Rights Violations’ (4). One British newspaper has celebrated Tibetan protesters’ use of ‘the most dangerous weapon in the world - the cameras on their mobile phones’ (5). Many Western observers who cheer Tibetans for using this ‘weapon’ to beam images of their struggle around the world would probably feel very uncomfortable if Tibetans used real weapons to force their Stalinist rulers to make changes or concessions.
..... No doubt some people feel genuinely inspired by the Tibetan unrest, but many of the Western elements cheering the Tibetan cause and encouraging the Tibetans to ‘humiliate China’ are motivated less by a genuine commitment to liberty and democracy than by a deep and cynical desire to make life difficult for the Chinese.
Today’s Tibetan protests are taking place in a broad, quite sinister political context: the West’s transformation of China into a cultural and political target. In recent years, China has inexorably, and in some ways unconsciously, been transformed into a whipping boy for the West. Anti-Chinese sentiments cut across the political divide: on both the old right and the new left, attacking China for its economic growth, human rights record, environmental destruction or suppression of the Tibetan people has become de rigueur. There is an unspoken consensus today - amongst Western officials, commentators and radical activists - that China is a global threat which must be put back in its place with a short, sharp dose of humiliation. Far more than the demonisation of the Soviet Union as the ‘Evil Empire’ during the Cold War era, the labelling of China as a dirty, uncontrollable, violent beast enjoys widespread, unquestioned support throughout political circles in the West.
On the right, China-bashing has become a way of settling old scores from the Cold War. American right-wing thinkers and officials seem to take comfort in the familiar feeling of standing up to an ‘old communist foe’. Robbed of the ‘Evil Empire’ in the East by the end of the Cold War, and thrown by the unpredictability of global affairs more broadly, old right elements cling to China as an old-fashioned enemy from an era when politics was simpler and international affairs were more black-and-white; they are trying to recreate that era with a new ‘yellow-and-white’ divide between barbaric China and the civilised USA. Last week, the Pentagon made a splash with its annual report to US Congress on the threat posed by Chinese military power. It was hard not to nod, at least in partial agreement, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman who accused officials in the Pentagon of being consumed by ‘Cold War thinking’ .
There is also an element of palpable jealousy in right-wing attacks on contemporary China. As America’s economy spins from one crisis to another, becoming reliant in many ways on East Asian cash to bail it out, traditionalist economic thinkers are discussing Chinese growth as a problem and a threat. Using the language of environmentalism - clearly sensing that old-fashioned protectionism would not go down very well today - establishment publications in the US publish essays with headlines such as ‘Choking on growth’; they argue that if China is to reduce its carbon emissions (that is, slow down its growth) then there will have to be a ‘wholesale mindset change’ amongst the Chinese people. Books such as The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future are snapped up and celebrated by traditionalist American thinkers and economists.
Amongst left-leaning campaign groups and writers, China has become the No.1 International Bogeyman because of what they see as its ceaseless industrialisation. Westerners who find the idea of growth so nineteenth-century openly discuss China as a poisonous nation that is killing its own people and possibly the planet. Liberal green writers see only the ‘dust, waste and dirty water’ in modern China; they describe the economic progress there as the ‘mass poisoning of a people and the ecological devastation of a nation’, which is a product, apparently, of greed - ‘ours and theirs’. Those greedy Chinese, getting jobs in the city and buying cars and TVs… why don’t they go back to the paddy fields where they belong? .......... They fancy this as a radical stance, but in today’s Great China-Bashing Consensus, greens are merely the protesting wing of the backward, fearful, protectionist politics of a West worried about the ‘Chinese threat’.
In many ways, campaigners and commentators in the West are projecting their own disgust with ‘the Western way of life’ on to China. They see in China everything that they doubt or loathe about modernity itself. ............ Ironically, this means that China is now seen as ‘the Other’ precisely because it appears too Western ............. China-bashing is underpinned by a crisis of belief in the West in things such as progress, growth, development.
