Canadian Legislators Request Visas to Visit Tibet

Canadian prime minister joins call for Chinese authorities to show 'restraint'

By Jason Loftus Epoch Times Toronto Staff

Mar 21, 2008

Tibetans demonstrate on Parliament Hill_3

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A group of Canadian senators and members of parliament has asked for visas to visit Tibet, ten days after violent protests began there which exiled Tibetans say has left 80 dead at the hands of Chinese police and military.

The 24 legislators—three senators and 21 MPs—include officials from each of the four political parties represented in Canada's parliament. The group is called the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet.

China's communist authorities have sealed off the Tibetan city of Lhasa where the protests began, expelling the few Western journalists who were there and discouraging tourists, while sending in military troops.

There have been reports of gunfire, and photos surfaced this week appearing to show Tibetans in nearby Sichuan Province of China who had been shot dead by police after the protests spread there.

In a letter sent Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Lu Shumin, Senator Consiglio Di Nino called for immediate access to the region for the "purposes of monitoring events in Lhasa and other communities."

"The recent show of force, loss of life, and detention of peaceful protesters has been shocking," Mr. Di Nino wrote on behalf of the legislators. "The expulsion of journalists from the region who could ensure impartial reporting is also deeply troubling."

The legislators are seeking 60-day visas and asked for a response by March 27.

In a statement to media, Mr. Di Nino expressed doubt in the Chinese regime's version of events in Tibet.

"If authorities in Tibet are abiding by international standards they should have nothing to hide, and we and other international observers should be welcomed in," he said.

"The fear is that hundreds if not thousands of Tibetans are being rounded up beyond the prying eyes of the world and may face lengthy imprisonment and torture as acts of retribution."

In an interview Wednesday evening on Canada's national radio network, CBC, Chinese ambassador Lu Shumin insisted there was nothing to hide. He said foreigners were allowed to remain in Lhasa. When pressed on reports that journalists had been expelled, he was unable to comment.

On Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined calls for the Chinese authorities to refrain from violence.

"Canada shares your concerns about what is happening in Tibet as His Holiness the Dalai Lama told me when he met with me, and as he has been saying recently, his message is one of non-violence and reconciliation and I join with him in that call," Mr. Harper said in a statement he sent to Tibetans rallying near his office on Parliament Hill.

"Canada calls on China to fully respect human rights and peaceful protest. Canada also calls on China to show restraint in dealing with this situation."

The ongoing protests, and the Chinese regime's hardline response have raised debate over the upcoming Olympics scheduled to begin in August in Beijing. Some officials have suggested boycotting the opening ceremonies.

On Wednesday, an Ontario legislator was among the first to propose that Canada boycott the Games altogether.

"The people of Tibet do not enjoy our freedoms. Freedoms we take for granted, are met with violence and the wrath of the Communist Chinese Government," said Member of Provincial Parliament Randy Hillier.

"It is inconsistent to participate in an activity of civility and sportsmanship while China openly oppresses the people of Tibet."

The 24 legislators seeking access to Tibet include senators Consiglio Di Nino, Mira Spivak, and Mobina Jaffer, and MPs David Sweet, Cheryl Gallant, Rob Anders, Peggy Nash, Ken Boshcoff, Larry Bagnell, Paul Dewar, Keith Martin, Alexa McDonough, Scott Reid, Pierre Poilievre, Steven Blaney, Bill Blaikie, Meili Faille, Paul Crête, Christiane Gagnon, Raymond Simard, Libby Davies, John Godfrey, Vivian Barbot, and Irwin Cotler.

Tibet's peace is the peace of the graveyard

By Vaclav Havel, Andri Glucksmann, Yohei Sasakawa, El Hassan Bin

Taipei Times: Saturday, Mar 22, 2008, Page 9

The recent events in Tibet and adjoining provinces are causes for deep concern. Indeed, the dispersal of a peaceful protest march organized by Tibetan monks, which led to a wave of unrest that was brutally suppressed by the Chinese military and police, has caused indignation all over the democratic world.

The reaction of the Chinese authorities to the Tibetan protests evokes echoes of the totalitarian practices that many of us remember from the days before communism in Central and Eastern Europe collapsed in 1989: Harsh censorship of the domestic media, blackouts of reporting by foreign media from China, refusal of visas to foreign journalists, and blaming the unrest on the "Dalai Lama's conspiratorial clique" and other unspecified dark forces supposedly manipulated from abroad.

Indeed, the language used by some Chinese government representatives and the official Chinese media is a reminder of the worst of times during the Stalinist and Maoist eras.

But the most dangerous development of this unfortunate situation is the current attempt to seal off Tibet from the rest of the world.

Even as we write, it is clear that China's rulers are trying to reassure the world that peace, quiet, and "harmony" have again prevailed in Tibet. We all know this kind of peace from what has happened in the past in Myanmar, Cuba, Belarus and a few other countries -- it is called the peace of the graveyard.

Merely urging the Chinese government to exercise the "utmost restraint" in dealing with the Tibetan people, as governments around the world are doing, is far too weak a response.

The international community, beginning with the UN and followed by the EU, ASEAN and other international organizations, as well as individual countries, should use every means possible to step up pressure on the Chinese government to do the following:

* Allow foreign media, as well as international fact-finding missions, into Tibet and adjoining provinces in order to enable objective investigations of what has been happening.

* Release all those who only peacefully exercised their internationally guaranteed human rights, and guarantee that no one is subjected to torture and unfair trials.

* Enter into a meaningful dialogue with the representatives of the Tibetan people.

Unless these conditions are fulfilled, the International Olympic Committee should seriously reconsider whether holding this summer's Olympic Games in a country that includes a peaceful graveyard remains a good idea.

Vaclav Havel is a former president of the Czech Republic, Andri Glucksmann is a French philosopher, Yohei Sasakawa is a Japanese philanthropist, El Hassan Bin Talal is president of the Arab Thought Forum and president emeritus of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, F.W. de Klerk is a former president of South Africa, and Karel Schwarzenberg is foreign minister of the Czech Republic.

Chihak: Boycott the Beijing Games

"It is the United States and Europe — not China — which possess the human-rights leverage right now. Beijing 2008 indeed parallels Moscow 1980." (more Washington Times)

Bush needs to punish China's ruthlessness in Tibet

MICHAEL A. CHIHAK
Tucson Citizen

Long-lasting legacy for President Bush can come in how he responds to China's ruthlessness in Tibet.

Bush has a clear opportunity to tell China that its actions are unacceptable to the United States and the world.

Calling a boycott of the 2008 summer Olympic Games in Beijing would be a bold, definitive action for the president.

"Cultural genocide" is what Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has been quoted as calling China's actions against his Himalayan homeland.

Bush must demonstrate that cultural genocide is unacceptable to him and the people of the United States, which purports to set the standard for freedom.

To paraphrase the president's stance in his war on terrorism: You are either for freedom or you are against it.

A spokeswoman for Bush was quoted by several news agencies this week as saying he plans to attend the Olympics in Beijing, because it is a sports event rather than a political event.

He will use the opportunity to "speak very frankly" to Chinese President Hu Jintao, spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Not good enough, Mr. President, because it sanctions what China is doing.

You need instead to do what then-President Jimmy Carter did 28 years ago Friday: order a boycott of the summer Olympic Games.

Carter pulled the United States out of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Union's invasion several months earlier of Afghanistan.

Bush can do the same with the 2008 summer games in Beijing, telling China that its conversion to a capitalistic economy must be paired with changes in its dictatorial central government.

