The NY Times reports,
The Dalai Lama on Tuesday invited international observers, including Chinese officials, to scour his offices here and investigate whether he had any role in inciting the latest anti-Chinese violence in Tibet. He also threatened to resign as leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile in the event of spiraling bloodshed in his homeland.
He said he remained committed to only nonviolent agitation and greater autonomy for Tibetans, not independence. He condemned the burning of Chinese flags and attacks on Chinese property and called violence “suicidal” for the Tibetan cause.
Suicidal is right. Here’s what happens when you stand up for your rights in Chinese-occupied Tibet:
WARNING, GRAPHIC IMAGES FOLLOW
The current strategy of the Tibetan solidarity movement is to use negative publicity in the build-up to and throughout the Olympics to pressure China to ease its grip on Tibet. Thus far, France alone has proposed pulling out of the Olympics opening ceremony, though obviously not the games themselves.
A public boycott of the Olympics is in order. It is evident that we cannot rely upon our political leadership to address this issue, nor can we rely upon the International Olympic Committee, which seems intent on maintaining its “impartiality” despite the egregiousness of China’s human rights abuses. We must therefore address matters ourselves by acting within what power we have. I thus recommend swearing off watching NBC and its affiliates (sorry Keith); not watching any of the games themselves; not visiting the official Olympics website; and otherwise not patronizing any Olympics sponsors or purchasing any officially licensed Olympics products.
The IOC must know that the public will not tolerate complicity.
My compromise for IOC chief Jacques Rogge, who pleads that we not boycott the Olympics for the sake of “innocent athletes,” is that I’m not calling for the athletes to be boycotted as well. Their willingness to turn a blind eye to genocide for a shot at an endorsement deal, however, should be noted.
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In other news, they’re calling in bomb threats on book fairs.
31 Comments
However, it may also be worth noting your willingness, and my willingness, and just about everyone in the West’s willingness to turn a blind eye to genocide for a shot at…owning common consumer goods. It’s hell of easy to boycott the Olympics. I mean, I already don’t watch NBC. What ain’t easy is boycotting electronics, clothes, housewares and lo mein. And it’s boycotts of that shit that’ll make the Red Menace hurt (well, not really, but at least more than denying all those statuesque Kenyans their televised moments of track glory).
I mean, I’m just saying…
What ain’t easy is boycotting … lo mein
I hope you’re kidding about that. Otherwise your boycott becomes completely analogous to anti-Israel protests that target all things Jewish.
There is a definite line between protesting a government’s actions and demonizing the entire people the government purports to represent.
i try very hard to boycott chinese products … it’s not very easy, thanks to bill clinton, who gave china permanent favored nation trading status
ok, but would you support a sports boycott on Israel too?
http://www.rebuildingalliance......Garden.php
“According to the Israeli Human Rights group B’Tselem, 864 Palestinian children have been killed since 2000 and not one case has been brought to justice.”
I mean, what’s it take? The IDF kills children with impunity.
Bill Clinton did not give anything to China…he sold it.
The Internet: Redoubt of the Humorless.
Prior to China’s invasion the people of Tibet were serfs. I’m not saying the PRC is any better, hell they’re just as bad. But I don’t trust the Dalai Lama to come back and not make most of the people of Tibet back into serfs. The priests, lamas, and nobles lived like kings while everyone else lived in poverty.
KATHMANDU: Western tourists emerging from Tibet have described their shock and fear as they watched a “howling” mob of Tibetans stoning and beating Chinese passers-by in two days of rioting in Lhasa last week.
http://www.theaustralian.news......37,00.html
If we are going to boycott the Olympics in China, shall we also boycott products made in China. That’s a lot of products, but we could try. Are there any organizations specifically organizing a boycott of China over this?
what’s fascinating about that article, digger1999, is this line: “I agree that the Tibetans have their own culture, but I can’t agree with what people did. After a while, it was not about Tibetan freedom any more.”
how many people would say that about the way palestinians and their allies abroad target jewish civilians?
WTF these people were not just shot, they were beat like animals. This is rediculoso!!! Someone with some needs to grow a pair and help these VILLAGERS. I could care less if it was a soldier killing a soldier but this is genocide. America should keep out though because its not like were not fucked already!
Will the Dali LLama set himself on fire and become an album cover?
A traveller from Toronto was walking on Beijing Road in Lhasa on Friday afternoon when he saw a crowd of Tibetans beating a young Han Chinese man and two women.
As he watched, stunned, the crowd with sticks and metal clubs beat the man, about 20, until he fell to the ground unconscious.
http://www.thestar.com/article/346769
tibetan rioters attack civilians
those photos are horrifying.
Ironic that this is the LEAST violent century in human history, isn’t it?
Don’t forget to boycott all American sports too for the endless wars that we wage. /sarcasm
digger + tom — i don’t wish to excuse tibetan violence towards innocent chinese civilians. but if your people lived under brutal, violent repression for nearly 50 years, don’t you expect that one day you’d snap?
Mobius, Clinton did not “give” MFN status to China. It was passed by Congress. (September 2000 being when permanent status was approved). And, FWIW, status for China was always a bargaining chip, most especially after the Tiennemen Square massacre. But, status was never removed entirely, since both Bush I and Clinton renewed China’s MFN during their terms and it was approved by the GOP controlled Congress. Unfortunately, business always trumps ethics and a right cause. Money is more important than lives. This is the root of most every human conflict since the dawn of mankind. And, sacrificing long term goals and security- economic, health, social, intellectual, spiritual - for short term financial or ideological “victory” is the culprit. It shall be emblazoned upon our epitaph.