It is the sweeping consensus that China is dangerous and diseased that has attracted Western observers to the issue of Tibet. Both left and right elements in the West are exploiting the Tibet issue as a way of putting pressure on China. They are less interested in securing real freedom and equality for Tibetans, and for the Chinese people more broadly, than they are in using and abusing internal disgruntlement in China and nearby territories as a way of humiliating the Chinese government. That is why Tibetans can symbolise different things to different people. For conservative commentators, the Tibetans are warriors for freedom against a Stalinist monolith; their protests are a replay of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia in 1989. For greener, more liberal campaigners, Tibetans are symbols of natural and mystical purity in contrast to rampant Western and Chinese consumerism. ........
Various political factions in the West are using Tibetans as ventriloquist dummies in order to mouth their own complaints against modern China. They are promoting Tibetan unrest not to liberate Tibetans but in the hope that the protests will represent their own personal disgust for China in a real-world, physical manner.
There is a long history of Western politicians and activists using Tibet as a stick with which to beat China. In his fascinating book Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West, Donald S Lopez Jnr shows how, in the Western imagination, ‘the invasion of Tibet by [China] was and still is represented as an undifferentiated mass of godless Communists overrunning a peaceful land devoted only to ethereal pursuits… Tibet embodies the spiritual and the ancient, China the material and the modern. Tibetans are superhuman, Chinese are subhuman.’ Today, too, pro-Tibetan activism often disguises a view of the Chinese as subhuman. .....
spiked is no friend of the Chinese regime. Yet those promoting self-serving internal unrest in the run-up to the Olympics, encouraging Tibetans and others to bash China for real where the West only does it with words and propaganda, are playing a dangerous game indeed. Such a strategy of cynical destabilisation could unleash yet more violence in China, and have repercussions around the world. And the biggest losers, at least in the short term, are likely to be Tibetans themselves: they will not win liberty or equality by being transformed into performing protesters for the benefit of Chinaphobic Westerners.
Joined: 20 Mar 2007 Posts: 1052 Location: Australia
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:47 am Post subject: The Problem with Tibet
Behind Tibetophilia : western activists and campaigners' paternalism and idealism justify bending rules and standards of judging the way China and Tibetans should behave.
Quote:
"Tibet, Tibet!" With those two words (well, one word repeated) Bjork caused a storm of controversy at her concert in Shanghai this week. .....
If Bjork's squealing of the T-word is anything to go by, these protests will confirm what lies behind the adoption of the "Tibetan cause" by many in the west today: not a passion for freedom, but a disgust with modernity. Tibetophilia is driven less by solidarity with Tibetans than by disdain for the old "yellow peril" - the Chinese - who are seen as too modern, too calculating and too materialistic.
The people of Tibet, like the people of China itself, who toil under Stalinism, should be free to determine their own destinies and affairs. They need democracy and full and unfettered freedom of speech, and they need it now. ..... the celebrity-fronted, Prince Charles-endorsed pro-Tibet lobby - for, ironically, this campaign is underpinned by its own deeply patronising, borderline colonialist view of Tibetans as innocent, child-like creatures, and by a desire to preserve Tibet as a pure, green, mystical land for the benefit of wealthy westerners disillusioned by western modernity.
Pro-Tibet campaigners seem always to be outraged by two things in particular: China's incessant modernisation of Tibet, and its refusal to allow the Dalai Lama to return and assume his "rightful" position as Tibet's leader.
Currently pro-Tibet activists are particularly agitated by China's construction of the Gormo-Lhasa railway, a spectacularly ambitious project that will allow trains to run from the heart of China into Tibet. They claim the railway will damage Tibet's environment and "wipe out Tibetan identity and culture altogether". They also campaign for China to engage in direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama, currently living in exile in India, and to recognise him as the "spiritual leader" of the Tibetan people.
xxxxx
......... campaigners' unquestioning support for the Dalai Lama suggest they see Tibetans as an immature people who need a godlike figure to lead them. The Dalai Lama was never elected by anybody; rather, in a process that makes Britain's House of Lords seem almost modern and democratic (I said almost), he was handpicked by a tiny sect of monks who believed that he represents one of innumerable incarnations of the Buddhist entity Avalokitesvara. The Dalai Lama is no more the legitimate representative of Tibet than I am the legitimate representative of Timbuktu.