China's intention in hosting the Olympics is to show off its economic progress. It is working hard to hide many of the negatives of that progress and to repress political dissent.

The latter won't occur without the world taking note, as it has in the ongoing reports from Lhasa, Tibet, and of protests breaking out elsewhere.

Chinese troops are cracking down on Buddhist monks and other protesters in Tibet, which China took by force in 1959.

From Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama maintains a government in exile, he has consistently called for peace with China. For that stance, he was awarded in October the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Bush attended the ceremony, praising the Dalai Lama's stance for freedom.

Now Bush must back those words with action by warning he will pull the U.S. Olympic team out of the games unless China allows Tibetan autonomy and religious freedom.

Warning of an Olympic boycott is an ideal way for Bush to show what he is made of.

It is a sacrifice worth making, less for Bush's legacy than for a show of support for all people who dream of freedom.

E-mail the White House, comments@whitehouse.gov, or call the White House comment line, 202-456-1111, telling Bush to boycott Beijing's Olympics.

Reach Michael A. Chihak at 573-4646 or mchihak@tucsoncitizen.com

China Might Bar Tiananmen Broadcasts

AP - 3/21/2008
By CHARLES HUTZLER –

BEIJING (AP) — China might bar live television broadcasts from Tiananmen Square during the Beijing Olympics, apparently unnerved by the recent outburst of unrest among Tibetans and fearful of protests in the heart of the Chinese capital.

A ban on live broadcasts would wreck the plans of NBC and other major international networks, who have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast the Aug. 8-24 games and are counting on eye-pleasing live shots from the iconic square.

The rethinking of Beijing's earlier promise to broadcasters comes as the government has poured troops into Tibetan areas wracked by anti-government protests this month and stepped up security in cities, airports and entertainment venues far from the unrest.

In another sign of the government's unease, 400 American Boy Scouts who had been promised they could onto the field following a March 15 exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres were prevented from doing so by police.

"It was never specifically mentioned to me it was because of Tibet that there were extra controls, but there were all these changes at the last minute," said a person involved in the Major League Baseball event who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The communist government's resorting to heavy-handed measures runs the risk of undermining Beijing's pledge to the International Olympic Committee that the games would promote greater openness in what a generation ago was still an isolated China. If still in place by the games, they could alienate the half-million foreigners expected at the games.

Like the Olympics, live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square were meant to showcase a friendly, confident China — one that had put behind it the deadly 1989 military assault on democracy demonstrators in the vast plaza that remains a defining image for many foreigners.

"Tiananmen is the face of China, the face of Beijing so many broadcasters would like to do live or recorded coverage of the square," said Yosuke Fujiwara, the head of broadcast relations for the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co., or BOB, a joint-venture between Beijing Olympic organizers and an IOC subsidiary. BOB coordinates and provides technical services for the TV networks with rights to broadcast the Olympics, such as NBC.

Earlier this week, however, officials with the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, or BOCOG, told executives at BOB that the live shots were canceled, according to three people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

"We learned that standup positions would be canceled," one of these people said. "No explanation was given for the change."

Sun Weijia, the BOCOG official in charge of dealing with BOB, declined comment, referring the matter to press officers, three of whom also declined to comment. IOC offices were closed Friday for the Easter holiday; two spokeswomen did not immediately return e-mails and phone calls seeking comment.

The decision by BOCOG may not be final. The change was relayed verbally, one person said. All three hoped that IOC President Jacques Rogge and other leading IOC officials, expected in Beijing next month for regularly scheduled meetings, may be able to prevail on BOCOG to change its mind.

If the decision stands, it would be a blow to the TV networks whose money to buy the right to broadcast the games accounts for more than half the IOC's revenues. The biggest spender is NBC. It paid $2.3 billion for the rights for three Olympics from 2004 to 2008 — Athens, Turin and Beijing.

NBC planned to use Tiananmen as the site of its morning "Today" show.

Officials at NBC did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

The unrest — which broke out March 10 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and has since spread across western China — and the government's harsh response underscores the communist leaders' unease as the Olympics approach.

With paramilitary police patrolling Beijing at night and journalists being expelled from Tibetan areas, security measures are on par with those not seen since the government mobilized police to crush the Falun Gong spiritual movement in 1999-2000.

Activist groups have said for months that they planned to use the Olympics to promote their causes. But the challenge faced by China's leadership seems to grow more imminent.

Aside from Tibet protests, the government said it foiled a plot this month by Muslim separatists in western China to blow up a China Southern Boeing 757. Foreign activists angry about China's support for Sudan, which is party to a civil war in Darfur, said this week they would demonstrate in Beijing during the games.

After the Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet!" at the finale of a Shanghai concert this month, officials ordered tighter scrutiny of all performances.

The Boy Scouts seemed to get caught in a response to both the sometimes violent Tibet protests and Bjork; police canceled all on-field entertainment for the exhibition baseball games, including the singing of the Chinese and U.S. national anthems.

BOCOG officials began signaling their discomfort with live broadcasts in Tiananmen Square to the IOC a year ago but discussions went back and forth, according to the people involved. The square — overlooked by a large portrait of communist founder Mao Zedong — has been a magnet for protests for decades.

SF rejects Resolution Condemning China's attack on peaceful Tibetans

Fog City: Supervisors Chu and Elsbernd support Chinese government oppression

By h. brown

March 21, 2008

The cold cruel flat stare of Supervisor Carmen Chu
(D-4 appointee a heartless racist)

“We’ve been bullied. We’ve been butchered. I am 82 years old. Please help us!”

The old woman wept bitterly and begged for mercy for the people of her homeland. She is a Tibetan-American and had come to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with 200 others to support a simple resolution calling for mercy for the people of Tibet.

Committee Chair Chu was having none of that. District 7 Supervisor Sean Elsbernd went along with Chu every step of the way.

The resolution, sponsored by Supervisor Chris Daly, contained language condemning the Chinese governement’s campaign to oppress the people of Tibet.

The venue was the Board’s City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee chaired by Mayor Gavin Newsom appointee Chu with Supervisor Jake McGoldrick as vice-chair and Elsbernd as member.

Daly was there to present his legislation which had been sent to the Board’s most conservative panel by Board President Aaron Peskin. It was a sad day for the City of St. Francis.

I have many conflicting emotions regarding what Chu and Elsbernd did yesterday. I’ve got a temper and it certainly made me angry. That subsided into a deep sadness after awhile. The next step down that continuum is despair and that’s simply not the Irish way. So, I decided to simply do all that I can to help defeat Chu and Elsbernd in their Fall election campaigns. I hope you’ll join me in the effort.

The Chinese government is a ruthless and racist Communist dictatorship. People who do their bidding are no better. The commies make up less than 10 percent of the population and they are destined to fall. Soon, I hope. Let’s bring down their puppets on the Board for starters. Support Mara Kopp against Elsbernd in 7 and I’ll get back to you when someone enters the D-4 race against Chu.

Around a hundred people spoke and only 3 of them opposed Daly’s resolution. They were all men from the Chinese Consul. They screamed and using Richard Ow as an interpreter, they called the peaceful Buddhist Tibetans “animals.” It’s clear they mean to exterminate them just as they’ve been murdering the Falun Gong. As the Chinese military caravans continue to roll into Tibet, there are now more Han Chinese in the country than native Tibetans.

Invasion. Imprisonment of innocents. Torture. Harvest organs. Murder. Elsbernd and Chu support all of these things. For money.