Clinton was simply one of many who failed to see the forest for the trees.
On balance, I appreciate you putting the pictures below a cut. I think it’s important to see the pictures, yes, but I can imagine that they would be very traumatic for anyone who has survived abuse (whether by state agents or family/partner).
(I really hope this doesn’t come across all drama-queen-woe-is-me-ish. )
why aren’t tibetans non-violent? where is their nelson mandela? why do they let their children throw rocks? only when tibetans learn to love their own children more than they hate the chinese will they have their own state.
Xisnotx, what are you talking about??? Other nations have fought a lot more violently for independence. Hello? Ireland, the Basque Country, Palestine, and so on. When you have Chinese authorities performing forced abortions, murders, displacements, what do you expect? I’m surprised it only emerges now.
After all, a soccer match is enough to make people violent here in Europe. Why wouldn’t decades of oppression do the same? Give them more freedom, stop colonizing them, stop wiping out their culture.
I don’t think oppression gives anyone the right to assault innocent people. In the marketplace of ideas, once you resort to violence, whatever point you had or were trying to make is null and void. Just my 2 cents, take it for what it’s worth (about 2 cents, but I also find pacifism immoral, so what the hey)
bog - xisnotx is applying zionist platitudes to the plight of the tibetans in order to make a point about the moral turpitude of israel’s supporters.
mmm, i’d say a point about expectations.
Well, what have we learned here? That the Chinese (Han) regime is authoritarian and brutal? Nah, we already knew that. Perhaps that noone is willing to actively intervene? Nah, we already knew that. I could go on….
My simple point is this: China has been this way for thousands of years, righly or wrongly, and the words we say or actions we take, aside from direct intervention, mean nothing to them. Their belief in their own importance, destiny and greatness based on their preception of their own past is akin only really to the rise of the 3rd Reich.
Tibet was once part of the Chinese empire. Separate state to be sure, but part of their ancient empire. China these days sees that ancient empire as their desired country, hence the one China policy. The Han chinese will do what they want to with the ‘empire’ because they see it as theirs, and our opinions dont count because they were there a long time before us, and expect to be there a long time after we are gone.
Sad but true.
If this were the cold war, and Tibet offered the opportunity for it, you would I imagine see another Afghanistan develop to simply drain Chinas’ resources and economy. However, since so many companies now depend on China for manufacturing this will never be.
Your only alternative really would be to develop replacement capabilities in India, or to develop them in Africa. Personally I would like to see Africa get some of the ecomomic development and investment it sorely needs. I am sure that there are many places willing to take Chinas’ place, if only they had the opportunity. But would it stop the occupation of Tibet? Maybe for a time…
Non American
xisnotx, what about Hamas? It’s ok for THEM to deliberately target civilians?? Maybe Israel should use the exact same rockets and point them back in similar trajectories in an eye for eye fashion AND send people with bombs strapped to themselves to explode in populated cafes???
i think these pictures are horrible yet i understand why they lash out. years of abuse and they give it back in return but i don’t think it really matter who it is they kill for the so long as its “the other side”… shame but thats how it is in my opinion. Much like Ireland as bog pointed out. humanity at its worst.
Bob– i’m not really sure why you’re asking that. The answer is simple — it’s never ok to target civilians.
According to my insider source in the US Navy, the most important and brilliant thing Bill Clinton did while in office was ensure a high degree of economic cooperation and engagement with China. This was based on an analysis that China would want and need war for its own reasons within 20 years, unless the economic reasons became so compelling that it would choose a less bellicose path. This was also based on an analysis that, despite technological superiority, the US cannot defeat China in a war (nor can Japan, nor Russia, nor Taiwan or India or Vietnam. Only a nuke would defeat China, and nobody wants to go there either).
China is a quarter of the world, and the more engaged that population is with the rest of the planet, the more it will have to lose, the more educated it will be, and the more likely it will be to committ to peaceful coexistence. Given that neither the will nor ability exists to stop it, China’s actions in Tibet are like Russia’s in Chechnya. Taking a stand against China in Tibet WITHOUT TEETH would only embitter it and make it belligerent– making real war, over Taiwan or whatever– far more likely. Do the math.
aside to xisnotx: The IDF has had hundreds of court-martials and scores of jail sentences against its own soldiers for shootings against civilians since 2000. Every single shooting is reviewed, and justice is indeed rendered in almost all cases. You may not agree with every verdict, but there is rule of law. Unless your idea of justice is a Palestinian firing squad or lynch mob. To say that NONE have been brought to justice is a bald faced lie.
The IDF has had hundreds of court-martials and scores of jail sentences against its own soldiers for shootings against civilians since 2000. Every single shooting is reviewed, and justice is indeed rendered in almost all cases. You may not agree with every verdict, but there is rule of law. Unless your idea of justice is a Palestinian firing squad or lynch mob. To say that NONE have been brought to justice is a bald faced lie.
While it is certainly true that Israel investigates all shootings and in some cases, individual soldiers are convicted, more often than not the IDF will seek out every possible excuse to justify the soldier’s actions, even when they are completely indefensible.
Looking at the history of indictments against IDF soldiers, at least one trend is very clear: If the shooter is Ashkenazi or Mizrachi, chances are, the IDF will dismiss the charges out right. However, if the shooter is Bedouin, Druze or Ethiopian, they might just end up in jail.
http://www.btselem.org/English.....laints.asp
From the beginning of the current intifada (29 September 2000) to 14 February 2007, the Military Police investigated only 239 cases involving shooting by soldiers. Only 30 of these investigations resulted in the filing of indictments. During this period, 3,963 Palestinians were killed, among them 814 minors (under the age of 18).
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