Indeed, some writers on Tibet have pointed out that the idolisation of the Dalai Lama by western activists and officials, and of course by some Tibetans, might actually undermine the development of democracy in Tibet. In her book The Tibetan Independence Movement: Political, Religious and Gandhian Perspectives, Jane Ardley writes:
"[It] is apparent that it is the Dalai Lama's role as ultimate spiritual authority that is holding back the political process of democratisation. The assumption that he occupies the correct moral ground from a spiritual perspective means that any challenge to his political authority may be interpreted as anti-religious."
xxxxxx
Tibet has long been the plaything of people disillusioned by the modern world. ................
This is why pro-Tibet campaigning can so easily slip into ugly China-bashing. ................
Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:32 pm Post subject: Tibetans are pawns
Chinese Tibetans have to realise that they could be pawns to be used by Tibetans living outside China. There are several articles relating to the covert and overt aims of Westerners and Free Tibet movements aimed at agitating China especially nearer to the Olympics games. So it is high time Tibetans living outside China realise that they are being manipulated as like before, by the British in 1906 and the American CIA in 1956, and come to their senses and be part of the Chinese society that is comprised of 56 ethnic groups.
Joined: 24 Mar 2007 Posts: 306 Location: Natural Habitat
Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:44 am Post subject:
Behind the anti-China Olympics campaign
By Gary Wilson
Published Mar 27, 2008 8:53 PM
Quote:
Can there be any doubt that the U.S. government is behind the attacks on China targeting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing?
The events that unfolded at the lighting of the Olympic flame March 24 in Greece were most revealing. A protest briefly disrupted the ceremonies. The news reports all said that the protest was about Tibet.
Three protesters were arrested, but then immediately released. None were Tibetan.
The three French men, it turns out, are all from a notorious right-wing organization that’s funded by the governments of France and the United States as well as some of the richest capitalists in the world. They all are employees of the outfit called Reporters Without Borders.
Based in France, the group gets funding from the U.S. government’s National Endowment for Democracy as well as the Soros Foundation and the Center for a Free Cuba. U.S. State Department Special Envoy Otto Reich is a trustee of the Center. He was also the lawyer for the Bacardi liquor dynasty that was kicked out of Cuba, along with the hated dictator Fulgencio Batista. The president of the Center is Frank Calzón, a former leader of the terrorist organization Cuban American National Foundation.
Reporters Without Borders unmasked
“Reporters Without Borders Unmasked” is the title of a report by Diana Barahona on Counterpunch.org. RWB has an “obsession” with Cuba, which Barahona says can be directly traced to its funding. What may not be obvious is that the Center for a Free Cuba is a front organization for U.S. covert operations against Cuba. It is completely funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, an agency that has long fronted for U.S. covert operations.
RWB does not just target Cuba, though Cuba has been its primary target for many years—the Cuban press generally refers to RWB as an ultra-reactionary organization with ties to counterrevolutionary terrorists. At the time of the U.S. contra war against the Sandinista government, the RWB carried on operations against Nicaragua.
Today it also has operations targeting Venezuela, Bolivia, Iran, People’s Korea, and the Palestinians, according to a report by French journalist Salim Lamrani. (“The deceit of Reporters Without Borders,” ZNet.com)
RWB was merely fulfilling its contract with the U.S. government when it carried out the little disruption of the Olympic Games opening ceremony. It got maximum publicity in the compliant U.S. media for its anti-China message.
NED: CIA of the 21st century
The shadowy hand of the National Endowment for Democracy can be found in many of the anti-China reports over the last few weeks.