Morford: Note to China: Please Implode

Could the Olympics rain down shame on Chinese oppression and Tibet abuses? Let's hope

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

SF Gate: Friday, March 21, 2008

I hope it all comes crashing down on their heads.

Is that wrong? Is it ill-minded and somehow unfair to wish that the Chinese government's notorious record of human rights abuses and absolutely horrid treatment of Tibet be exposed to the world — and the Chinese people themselves — to the point where it is shamed and humiliated and perhaps even forced by unprecedented international scrutiny to upheave its oppressive ways and improve conditions and even (heaven forfend) honor religious and political freedom within its borders? No, I do not think it is.

Let me admit outright: I am no expert on Chinese-Tibetan relations. I do not know the full histories, the deeper conflicts, the enormous prejudices, the religious oppression that goes back decades and generations.

But I do know something of Tibet, of the Dalai Lama, of his unadorned messages of peace and love. And I know something of Tibetan Buddhism, of China's abduction of the true Panchen Lama, of the brutal oppression and the massacres and the cultural genocide, the forced relocation of Han Chinese into Tibetan holy land, of the Tibetan's peaceful rallies and chanting and nonviolence, all contrasted with images of jackbooted Chinese riot police stomping on the heads of protesters marching in the street.

And I know whom I tend to believe when I read "unconfirmed" reports of soldiers firing on Tibetan protesters, of dead bodies in the streets of Lhasa, of tanks rolling through crowds and hundreds of students arrested, Tibetan monasteries being locked down and Tibet again under martial law, all media cut off, all access denied, as sour and rather vile hardline Communist leader Zhang Qingli steps up to a microphone and calls the Dalai Lama — perhaps the gentlest, kindest human soul on the face of the planet — a "wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face but the heart of a beast." Yes, I think I know where the truth lies.

It doesn't take much. Truly, you don't need to see many photos of, say, a black-clad Chinese riot cop raising a huge, four-foot stick over his head with both hands and running straight at a praying, barefoot, red-robed Tibetan monk — a monk who is facing the other way and who is merely walking humbly on a protest march — ready to whale that stick down on the monk's humble head, it does not take many photos like that to wish a deep and profound ill upon the government that promotes such aggression.

You don't even need to be reminded of Tiananmen Square, or of all the ongoing crackdowns on students and dissidents and journalists, the torture and torment of humble Falun Gong practitioners or even the harsh control of Chinese Christians to know that the few images and stories of brutality and oppression that do trickle out are just the tip of a very ugly, bloody iceberg.

So then, this is the profound wish, the hope for this upcoming Olympic Games, held in a country run by an oppressive dictatorship, a country brutally divided between new wealth and extreme poverty, eager to be taken seriously as a new global superpower and also a country never before so open to cameras and reporters from around the globe: May your human rights atrocities be exposed. May your violence against peace-loving Tibetans be shamed. May we honor and respect China's culture and history even as your government's nauseating attacks on peace and intellectual freedom are revealed like the appalling cancer they so very much are.

Is that fair to hope? Sure as hell seems like it.

But here's the catch: It ain't gonna come from the United States. Hell, NBC's Olympic coverage is traditionally so slick and safe and cheesy and jingoistic it borders on nauseating, not to mention how NBC is wholly owned by General Electric and all coverage will be sponsored by companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald's and Johnson & Johnson, companies that largely adore China's cheap labor and most of whom would happily turn a blind eye to a pile of dead Tibetans if it meant a foothold in the exploding Chinese economy.

Put another way: The odds of Bob Costas cutting away from hyping our cute perky Coke-drinking gymnastics team to show a shocking image of a dead monk lying in the street of Lhasa? About one in a billion.

What's more, America's not exactly a saint when it comes to human rights ourselves. Our own president endorses torture. We still have the death penalty. We have had atrocious foreign prisons and sinister Homeland Security and illegal wiretapping and the Patriot Act and a vice president who would gladly shoot a war protester in the face just to buy a gallon of milk.

And it's also worth mentioning that China (along with Japan) owns a simply staggering portion of America's reeling debt, Chinese banks having basically floated the United States over $1 trillion to keep President Bush's nightmare economy afloat. Oh yes, Dubya will be there at the games, cheering and waving a little flag and holding hands with Premier Wen Jiabao and mispronouncing everyone's name. Wonder twin powers, activate!

But the "good" news is, China's leaders already seem to be getting a bit desperate, having been caught off guard by the widespread uprisings and protests happening now across the world. The premier has already accused the Dalai Lama of trying to sour the Olympics by inciting violence, which is a bit like Dick Cheney accusing a butterfly of murder.

But these comments also reveal a curious and telling thing about China's leaders, normally so controlled, so removed from the intense gaze of international media: They don't realize how utterly absurd and offensive they sound to the world audience. Nor do they seem to know the true power of the Internet, of the vagaries of global coverage, of what Olympic-sized media attention could reveal in the coming months. They never had to care. Until now.

Indeed, it will likely very much be up to the foreign press and foreign leaders, or perhaps even the athletes and visiting celebrities themselves, to speak out, to crack the armor further, really get the media's attention. Already some foreign leaders are considering a "mini boycott" of the opening ceremonies, which would be a huge insult to China. It's a start.

Could it all unravel for China's dictatorship? Maybe. The vast majority of Olympics coverage will be hugely positive, upbeat, every outlet in a swoon for the "New China," all glittery and whimsical and shiny and culturally rich, as this extraordinary new superpower puts on its best, most modern face for the world.

But somehow, among all the thousands of reporters and news agencies and bloggers covering the games, a handful might have the nerve to sneak outside the carefully guarded press boxes and Olympic stadiums and find a way to report on the real atrocities, the real abuses, and beam them to the astonished world like never before. Can we hope for that? Let the games begin.

Robert Fulford: By attending the Beijing Olympics, Canada is helping keep China's violent and oppressive government in power

National Post: Posted: March 20, 2008, 7:14 PM by Marni Soupcoff

Robert Fulford

How many citizens of China will be rooting for foreign athletes — any foreign athletes — at the Olympics in Beijing this August? At the 1936 Games, held in Berlin under Adolf Hitler’s personal supervision, Peter Gay was a German teenager, yearning to see Germany beaten. Peter’s father had won the Iron Cross in the First World War and the Gays were patriots. But Hitler had declared them pariahs because they were Jews. They knew he would call any German victory a Nazi triumph.

For the Gays, there was at least one beautiful moment, in the women’s 400-metre relay. The Germans were favourites but one of them dropped the baton, letting the Americans win. Peter’s father jumped to his feet in ecstasy. Six decades later, Peter Gay, a distinguished American historian, wrote in his memoir, My German Question: Growing up in Nazi Berlin, that this was one of the real pleasures of his youth.

Hitler, like Chinese leaders today, promoted the Olympics as a way to establish the legitimacy of his regime. Did it work? Americans who write about 1936 enjoy pointing out that the four-gold-medal performance by Jesse Owens, a black American sprinter, ostensibly the member of an inferior race, so disgusted Hitler that he stormed out of the stadium.

Writers often make the Games sound like a defeat for the Nazis, but Germany won the most gold medals, 33 (the Americans were second, the Italians third). Hitler had several reasons to celebrate. He not only displayed the excellence of German sport, he also forced the democracies to accept the German Third Reich as a lawful state. And despite the opinions of foreign Jews, he accomplished this without permitting Jews to represent Germany in any sport. He turned down the International Olympic Committee’s timid “one Jew” request to allow a token Jew on the German team.

