[The Telegraph, U.K.]

 

 

Le Figaro, France

Tibet, Beijing and the Occident: An 'Incredible Mess'

 

"Tibetans are likely to pay dearly if their illusions lead them to expect more than dust in the eyes [a mere show of support] from the democracies."

 

Analysis by Mével

 

Translated By Sandrine Ageorges

 

March 26, 2008

 

France - Le Figaro - Original Article (French)

The powerful Communist Party machine certainly didn't foresee this. Beijing wants to make the Games a showcase for its brilliant success. But at the start of this Olympic season, propaganda needs have forced a drawing of the curtain. Chinese television cut off a live broadcast of ceremonies in Olympia, Greece [the lighting of the Olympic torch WATCH ], depriving the images to hundreds of millions of spectators and signaling that support for the Games is far from unanimous.

 

The repression of the Tibetan revolt explains the protest and the censorship. And this incident won't be the last. The journey of the Olympic torch was to be a triumphant march toward the opening of the Games on August 8th in Beijing. It is more likely to be an odyssey mounted under extreme police protection in London (on April 9th), San Francisco and Nagano. There are unlikely to be any boos on the route through China, but in Lhasa on June 21st, voices will be constrained.

 

The Olympic ideal is a Spanish hostel. [A place where people of different cultures mix]. The peculiar aspect of this crisis is that all sides feel betrayed. Three misunderstandings crystallize this incredible mess. China has erred on Tibet. The West deluded itself about China. And finally, the Tibetans are likely to pay dearly if their illusions lead them to expect more than dust in the eyes [a show of support] from the democracies.

 

The greatest fault is that of Beijing. China has never fully-controlled the Himalayan kingdom. Until these last few weeks, Hu Jintao's team sincerely believed that it had found the panacea: to win the hearts of the Tibetans, it was enough to invest, bring in the railway, improve the standard of living and ignore the Dalai-Lama until he disappears. With the approach of the Games, Chinese security was concerned about foreign protesters and dissidents from Beijing, but not the monasteries perched at an altitude of 4,000 meters [13,000 feet].

 

In Lhasa, revolt has ripped this illusion. Chinese administrators didn't detect the rising anger. The poorly-prepared police allowed popular protests to escalate. On March 14th, the riot lasted the entire day before the paramilitary arrived on the scene. Even worse, unlike the revolt suppressed by Hu Jintao in 1989, the disturbances have spread to three other provinces: Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. The Communist Party fears that Muslim Xinjiang, which is also under Beijing's yoke, will be added to the list. The radicalization of the Tibetans cannot be fully explained by widespread - and hidden - employment discrimination. Neither does the arrogance of Chinese settlers stirred up by slogans like "fight the Dalai clique to the death." The problem is the incapacity of the communist government to understand religious identity. Tibetan culture is too far removed from China to give in to the materialism that enslaves the "factory to the world." In the eyes of Communist Party ideologues, the loyalty of exiled Tibetans to Dharamsala [the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile] is unfathomable.

 

The second misunderstanding resides in the Western world, occupied for nearly two decades with bringing the People's Republic into the club of "politically correct" powers. China joined the WTO in 2001, the year that it won the right to host the Olympic Games. On the one hand, it pledged to open its market; on the other, it made promises about human rights that persuaded only those who wanted to believe them. The seductive hypothesis was that freedoms were as inevitable as growth. By enlisting in the WTO and seeking to host the Games, it was thought that the Communist Party was in fact weaving a rope to hang itself with. 

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

Just the opposite happened. Beijing's economic success has fattened the ruling caste, increased its survival instinct tenfold and given it the means to teach a thing or two to the democracies. Far from Shanghai and Davos, Hu Jintao's China has shown Tibet a less sympathetic face than expected. It's a country far more pleasant to live in than the one bequeathed by Mao, but since 1949, the Communist Party has never condoned opposition. Calls for "dialog" with the Dalai Lama are destined to hit the same wall.

 

This state of affairs may lead Europe and the United-States to change their policies and judge things based on fact rather than words. Meanwhile, the surprised and discreet reaction of the West has given birth in Tibet to a third misunderstanding: that democratic governments have abandoned the expression of indignation to non-governmental organizations, Hollywood and "the people." One can't hold it against them for joining in, but the Tibetans would be wrong to depend solely on international "conscience."

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

In the monasteries, the unrest began last October, when with great fanfare the United States Congress received the Dalai Lama. Two weeks ago, demonstrations in Olympia, Katmandu and Dharamsala which garnered widespread media attention, emboldened the monks in Lhasa. They took to the streets. The image of China and the Olympic Games has been left tarnished. But today "from within," it's the Tibetan people who are paying the price, thinking perhaps that they have been mistaken.

 

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US March 28, 7:15am]