The NED is a U.S. government agency that does in the post-Cold War era much of what the CIA had been doing during the U.S. counter-revolutionary operations against the Soviet Union. In fact, that’s almost exactly how its role was described by the NED’s first acting president, Allen Weinstein, who said, “A lot of what we [the NED] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” (Washington Post, Sept. 22, 1991)
In the U.S., little is known about the NED except for its public relations handouts. The big business-controlled press usually just repeats what’s in those handouts.
Australian writer Michael Barker, in a report last Aug. 13 published by Canada-based Global Research, detailed at that time the rise of groups aimed at breaking Tibet away from China, all of which were NED-funded.
The International Campaign for Tibet, for example, not only is funded by the NED but also has a board of directors that includes several former assistant secretaries of the U.S. State Department and former U.S. AID officials.
The Tibet Fund is another NED payee, as is the Tibet Information Network and the Tibetan Literary Society, Barker reports. Also getting funds from the NED is the Tibetan Review Trust Society, which publishes the English-only Tibetan Review magazine. Finally, Barker says, the NED also set up the Voice of Tibet short-wave radio station.
About 38 percent of the U.S. government’s nonmilitary China-related programs are allocated through the NED. According to the NED’s Web site, other recipients of its China funds include the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet, the Tibetan Women’s Association and the Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet.
All this raises more questions than answers about what is now happening in China. Many events that are reported to be about Tibet focus on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Like the disruption of the Olympic torch lighting in Greece, the commentators quoted most frequently in the U.S. media are not Tibetans; most are from the U.S. and say they are speaking for the Tibetans.
The anti-Olympics campaign is clearly based in Washington, not Tibet.
In China, economic advances have been made in Tibet. The current leaders of People’s China have chosen what they call the market road to socialism. They attribute their great economic boom to this policy. But capitalist market relations by their very character breed inequality and promote divisions among peoples, breaking down the bonds of socialist solidarity. Nevertheless, China still retains strong traditions and political, social and economic institutions based on its great revolutionary past.
The question is to what extent rising inequalities may have facilitated the imperialist campaign against China now focused on Tibet.
Moved: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:44 pm by Admin From General : Political Developments to Beijing Olympics 2008 and Tibet issues
Kebau
Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 415 Location: Canada
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:35 pm Post subject: Canadian trouble makers not wanted!
2 Canadian pro-Tibet activists deported from Hong Kong
MIN LEE
Associated Press
April 30, 2008 at 6:58 AM EDT
Quote:
HONG KONG — Three pro-Tibet activists, two of them Canadians, who planned to protest during Hong Kong's leg of the Olympic torch relay were deported after they arrived at the territory's airport Tuesday, activists said.
Activists said Kate Woznow and Tsering Lama, organizers of Students for a Free Tibet, and Matt Whitticase, organizer of the Free Tibet Campaign were turned away after arriving in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
A fourth activist — an organizer for an independent Chinese writers' group — also was turned away on Tuesday.
Three Danish activists were also deported over the weekend, ahead of the Olympic torch's arrival in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The flame's return to Chinese soil follows a global tour marred by protests against Beijing's human rights record and its recent crackdown in Tibet.
Ms. Woznow, a Canadian and former Vancouver resident, told The Associated Press she was put on a return flight to New York. Mr. Whitticase, a British citizen, was booked on a return flight to London, Free Tibet Campaign spokeswoman Claire Cooper said.
Tsering Lama, an ethnic Tibetan Canadian citizen, was deported back to Toronto, Students for a Free Tibet spokeswoman Lhadon Tethong said.
Separately, Zhang Yu, general-secretary of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, was detained for at least seven hours at the airport before being put on a plane to Paris late Tuesday, Hong Kong Journalists Association general secretary Mak Yin-ting said Wednesday.
Mr. Zhang, who is based in Sweden, was planning to attend a four-day writers' and artists' conference calling for freedom of expression in China that coincided with the torch relay, Mr. Mak said.