Across China this season, there must be millions of citizens with good reason to hope the Beijing Games fail. They know the government believes the Olympics will prove that China is a progressive country, ready to stand beside other great nations of the world. But in almost all its policies, including the criminal code, the treatment of minorities and freedom of speech, China remains a backwater.

To Tibetans, the government of China is a violent oppressor, as the response to recent demonstrations has shown once more. To members of the Falun Gong, it’s a brutal tyranny that doesn’t hesitate to use torture and arbitrary imprisonment.

To traditional religious Chinese, it’s everything from a nuisance to an agent of the devil. Buddhists, Christians and Muslims can practise their faith only under state supervision, in buildings the state has authorized, where police monitors can hear what’s said. Owning a picture of the Dalai Lama is punishable by imprisonment. Boys who want to become monks in Tibet must first sign a declaration against Tibetan independence and express loyalty to Beijing.

Intellectual claustrophobia has become part of Chinese life. China has more journalists in prison than any other country, and employs a small army of specialists to keep anything dangerous from appearing on the internet. According to a study by Freedom House, a filtering system automatically blocks taboo web pages and eliminates material containing banned words, such as “democracy” and “Tiananmen.” A sign saying “Beijing Internet Police” appears every 30 minutes on computer screens run by 13 major portals based in Beijing, to remind people they are being watched. Foreign internet companies have largely co-operated with the Chinese dictatorship.

Chinese law provides the death penalty for 65 different crimes, among them robbery, pimping, tax fraud and “undermining national unity.” The government acknowledges that in 2005, the last year for which there’s a total available, China executed 1,770 people; human rights organizations, on the other hand, believe the true number approaches 10,000. There are unnumbered Falun Gong adherents who vanish into concentration camps.

This summer, Canada and the other Olympic countries will help keep this system in power by honouring it with our presence in Beijing. China wants to persuade the world that it’s united, but everything we know suggests that millions of its people feel cheated by a history that has left them poor, isolated and without human rights.

If China and the world are fortunate, the Chinese Communist Party will soon collapse, China will turn to honest and open government and everyone connected with promoting the 2008 Games will be covered in shame.

Beijing Playing Games

Seven rights groups urge IOC's Rogge to speak out at last on human rights in China

PR: An international coalition of seven human rights NGOs has sent a strongly-worded open letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge to "speak out now" on behalf of human rights and Olympic ideals and to guarantee athletes' right to freedom of expression in Beijing. Saying that only "an active, responsible approach by the IOC in defence of human rights can prevent further possible calls for boycott", the letter comes in the wake of the Chinese crackdown in Tibet.

The signatories include Olympic Watch, Reporters Without Borders, International Society for Human Rights, Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition, Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars, Human Rights Without Frontiers, and Federation for a Democratic China.

The letter recalls the public pledges the Chinese government made in 2001 when it was bidding for the Games, promising human rights improvements and full media freedom by the time of the Olympics. Stopping short of calling for a boycott, the letter says that the IOC must guarantee that athletes will be able to peacefully express their opinions in Beijing. It also urges free access to Tibet for international and Chinese media, and fair treatment for all detainees of the recent crackdown.

Contact: Petr Kutilek, Olympic Watch, +420 608 560 503, press@olympicwatch.org Vincent Brossel, RSF, +33 1 44 83 84 70, asie@rsf.org Willy Fautre, HRWF, +32 2 3456145, info@hrwf.net

The full text of the letter follows below:

Dear President Rogge,

The Chinese government's crackdown and the media blackout in Tibet have alerted the world to the lack of human rights progress in China just a few months before the Olympic Games are to take place in Beijing.

We, the undersigned organisations, call on you personally and on the rest of the international Olympic movement to act now and side with the Olympic ideals of "human dignity" and "respect for universal fundamental ethical principles".

China must immediately ensure freedom for the international as well as Chinese media to investigate and report on the recent crackdown in Tibet, as it publicly pledged full media freedom by the time of the Olympics when it was bidding for the Games in 2001.

China must also release all Tibetans and others who only peacefully exercised their freedom of expression, prevent torture and other kinds of ill-treatment of all detainees, and ensure the right to fair trial to all. The world remembers China's public pledges of human rights improvements in 2001.

The International Olympic Committee and National Olympic Committees must publicly state that Olympic athletes enjoy full freedom of expression if and when they come to Beijing. Their peaceful support for human rights and Olympic ideals is their human right and duty and they can in no way be prevented from doing so.

Only an active, responsible approach by the IOC in defence of human rights can prevent further possible calls for boycott by concerned citizens of the world. Stop hiding behind absurd statements about not mixing sports and politics. Human rights is not politics. Human dignity is not politics. Human life is not politics. People are dying. You need to speak out now.

Jan Ruml, chairman, Olympic Watch Wei Jingsheng, chair, Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition Karl Hafen, managing director, International Society for Human Rights (IGFM/ISHR) Willy Fautr�, director, Human Rights Without Frontiers Int. Robert M�nard, secretary-general, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Zhou Jian, president, Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars Fei Liangyong, chairman, Federation for a Democratic China

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com

China's Olympic Torch Ignites Trouble on Coast

By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the NY Sun
March 20, 2008

...."This is a North American mayor who says he supports American values who is kowtowing to Beijing on everything," Mr. Colker said. "It's hilarious that he's getting away with it."...

..."You can't enforce harmony at the barrel of a gun," one pro-Tibet activist, Giovanni Vassallo, replied.

Activists concerned about China's role in repression in Darfur and Burma, as well as Beijing' s hostility toward a religious sect, Falun Gong, have expressed alarm about reports that San Francisco plans to confine demonstrators to so-called free-speech zones, which may or may not abut the still undisclosed torch route. ...

..."China is exporting its censorship policies to the U.S., and San Francisco, for whatever reason, seems to be going along with it," Allyn Brooks-LaSure of the Save Darfur Coalition said. "China should not be able to come to San Francisco and use it as a major media relations victory."

Legal action seems likely if the so-called free-speech zones are not within view or earshot of the torch route. An official with the local office of the American Civil Liberties Union, Michael Risher, has filed requests for information on the protest restrictions. "The concern is that the city will try to keep the protests out of sight and out of mind. I don't think the city law or the Constitution allows that," he said. ... (more)

Beijing's broken promises

National Post Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A Tibetan demonstrator is seen near a flag representing the Beijing Olympics during a protest in Siliguri on March 18, 2008. Tibet remained largely cut off from the outside world after a crackdown by China, which said violence there was backed by the Dalai Lama and aimed at undermining the Olympic Games in Beijing.

When the Olympic bid committee came calling on Beijing in 2001 --before the Chinese capital was awarded the 2008 games -- government workers were sent in advance to cover up the damage pollution had done to the city's parks by spraying thousands of litres of green food colouring on the smog-stained grass. That should have been a warning: Nothing about China hosting the Olympics was going to be as sanguine as it appeared.

Over the weekend, 80 or more Tibetans died protesting China's six decades of occupation and repression of their country. In scenes reminiscent of the brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protestors in 1989 in Tiananmen Square, Chinese soldiers surged into crowds of unarmed Tibetans, killing scores as they went.

If it was not obvious before that China was unfit to host this summer's Olympics, then it should be crystal clear now. The communist nation has failed to live up to its key promises to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that were preconditions to it being awarded the event -- namely, that it cease its violent repression of dissent and clean up its water and air. In a perfect world, the IOC would take the games away from Beijing. But since that is an unlikely move for the organization-- indeed, it doesn't even appear as if the IOC will acknowledge that China is in violation of its hosting agreement -- then national teams and individual athletes must seriously consider boycotting.

After news of China's atrocities in Tibet filtered out, IOC president Jacques Rogge told reporters a boycott would be counterproductive. The only people hurt would be "innocent athletes." Really? It is hard to see how the athletes' punishment would come close to that suffered by the Tibetans who died seeking more autonomy for their nation, or the others who will surely be arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned by the Chinese government.

Reporters Without Borders calls China "the world's biggest prison for journalists and cyber-dissidents." Journalists have been denied access to protest sites, including last weekend's. Dissidents are kept under close surveillance and forbidden contact with reporters. Members of the spiritual movement Falun Gong are still routinely rounded up and charged with crimes against the state, tortured and executed. Indeed, China executes three times more prisoners annually than the rest of the world combined.

Since the weekend crackdown, the Chinese government has moved to ban YouTube from the nation's computers. Domestic newspapers, newscasts and internet sites have carried only official government accounts of the protests, while international networks such as CNN and the BBC have been blocked by censors.

The IOC is willing to turn a blind eye to all this, and so too, it seems, is the United Nations. On Monday, the UN Security Council let it be known it would not be meeting to discuss Tibet.

But already, several principled individuals have announced they will boycott the Beijing games. Prince Charles announced in February that he would stay away in sympathy with Tibet. Two weeks ago, Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg resigned his post as special advisor to the hosting committee over China's support of Sudan's government, which is perpetrating ethnic cleansing in Darfur. And just last week, Haile Gebrselassie, the world's best marathoner despite being asthmatic, pulled out because China has done little or nothing to improve its air quality. Mr. Gebrselassie fears the strain of competing in the August heat and a smog haze could ruin his health and career.

At this point, Ottawa need not announce a formal withdrawal by our national teams. But it should let it be known publicly that Canadian athletes are free to exercise their consciences. No athlete should be denied a spot on future teams nor have his or her training funding cut if he or she chooses not to go to Beijing.

In a month or two, if China has done nothing to improve its rights record, then our government can take the next step: pull out, or even suggest to the IOC that it disperse this summer's events around the world to existing venues that can accommodate them.

In the face of such blatant human rights violations, China's right to remain as the '08 Olympic host should not be guaranteed, even at this late date.

Interview with David Kilgour on China-Tibet War

SSBS Dateline AU: Wednesday, 19 March, 2008

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David Kilgour

WATCH A VIDEO

TIBET UPDATE AND INTERVIEW WITH DALAI LAMA

Tonight, George Negus interviews Candian human rights lawyer and former member of parliament David Kilgour about the unrest in Tibet.

Have Your Say: How should the world respond to China's crackdown on protestors in Tibet?

TRANSCRIPT

David Kilgour is a former Canadian MP with an international name on the issue of human rights abuse, including by the Chinese Government. Interestingly, he had contact with Australian PM Kevin Rudd in his old Opposition role as shadow foreign minister. In an email to Kilgour, he vowed to "rigorously address human rights abuses in China." This week, David Kilgour urged the Mandarin-speaking Mr Rudd to get a lot tougher with the Chinese. George Negus talked with him earlier today from Ottawa.

GEORGE NEGUS: David Kilgour, thanks very much for your time. Could I begin by talking to you about a letter or an email that Kevin Rudd, our current PM, sent you as a result of meeting you, as I understand it, expressing his commitment, vowing vigorously to address human rights in China. Can you tell us how that came about that an Australian would-be PM found himself talking to you, a human rights lawyer, about this issue?

DAVID KILGOUR, FORMER CANADIAN MP AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER: Well, actually, Edward McMillan-Scott, a member of the European Parliament, in fact a vice-president and I met with him when he was actually wasn't even the Leader of the Opposition at that point, but he showed great interest in this matter, Falun Gong, and he sent an email after that and then there was a subsequent letter that he sent to me expressing great concern about human rights in China and I was very encouraged by that.

GEORGE NEGUS: You actually said when the trouble broke out in Tibet earlier this week that you thought he should act on his commitment to address human rights abuses in China. Could I read to you what he's said, for your reaction? He said, "These most recent developments in Tibet are disturbing. I would call upon the Chinese authorities to exercise restraint." Which is a bit like hitting them with a feather, if you ask me, is that good enough? Do you think that's enough for an Australian Prime Minister who is a Mandarin speaker, by the way, in his reaction to Chinese behaviour in Tibet at the moment?

DAVID KILGOUR: Well, he also understands the human rights record of the party in China, he knows what has gone on since 1949 and I am sure that he knows that the Olympic Committee made a colossal mistake in giving the Olympic Games to China. The question is what does he do? I would hope, I know that Australians are crazy about sports like Canadians and I would hope that at the very least your Prime Minister would publicly and privately, in Mandarin if you like, tell the Government of China they must stop killing people on the streets of Lhasa, they must stop saying things that are absolutely untrue about Tibet and the Dalai Lama. He is a highly respected person, he is an honorary citizen of Canada and your Prime Minister knows as well as anybody that the Dalai Lama did not instigate these protests. The protests were brought on, as most people know, by the constant oppression by the Chinese Government since '59. where, George, by the way, about half the men in Tibet were literally worked to death during the '60s by the government of China. It's a terrible record there.

GEORGE NEGUS: Sticking with Kevin Rudd's potential role in this, as a Mandarin speaker, I think it's absolutely reasonable to suggest he is the only Western leader who speaks Mandarin, gives him, I would have thought, a remarkable and unique opportunity to play a specific role in this.

DAVID KILGOUR: Of course, and he also wrote his paper in his honours degree about Wei Jingsheng the democrat, and he studied Mandarin in Taiwan, he knows about the problems of Taiwan faced with, what is it the 1,700 missiles across the strait from China. He knows all about the nuances of this issue and I think he also knows that if you stand up to the Government of China, certainly in the experience of Canada and I think many other countries, they will back down. And all we are asking them to do is to fulfil the pledges they made when they got the Olympic Games, to improve human rights in their country and that includes not killing protesters on the streets of the capital of Tibet.

GEORGE NEGUS: Kevin Rudd is actually visiting Beijing on 10 April, I think it is, for four days. If you were in his shoes in that situation, what would you be telling them right now, with the outrage that the rest of the world is expressing?

DAVID KILGOUR: Exactly I would be telling them about the outrage that the rest of the world is feeling. But it is not just Tibet, it is Burma, it is Darfur in Sudan, it's the human rights workers in China, is the Falun Gong community, which is, my report found, literally being killed by the Government of China, having their organs being taken from them and sold to foreigners. There is a whole range of human rights abuses that I would hope your Prime Minister would say to Mr Hu Jintao that the West and all of the human rights-respecting world is not prepared to put up with. And you probably noticed today that the Europeans are talking about boycotting the opening ceremony of the Games. I would hope that your Prime Minister would suggest that this could go beyond the opening and it might become a wider kind of boycott.

GEORGE NEGUS: Yep, you mention the word 'boycott', a lot of other people are in the world at the moment. Are you pro- or anti-boycott, because the IOC are adamant that they don't believe a boycott will do anything to assist the human rights cause, in fact it could be detrimental. What is your position?