In a phone call from the plane before takeoff, Ms. Woznow said immigration officials questioned her about her trip but gave no reason for turning her away.
Ms. Woznow accused the Hong Kong government of caving in to pressure from Beijing.
“I really thought that Hong Kong authorities were different from Beijing,” she said.
On Saturday, three Danish human rights activists were detained and deported. Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot and his two sons were questioned for six hours and then put on a flight to Denmark, a cameraman travelling with them said.
Mr. Galschiot sculpted the “The Pillar of Shame,” which depicts 50 twisted human bodies to mourn victims of the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
Also on Tuesday, the government of Nepal said it had deported American mountaineer William Brant Holland of Midlothian, Va., for violating regulations by bringing a “Free Tibet” banner to the Mount Everest base camp. It also ordered a BBC news crew out of the camp.
Tsewang Rigzin Gets Some Ink
Tsewang Rigzin, the head of the Tibetan Youth Congress, is getting some unwelcome attention from the Chinese press.
From the English People's Daily :
As the current president of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), Tsewang Rigzin recently had an interview with the Milan-based Italian newspaper, Corriere Della Sera, and voiced stunning words that left people gasping with awe and bewilderment. For the cause of "Tibetan independence", he said, the use of human bomb for revenge is a direction of development.
I'm afraid I can't improve on that English.
All I can provide is the automatic Google translation of Tsewang Rigzin's interview with Corriere Della Serra on March 27, which gives us:
Not now. Maybe in a few years. But could the moment for the Tibetan resistance movement to adopt the way of suicide bombers already in vogue in the Muslim world. Suicide attacks in Lhasa: it seems to contradict everything from half a century featuring the figure of the Dalai Lama and the struggle of his people against the 'Chinese occupation.
But for Tsewang Rigzin, from four months president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, is "a development that possible. "Everything is open. It is a fact that non-violence preached by the Dalai Lama there leads nowhere. On the contrary, has enabled the Chinese espellerci [to expel us] from our homeland and to continue the genocide of our cultural and religious traditions. So could soon get the 'time to change strategies to combat ", argues in his office tree in the hills of Dharamsala, where the Tibetan government in exile. Born in India in 1971 by parents refugees, moved after 12 years in the United States, from one year Rigzin has left his wife and two children to devote himself to his mission of leading the Tibetan movement stronger among those not linked to the Dalai Lama.
Your goal? "Restoring the 'independence of our country, at every price. But we have to hurry. Each day that passes away our goal, species after the construction of the railway that since 2006 more easily connects Beijing to Tibet ".
The Dalai Lama threat to resign if the violence continued anti-Chinese. "He has already threatened other times. Please note that the initial events, March 10, were peaceful. Chinese police has infiltrated agents in the crowd to discredit the movement. Were they who foment violence ".
What is your response to those who say that the world sympathy for your cause is mainly due to non-violence? 'I answer that pacifism has led us on a blind alley. About us speaks only so incidental, limited. We are forgotten by the international community. Many fine words and then nothing. We look instead as they felt the Palestinians and activists in Iraq thanks to the suicide attacks. L 'attention of world media is all for them. "
Yes, but attention does not mean support. "We are in a desperate situation. If non-violence was winning would mean that our cause is. Instead we are losing. "
Worldwide growing voices of those who would boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. "We hope that in so many to follow the 'example of President Sarkozy. But it would be better if the Games were boicottati tout court. [I’ll go out on a non-Italian speaking limb and guess this means “it would be better if the entire games were boycotted.”]
The China accusation of racism against its civilians in Lhasa. "I am sorry that civilians are involved in the clash. But the responsibility is the Chinese government, which encourages its people to occupy our lands. At the end will have to go, just so we can get our country and peace. "
Not good.
Not a good idea for Tsewang Rigzin to kick back in his “office tree in the hills”—apparently his office amid the tree-lined hills of Dharmsala, though the idea of an office tree is ridiculously charming—and talk about how his differences with the Dalai Lama go beyond independence vs. autonomy to violence vs. non-violence
And not a good idea for Tsewang Rigzin to use his press availability to complain that the international community isn't giving the Tibetan movement adequate attention—because it isn't violent enough.