DAVID KILGOUR: Well, I think the IOC is naive with a capital 'N'. The Games are primarily a political expression in terms of what China is trying to do in its coming-out party. I feel, my heart goes out to the athletes. They have worked, many of them for eight years, and I think, I hope there's a way that Government of China can be persuaded by people like your Prime Minister to enforce its promises that they have to do a lot better between now and August than they are doing right now in Tibet and other places in the world.

GEORGE NEGUS: Is it the case that the Chinese really couldn't care less? I mean, they're going to snub anything that is attempted by anybody, including Kevin Rudd, that they are, if you like, so politically and economically arrogant at the moment that they really don't care what the rest of the world thinks, regardless of the Olympics?

DAVID KILGOUR: Well, they do and I can give you an example of that, George. About three months ago the Chinese Medical Association agreed with the World Medical Association that no more foreigners would be allowed to go over and take organs from Falun Gong and others in China. And one of their spokespersons admitted that they were afraid of a boycott of the Games and that is basically why they were doing this. So in fact they are extremely nervous at this point, all despite what's happening in Tibet, that the rest of the world will put their foot down and boycott the Games. I hope does not come to that, but this cannot continue, the Government of China cannot continue to behave the way it's behaving now in Tibet and elsewhere.

GEORGE NEGUS: So it looks like we have got a fairly torrid five or six months ahead of us?

DAVID KILGOUR: Yeah, indeed they do, yes.

GEORGE NEGUS: China of course will argue that they have made progress on human rights generally internally and externally for instance in Darfur, they would argue that they are actually on the right path.

DAVID KILGOUR: All of the independent observers that have looked at human rights say that human rights have been getting worse in China, certainly as the Olympic Games get closer. They have not been getting better. I think it is absolutely clear that human rights have been getting worse in China and I might say in Darfur, Sudan and Burma. Well, you know all the places where they have their foot in the door where they behave with terrible responsibility.

GEORGE NEGUS: David Kilgour, thanks very much, and this issue is not going to go away so I wouldn't be surprised if we talk to you again in the next six months.

DAVID KILGOUR: Good to be here.

GEORGE NEGUS: International human rights lawyer David Kilgour. A reminder that two weeks ago, we requested an interview with the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, but were told that he was out of the country. Hopefully, we'll be granted that interview when he returns to Australia.

Party lacks belief system to challenge Buddha

The Australian: Rosemary Righter | March 19, 2008

THE rails carrying China's showcase high-altitude train to Tibet began sinking into melting permafrost within months of its triumphant opening two years ago.

This was no mere technical setback for a pioneering engineering feat; for Beijing, it was essential for the Qinghai-Lhasa railway to function perfectly because it was a political project.

Conceived a century ago by Sun Yat-sen, the father of the revolution, the point of finally realising his near-impossible and hugely expensive dream was to set the final seal on China's benevolent "embrace" of Tibet.

That official narrative of unity and harmony between China and Tibet, exposed to the world as a sham as anti-Chinese resentment boils over in Tibetan monasteries and towns far across western China, is vitally important to Beijing for two reasons.

The first is that China has never really been able to control Tibet.

China's rulers have always felt the need to do so because Tibet's vast expanses command China's western flank and its borders with India, and also because of the huge influence of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia and throughout the northern border regions beyond the Great Wall.

Tibet has been a thorn in China's side ever since the Tang dynasty, when the two fought for two centuries before concluding, in 821, a treaty that, invoking the heavenly bodies, established "a great era when Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China".

That has never quite been the case. When the last imperial dynasty collapsed in 1911, Tibet swiftly declared independence. One of Mao's first acts after 1949 was to beat Tibet into line.

The second reason why Beijing needs Tibet to be convincingly pacified is ideological.

For many people, China has become an easier and freer place to live over the past 20 years, but it remains the case that the Communist Party cannot tolerate any belief system that even implicitly challenges its monopoly over "right thinking".

This is even more true today than it was, because with the demise of Maoism and, now, the jettisoning of Marxist-Leninism, the party lacks a belief system of its own to buttress its legitimacy.

Hence the party's pathological persecution of the eccentric but harmless Falun Gong religious sect and its increasingly harsh control of religious practice in Tibet, where Zhang Qingli, the Tibet party secretary sent there two years ago by President Hu Jintao, declared on his arrival a "fight-to-the-death struggle"' against the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese are paranoid about the Dalai Lama for essentially the same reasons that the rest of the world respects him: as the humbly persuasive spiritual leader of a religion whose lack of temporal power diminishes in no way the loyalty and love he commands.

He is the main reason why China's methods of ethnic colonisation, effective with other minorities, have failed in Tibet.

Not only is Tibetan culture too far removed from Chinese for assimilation to be feasible; it revolves around religious loyalties that the state cannot reach.

Because the Dalai Lama is at the centre of these loyalties, Beijing considers him a dangerously subversive political agitator.

They are appalled that he only has to make an address far away in India and his people obey; as when he advised Tibetans to stop wearing fur to save wild animals from extinction, and people rushed out to join public fur burnings.

Two years ago, rumours that he was returning swept Qinghai province and overnight thousands headed for the great monastery at Kumbum to greet him. To Beijing, this confirms what a danger he is.

The Dalai Lama talks about the Tibet problem in terms of "the identity of a people".

On this, Beijing agrees. It can end resistance in Tibet only by destroying Tibetan identity. It is deliberately swamping the population with Han Chinese and other immigrants, imposing "patriotic education" and Chinese-language qualifications for jobs, and stifling - other than as tourist exhibits - Tibet's customs.

The Dalai Lama seeks for Tibetans the autonomy to which they are lawfully entitled as an autonomous region of China.

But that would up-end Beijing's strategy. That is why China's leaders accuse him of inciting Tibetans to challenge, they say, the "stability of the state".

The first tumbrels rolled through Lhasa on Monday, hours before the deadline for "criminals" to turn themselves in or be hunted down, parading handcuffed prisoners with their heads forced down by soldiers.

Troops are in the neighbouring provinces of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai. Foreigners are being bundled out of Lhasa.

But Beijing will not keep the crackdown entirely secret. This is not only because it cannot, but because smashing dissent in Tibet would warn off the many other dissidents - farmers, migrants, the unemployed - tempted to try their Olympics-year luck.

Inside China, cracking heads in Tibet has up to now been pretty risk-free; few Chinese, shamefully, have much sympathy for Tibetans.

China's leaders are gambling that foreign protests will subside, as they have over Burma, in time to avert Olympic boycotts.

Have they guessed wrong? I remember Percy Cradock, then Margaret Thatcher's foreign policy adviser, sitting in Downing Street murmuring "when the dust has settled" when it was fresh blood, not dust, they were scraping off around Tiananmen Square.

To say "nothing must wreck the Olympics" after this would be much the same thing.

China's True Face

The Host of the Olympics or the Thug of Tibet?

By Wei Jingsheng

Wednesday, March 19, 2008; Page A15

WP: As what the Dalai Lama has called "cultural genocide" goes on in Tibet, it is wholly unacceptable that Jacques Rogge, the head of the International Olympic Committee, refuses to take a stand against the Beijing government's current crackdown on Tibetan protesters. In fact, this is completely at odds with the "spirit of the Olympics."

Far more than Steven Spielberg, who quit his advisory role for the Summer Games because of China's unwillingness to pressure the Sudanese government on genocide in Darfur, the IOC has a special obligation to act. Since promised improvements in China's human rights were a quid pro quo for awarding the Games to Beijing, how can it proceed as if nothing happened when blood is flowing in the streets of Lhasa?

And if the Dalai Lama resigns from all his public positions in response to the violence, as he said yesterday that he might, the prospect of resolving the Tibet issue peacefully will be even more hopeless. We will feel very sorry if that comes about -- for Tibet and for China.

If the IOC doesn't move to put pressure on Beijing consistent with its obligations, it risks this Olympics being remembered like the 1936 Games in Berlin. Already, the spirit of the Olympics in Beijing has become associated with the word "genocide," thanks to Spielberg and the Dalai Lama. Indeed, if the IOC and the rest of the world do not pressure Beijing to stop the crackdown and improve human rights now, a boycott of the Games will widely be seen as justified.

Tibetans have long chafed under the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1959, when the Dalai Lama fled to exile in India, Tibetans' protests were harshly suppressed in a massacre that lasted more than a year. Since then, more than a million Tibetans have reportedly lost their lives because of the Chinese government's policies.

In 1989, it was Chinese President Hu Jintao, then a provincial leader, who suppressed yet another revolt in Lhasa by bringing in the military to kill people in the streets. And, of course, the whole world knows what happened in Tiananmen Square that year.

Clearly, without human rights and the rule of law, neither Tibetans nor the majority Han Chinese are safe from persecution at the whim of Communist authorities.

The old lies and propaganda don't work anymore. In the past, many Han Chinese didn't know about the sufferings of Tibetans. Now thanks to travel, tourism, cellphones and the Internet, the majority Han understand that the Tibetan struggle against tyranny is the same as theirs.

Of course, as part of its "peaceful" face, Chinese authorities have expressed their willingness to resolve the Tibetan issue through negotiation. But, as with Darfur, there is no sincerity behind this willingness and there will not be any unless international pressure is brought to bear. If there has been any lesson in all my years as an activist for democracy and human rights in China, it is that only international pressure coupled with internal pressure will yield solid results.

Jacques Rogge's unwillingness to pressure Beijing at this moment is so tragic because these Olympics are the turning point in modern Chinese history. Having invited the world to polite tea, the Communist Party rulers have turned their palace of power into a global glass house. They can no longer show both the smiling face of "a peaceful rise" to the world and the stern face of brutal suppression at home.

The Olympics will force China to show its true face. Only international pressure, by the IOC and others, will make sure it is the face we all want to see.

The writer, a recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, lives in exile in Washington. He was first arrested in China in 1979 for his activities with the "Democracy Wall" movement and was released in 1993 nine days before the International Olympic Committee voted on Beijing's bid for the 2000 Games. He was arrested in March 1994 for "plotting against the state" and released in 1997.

Keep pressure on

The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Re: Protests pose crucial test on eve of Hu's second term as president, March 15.

I concur with Richard Spencer's well-written article. The timing for the Tibetan uprising coinciding with the China's National Congress meeting is quite a feat in itself. Under the spotlight, Communist China has shown us once again, what a ruthless dictatorship it runs.

Using force seems to be the order of the day to handle and mishandle protests such as the one by the monks and supporters of a Free Tibet in Lhasa. It's like a chronic pattern that never seems to go away.

Would somebody tell Chinese President Hu Jintao, that it would probably be easier to improve human rights in China and Tibet at this point instead of wasting all this time and energy in denial and continuing to keep on with oppression of the people.

Meanwhile, what if the International Olympic Committee suddenly reacts to this human rights violation ahead of the Olympics, like they should; it could cost China the games. And there's always economic sanctions but I won't hold my breath.

Until then, I tip my hat to those brave men and women. Let's keep the pressure on.

Marie Beaulieu

Tibet's challenge to Bush-Cheney

by Professor M.D. Nalapat

UPI: Published: March 17, 2008
Excerpt --
The Bush-Cheney genuflection toward Beijing in matters concerning Tibet, Taiwan and other issues that may reduce the flow of profits into the treasuries of favored corporations has created a cynicism about U.S. policy in East Asia that is reaching the levels of that in the Middle East. However, even the current U.S. administration, together with other China-friendly governments such as those in Ottawa and Canberra, may find it difficult to ignore their own public opinion.

White U.S. voters, by backing Barack Obama in large numbers, have shown that the world's First Civilization is transforming itself from within, from exclusivism to inclusivism, from racial values to human values. This transformation may in time even affect the present Mugabist -- frankly racist -- policies of the European Union.

Had China been a democracy, it might have designed a system of governance that would coopt the Tibetan people into a Greater China without forcing them to abandon their culture, traditions and religious beliefs. However, the Han-driven nationalist ideology of the CCP leaves President Hu Jintao scant room for maneuver. His own stint in Tibet in 1988-89 marked a departure from some of the more culturally sensitive views expressed by Mao Zedong.

Even if many in Xinjiang follow the example of indigenous Tibetans and go out into the streets to protest Han domination, the authorities in Beijing will still be able to damp the situation down to a "safe" level. The real nightmare scenario for Beijing would be if Christians in the rest of China, perhaps also other groups such as the Falun Gong, decided to follow the Tibet example and convert the streets of China's urban centers to the present chaos of Lhasa. Such a spread of indigenous unrest into the Han population might prove uncontrollable, unless economic growth expanded beyond even the present impressive levels.

By failing to fashion political institutions that can accommodate the needs of people of faith, the CCP may have created the conditions for a Bamboo Revolution that could lead to a repeat of what happened to the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. It may seem a far cry from the current triumphalism in Beijing to the meltdown that occurred in Moscow or Bucharest -- but the gongs in Tibet may have begun sounding that dirge.

As for Bush-Cheney, after repeatedly certifying Pakistan's dictator Pervez Musharraf as the First Democrat of his country, it should not pose much of a problem to claim similar qualities in Hu Jintao -- who in Tibet may be facing a challenge that will make the protests of 1989 look like a schoolyard drill.

--(Professor M.D. Nalapat is vice-chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group, UNESCO Peace Chair, and professor of geopolitics at Manipal University. ©Copyright M.D. Nalapat.)

China should be on human rights violators list, rep. says

Updated: Sunday, March 16, 2008 10:01 PM PDT

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher slammed the Bush Administration on Wednesday in response to a U.S. State Department list of human rights violators that did not include China this year.

If anything, China is the world’s worst offender on human rights, Rohrabacher said. He condemned the country for its treatment of ethnic and religious minorities like the Falun Gong, Uygurs and Tibetans.

Rohrabacher accused the Chinese government of brutal crimes against dissenters.

“It is well documented that the Chinese Communist Party murders its political opponents and sells their body parts,” Rohrabacher said. “How ghoulish can things get? And the State Department calls this progress . . .. Economic improvements are no excuse for ignoring brutal political repression, otherwise, we would have given Hitler an A+.”

— Michael Alexander

Tibet violence could impact Olympics, says analyst

Sri Krishna

Statesman: NEW DELHI, March 15: The fallout of the violence in Tibet could well resonate at the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing as there was a possibility of boycott by some western nations, says an analyst.

With the first salvo having been fired by Hollywood film mogul Steven Spielberg resigning as artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics to protest against Chinese support for the Sudanese government’s genocidal campaign in Darfur, Tibet expert Mr Vijay Kranti said, “These kind of actions could trigger a boycott move”. Coupled with this decision by Spielberg and the violence in Tibet leading to several deaths could snowball into a major issue as several countries have protested against the manner in which the Chinese government has handled the issue, he said.

“What is happening in Tibet today is a reaction to the suppression that has been taking place in Tibet of the ethnic people for almost half a century since China occupied this strategic region,” said Mr Kranti.