In case there is some misunderstanding, when I report on the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement—a coalition of five Tibetan emigre NGOs including the Tibetan Youth Congress—I don't give credence to the Chinese accusations that TPUM or TYC are terrorist organizations with training camps, fighters, and the means or strategy to coordinate violent actions throughout the Tibetan regions of China.
There is plenty of local anger and courage to spark sympathetic demonstrations and violent confrontations against Chinese rule throughout Tibet without outside direction.
But I do see the Tibetan Youth Congress as media provocateurs—who might have been tempted to do some dangerous dabbling inside Tibet.
Specifically, I wonder if TPUM encouraged a non-violent protest in Lhasa in order to provide a compelling Tibetan backdrop for its campaign to embarrass and pressure China on the occasion of the Beijing Olympics--and then watched the situation spin out of control into rioting and violence thanks to some unknown and unknowable combination of anger, hooliganism, and police provocation.
Especially when I read Tsewang Rigzin's statement (the translation seems to be accurate but I've appended the original Italian at the end of this post for interested readers):
Please note that the initial events, March 10, were peaceful. Chinese police has infiltrated agents in the crowd to discredit the movement.
I think:
Discredit what movement? Is he claiming the March 10 demonstrations in Lhasa were related to the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement? And, given the the lack of advance notice of the protests in the Bokhar and the speed with which chaos subsequently enveloped Lhasa, what privileged perspective from Dharmsala enables him to characterize the “initial events as peaceful”. How does he know?
His remarks make it sound like the initial demonstrations were planned in Dharmsala.
Not good at all, especially since the Indian government has absolutely no interest in being accused by China of providing a safe haven on its soil for Tibet independence militants planning actions inside the PRC.
Tsewang Rigzin was also a featured presence in the Chinese edition of People's Daily, in the context of a vitriolic attack on the Tibetan Youth Congress.
His remark about suicide bombers was skewed to make it sound like the Tibetan Youth Congress's immediate action plan, instead of hypothetical musings from the office tree:
“西藏抵抗运动要采取自杀式暴力手段来进行”
“The Tibet resistance movement shall adopt violent suicide measures to proceed.”
The article takes it from there, with allegations that, needless to say, I haven't seen anywhere else:
On March 15, the Tibetan Youth Congress convened a meeting in Dharmasala and unanimously passed a decision “to immediate organize guerillas to secretly cross the border to initiate armed struggle” and set plans to dispatch people, money, and arms,and inflitrate across the China-Nepal border along secret ways scouted before the onset of the current disturbances. The chairman of the Tibetan Youth Congress, Tsewang Rigzin, acknowledged that that they wre prepared to sacrifice an additional 100 Tibetan lives in order to secure victory.
...
Specialists told reporters, on March 20 Tibetan Youth Congress Chairman Tsewang Rigzin convened a meeting in Dharmsala and announced “Violent activities have basically achieved the expected results in awakening the awareness of resistance within the Tibetan areas of the country, and eliciting a high level of attention in the international community toward the Tibetan question. However, resistance activities cannot cease. These activities are merely a prelude to this year's resistance activities.”
After these dubiously sourced allegations, the kitchen sink: accusations of operating terrorist training camps and contacts with the “terrorist, Xinjiang splittist” East Turkestan movement.
And the payoff:
“Experts say that, because of its long history of violent behavior, the Tibetan Youth Congress has already reached the point of return, and is inexorably sliding into the chasm of terrorist behavior.”
The article tiptoes up to the point of directly accusing the Dalai Lama ( Zhong Nan Hai-ologists, please take note that the phrase "Dalai Lama clique" explicitly excludes the Dalai Lama himself; when China wants to reference or criticize him personally, it's usually “the 14th Dalai Lama ” or “the Dalai") of having a secret understanding with the Tibetan Youth Congress by which he takes the high, non-violent road and TYC takes the low road to promote Tibetan independence.