He felt that it is time India too ensured that human rights are not violated in Tibet for with a huge Tibetan population in this country as also its religious head, the Dalai Lama, there is a need to take a “moral stand on this issue”. According to Mr Kranti, the Chinese government plea that sports and politics must be separated, cannot be accepted. Being an international event, they do get intertwined as happened at the 1980 Moscow Olympics when western nations boycotted it. The Moscow Olympics boycott was led by the United States followed by 64 other countries in protest of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The violent protests of 10 March marking the anniversary of a failed uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule have been the largest since the late 1980s when Beijing used severe force against the agitators.

Mr Kranti said so far foreign governments have been reluctant to put pressure on China for its abysmal human rights record, whether it be excessive recourse to the death penalty, labour camps, torture, harassment of lawyers, journalists and trades unionists, Internet censorship or persecution of Falun Gong adherents.

He felt that it is time this attitude is reversed and Beijing is told that it cannot continue to suppress people’s rights, be it Tibetans or any others like Falun Gong followers and that “what is happening today in Tibet is only the shape of things to come in a totalitarian regime”.

World condemns China as Olympic doubts grow

Agence France-Presse/CBNNews

Click on NYT to see the video (at the end) showing that according to Tibetan advocates, ordinary Tibetans began rioting after military police officers attacked monks trying to protest outside a monastery in the center of the city.

PARIS - Taiwan led sweeping condemnation Saturday of China's brutal crackdown on protestors in Tibet and accused Beijing of trying to gloss over its rights record with Olympic sheen.

About 30 people have been killed during unrest in Lhasa, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, although China's state-run Xinhua news agency earlier put the figure at 10, citing government officials.

The arm-flexing has caused newspapers around the world to start talking about a possible boycott of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.

"This incident fully reflects the Chinese government's characteristics: dictatorship and bullying. Such a government won't tolerate the Tibetan people in their pursuit of speech of freedom," pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian told a crowd in southern Chiayi city.

Taiwan's foreign ministry added in a statement that "China attempts to promote the illusion of its 'peaceful rise' by hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympics but in fact it targets Taiwan with missiles and suppresses Tibetan people's pursuit for freedom and democracy."

Beijing still regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification -- the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war -- and has repeatedly threatened to invade should it declare formal independence.

The Tibetan issue is already a source of tension between New Delhi and Beijing, with India playing host to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama as well as his government-in-exile.

"We are distressed by reports of the unsettled situation and violence in Lhasa, and by the deaths of innocent people," India's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"We would hope that all those involved will work to improve the situation and remove the causes of such trouble in Tibet, which is an autonomous region of China, through dialogue and non-violent means," it added.

US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama called on Beijing to account for the status of Buddhist monks detained.

He said this year's Olympics in Beijing were an opportunity for China to demonstrate its progress on human rights.

"But the events in Tibet these last few days unfortunately show a different face of China," said Obama.

Japan, which has been trying to repair relations with China, has taken a relatively low profile on Tibet, but a foreign ministry statement urged Beijing to show restraint.

Germany meanwhile backed the Tibetans' rights to religious and cultural autonomy, while "supporting the policy of a single China."

"A lasting solution to the Tibet question can perhaps only be found through a peaceful and direct dialogue," Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said in a statement.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in his blog: "The fact that Tibet is a part of China does not relieve Chinese authorities of their duties (...) Quite the contrary. It is their utmost responsibility to ensure that Tibetan rights are fully respected."

The world's press joined in the condemnation.

"World leaders should also urge China to follow its constitution, which requires freedom of speech and religion, as well as self-rule for ethnic minorities," the Washington Post said in its editorial.

"It is, after all, the lack of these rights in practice that is pushing resentful Tibetans into extremism."

Memories of the Chinese authorities' crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen democracy movement in which hundreds, possibly thousands of people were killed, were strong in the British press.

"The crackdown on the democracy protests is on a smaller scale than that of the Beijing demonstrations of 1989, but the comparison with Tiananmen Square is inescapable," the Daily Telegraph said.

The newspaper also called on world leaders to "abandon their cowardice" about receiving the Dalai Lama, calling the Nobel Peace Laureate "Tibet's legitimate leader."

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung said "the 'Olympic Games' brand is being tarnished."

"These summer games at Beijing have lost their innocence at Lhasa before even having started."

Spain's liberal daily El Mundo said the West had a unique opportunity to apply pressure with a boycott of the Olympics. "The West cannot keep looking the other way," it added.

Swiss daily Le Matin said the "only way to make the Chinese government understand (is) to boycott the Olympic Games."

Video: Tibetan activists condemn Beijing Olympics

Scroll down to watch the video.13 Mar 08

International Olympic Committee concern over China's clashes in Tibet

Telegraph UK: By David Bond, Chief Sports Reporter

Last Updated: 2:42am GMT 15/03/2008

With the start of the Beijing Olympics now just 145 days away, clashes between protesters and Chinese security forces in Tibet have sparked serious concerns among senior officials at the International Olympic Committee.

China unleashes guns and tear gas as Tibet protests turn violent Following film director Steven Spielberg's decision last month to pull out as an adviser to the Beijing Games opening ceremony over China's support for Sudan, the IOC were already bracing themselves for a wave of protests in the run up to the start of this summer's Olympics. But yesterday's crackdown in Lhasa has left many in the Olympic movement fearing that the Beijing Games could now be hit by a series of international boycotts, reviving memories of America's withdrawal from the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Although European leaders yesterday dismissed talk of a boycott, one leading IOC member told the Daily Telegraph: "Clearly we are very worried about the situation. Our role is ultimately to organise a good Games but we have always been clear; when things start to affect the Games then we will react." An IOC spokeswoman added, however, that it was difficult for them to intervene. "We cannot interfere with sovereign matters," she said. "What we said when we awarded the Games to China was that we hoped the presence of the Games would be a catalyst for China to improve on human rights. "It is not in the IOC's remit to try and sort out problems that have been beyond governments." The protests in Tibet come at a sensitive time for Beijing's organisers as they prepare for the Olympic torch to arrive in Beijing on March 31 before it starts its long journey around the world and eventually back to China in time for the Games in August. The flame is due to be carried through Tibet and to the peak of Mount Everest but organisers have deliberately not disclosed when the torch will be there amid fears the relay will be targeted by human rights campaigners. The Tibet protests are also certain to be raised by the IOC when officials from the organisation visit Beijing for their last, crucial inspection visit of the city before the Games on April 19

Falun Gong and the Olympics?

The nature of their protests, &c.
NRO: By Jay Nordlinger

Excerpt --

Reading stories about the Beijing Olympics and protests against them, I’ve noticed something peculiar: The protests are about China’s support of Sudan, and its genocidal regime. Which is great, of course — I mean, the protests against China’s support. But there don’t seem to be protests against China’s treatment of its own citizens: the denial of rights, the torture, the “disappearing” of Falun Gong practitioners, etc.

Curious. But at least there are protests. Darfur is “hot,” even if nothing else is.

Also, regular readers of NR and NRO know about Jian-li Yang: He is the intellectual and democracy activist who was released from a Chinese prison last year after a five-year sentence. In the October 8, 2007, NR, I published a profile of him called “Leader of the Chinese.”

Well, he continues to lead them: He has now established an organization called “Initiatives for China.” In Chinese, the organization’s name is “Citizen Power.” You may read about it here.

And one more note, before leaving China: Did you see that it will boost its “defense” budget — I should say military budget — by almost 20 percent? That’s kind of a big boost.