Experts are quoted as asking :
The guiding directive of the Tibetan Youth Congress clearly states that it is to respect the correct leadership and guidance of the Dalai Lama. If that is the case, how can the Dalai Lama himself say he has lost control?
The inevitable conclusion—the demand that the Dalai Lama denounce the Tibetan Youth Congress and institutionalize and exacerbate the already deep and dangerous split between moderates and radicals in the Tibetan community—comes in the last paragraph:
"Of course, we want to discriminate between the majority of the 30,000 members of the Tibetan Youth Congress and a very small number of key cadres. Many members do not advocate violence”; the specialist said, if the Dalai Lama sincerely wishes to improve relations with China, he should truly discard the advocacy of Tibetan independence, stop splitting the country, stop planning and inciting violent actions, stop disrupting the Beijing Olympics, and truly put a stop to the violent activities of the Tibetan Youth Congress and condemn its terrorist intimidation.
One might think that the designation of TYC as a terrorist organization and a demand that the Indian government suppress it can't be far behind.
But the tenor of this paragraph indicates that the Chinese government is willing to let the Tibetan Youth Congress survive and satisfy itself with the condemnation of “a very small number of key cadres”.
Among that “very small number of key cadres” is undoubtedly a certain president of the Tibetan Youth Congress who made some injudicious comments while on Indian soil concerning the legitimacy of violent struggle,and whose political future is now in doubt.
Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 565 Location: Beautiful Island
Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 4:27 am Post subject: Tibet Youth Congress does matter despite terrorism concerns
GooBai, on behalf of the other forum participants, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to our new member.
Quote:
One might think that the designation of TYC as a terrorist organization and a demand that the Indian government suppress it can't be far behind.
But the tenor of this paragraph indicates that the Chinese government is willing to let the Tibetan Youth Congress survive and satisfy itself with the condemnation of “a very small number of key cadres”.
Among that “very small number of key cadres” is undoubtedly a certain president of the Tibetan Youth Congress who made some injudicious comments while on Indian soil concerning the legitimacy of violent struggle, and whose political future is now in doubt.
Tsewang Rigzin is no ordinary Tibetan. As the Chairman / President of the prominent Tibetan Youth Congress, his views especially made publicly, should be taken seriously as "policy". As long as covert financial backing, organizational aid and moral support from western countries continue to flow into the Free Tibet movement, of which TYC plays an important role, we can expect the TYC will thrive rather than diminish. The western backers may be worried but yet they are in a dilemma to keep the Free Tibet struggle alive to satisfy their greater agenda of containing China.
We appreciate the youtube link. I believe it has been posted in one of the earlier threads. There's no harm having one more link in this topic for discussion.
Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 3:42 pm Post subject: Tibet Youth Congress a terrorist organization?!
When the overseas Tibetans (descendants of the landlords, slave owners, high lamas, high officials of the theocratic regime of the Dalai Lama who fled to India) decide to form suicide squads, that will be the day, their karma ended and hell is their destination. They will end up with the Muslim Jihadist in "Muslim paradise with 72 virgins" and the Dalai Lama will not be able to say enough prayers to bring them back as sentient beings. TYC will be branded a terrorist organization and by US laws (if US still obeys laws written by itself) all financial links will be screened and cut off. Donors will be branded as terrorists too and we can see how many western leaders/Hollywood patrons would like to join that camp.
If ever, a suicide squad should succeed in China and TYC were involved, the dire consequences for all Tibetans would be spelt out. The game would be different then, and "hunting season" would begin. So TYC members would be hunted down by all security forces in this world unless of course they plan to operate from the moon. The Chinese will be there in 2020, so where can TYC operate from? So be realistic. A desperate move by desperate people who have no idea of realities of Tibet. Tibet is no more their homeland. Get it!
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Moved: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:44 pm by Admin
