THE PEOPLE'S DAILY OF CHENNAI
B.RAMAN
Tibet and Sichuan have seen some determined protests by the long-suppressed Tibetans since March 10. The protests were initially started by Tibetan monks, but subsequently a large number of students and other sections of the general population joined in. The Chinese Army, which was taken by surprise, is in the process of putting down the protests ruthlessly.
2. There is no doubt they will ultimately succeed in ruthlessly crushing the protests, arresting those who participated and sending them to their own Gulags.
3.There can be different views on what the Government of India's attitude to the protests should be---sympathise with it or disaprove of it or adopt an ambivalent attitude? A decision on this has to be taken by the Government after taking the national interests into consideration.
4. But there can be no different views on what should be the attitude of the media to the developments in Tibet and Sichuan, particularly of a newspaper which projects itself to be independent and objective, with no agenda of its own. It has to inform the public of the various versions of the developments----the Tibetan, the Chinese, the Western etc--- and leave it to the readers to decide which version to believe.
5. If it has any views as to which version is more credible, it can express those views in its editorial columns for the benefit of its readers.
6. But, when a newspaper censors the various versions, blacks out the Tibetan version and disseminates only the version as put out by the Government-owned Hsinhua news agency of China, one has reason to feel shocked----- and sad.
7. Read the report as carried by that newspaper on its front page on March 17,2008. At the bottom, its says "Hsinhua, PTI and Reuters" as if the entire report is based on the versions put out by these three agencies.
8. It is not so. The portion regarding the disturbances in Tibet is totally the version of the Hsinhua with no clarifications or additions as to what the Tibetans have had to say. The Dalai Lama held a press conference on March 16,2008. Truncated versions of the press conference as disseminated by the Reuters and the PTI have been added on to the main Hsinhua version.
9. The Dalai Lama made two important points in his press conference. He accused the Chinese of cultural genocide in Tibet and asked for an international enquiry into it. At the same time, he made it clear that he did not want the Beijing Olympics to be disrupted. In its headline , the paper played up only what he said on the Olympics and remained silent on what he had to say about the alleged cultural genocide.
10. A few years ago, the paper came under a new leadership of the same family. Since then one could see a change in its editorial policy towards China and Tibet---- no publicity to the statements and activities of the Dalai Lama, no dissemination of his pictures, no publicity to the views and hardships of the Tibetans, no negative comments on China, only the positive to be highlighted and not the negative about China. Beijing to be projected as an angel in a world of villains.
11. More and more Hsinhua despatches started finding their way into the columns of this paper. The readers were told what a wonderful country China was, what a wonderful people the Chinese were, how there is nothing for India to fear from the Chinese.
12.Its Washington office was closed and shifted to Beijing indicating where its heart lay.
13. A Chinese interlocutor recently mentioned to me the names of two persons from this paper----one in its headquarters in Chennai and the other in its office in Beijing-- and remarked that if only all journalists were like these two, journalism must be the most beautiful profession in the world. I asked him why he thought so.
14. He replied that they write only positively about China. They never say anything negative.
15. All of us, who were born and brought up in Chennai, grew up on the mother's milk of this daily. Whatever little we achieved in our life and career was due to what we imbibed from its columns.
17. What a great family it was! What great names it had in its staff in its headquarters and in its field offices!
18. When we travelled abroad and mentioned that Chennai was our home town, people would immediately say " oh, the city of that famous newspaper". Chennai was known as the city of the Music Festival and this newspaper.
19. I am 71---- well on the way to making my peace with My Maker. How cruel to see this daily with which I grew up reduced to its present status!
20. Its founding fathers and the giants who served in it must be shedding tears in heavens over the way their child has been reduced to being the "People's Daily" of Chennai.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
Monday, March 17, 2008
CHINESE BEGIN ARRESTS IN LHASA
B.RAMAN
The Chinese Army and the People's Armed Police (PAP) have begun house-to-house searches in Lhasa. They have been checking the identity papers of all residents of Lhasa, probably in order to see whether the violent riots of March 14,2008, were caused by residents of Lhasa or whether there was also the involvement of likely infiltrators from the Tibetan diaspora abroad.
2.Even though the ultimatum issued by the Chinese authorities asking the trouble-makers to surrender was to expire only after nightfall on March 17,2008, the searches and arrests began even before the expiry of the ultimatum. The arrested persons were handcuffed and paraded through the streets of Lhasa---some on foot and others on open trucks. Vehicles fitted with loudspeakers have been moving round in the streets of Lhasa saying that the Hans and the Tibetans are brothers and are the same people and that the action is directed against foreign agents and not the Tibetan people. The Chinese have also been alleging that the monks and other rioters killed and destroyed the property of not only the Hans, but also of many Hui Muslims from Central China living in Tibet.
3. Despite the Chinese blockage of the Internet and all blogs and Internet chatter, sporadic chatter continues to take place. Internet-savvyTibetan exile groups had apparently anticipated the Chinese attempts to block all access to the Internet. They have been managing to get through to Tibetans in Tibet and Sichuan through various alternate routes. Myanmar monks and students, who rioted last year, were not that Internet-savvy. The moment the Myanmar military junta blocked all Internet servers, they found themselves totally isolated and without any way of remaining in touch with the outside world.
4. Tibetan exile groups have till now managed to outsmart the Chinese and have managed to keep up their communications with Lhasa. Interestingly, some of the Han settlers in Tibet and abroad have also been keeping up their web chatter. A number of organisations in the West have been closely monitoring the web chatter of the Hans and Hui residents of Lhasa and disseminating them.
5.Extracts of some web chatter by the Hans and Huis of Lhasa taken from one of these web sites are given in the Annexure. I have not had the time to edit them or remove the typos. Some of the chatters are apparently not Hans.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
ANNEXURE (EXTRACTS FROM WEB CHATTER)
Lhasa is rioting…school was closed…spoiled my birthday…fighting in the city is brutal! Army cars keep going by, hand grenades keep getting thrown around, the area all around Jokhang is being blasted, pedestrian streets have been closed by the PAP, Wenzhou Trade St. has been closed too, it seems the gas stations have been blown up…old as I am I've never seen anything like this…the Dalai is really fucking something! I hope he hurries and blows our campus up too! I'll transfer to Renmin U!
Lhasa today doesn't have the sanctity I thought it would; the Lhasa people once always revered has become a fountainhead of tyranny. I'm quite bummed to be staying on the island today; a good number of clothing shops in Lhasa have been burnt down, and everyone here on the island isn't allowed to leave. The lamaists have been fighting with police, don't know if any have been killed. To be honest, as old as I am I have never seen so many armored vehicles before, so many tanks and so much military. What I can't figure out is just what all this that I'm seeing is for. People are even saying they're killing us Han Chinese? All the shops on the island and in Lhasa are closed or are going to go bankrupt, because those shops were opened by Han, us…
The Chinese government allocates funds every year for development in Tibet, but to this day what has it really gotten? This kind of domestic tyranny is supposed to make China more developed? When I first came to Lhasa my feeling was that this place is simple, a place suited to personal development, and a palace suited to making money…because there were too many big business opportunities here, like mineral extraction over the past two years, which has also created a lot of wealth for the Tibet and makes the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway not even look like news.
March 14, 2008: Lhasa's Lama's rebel
This afternoon, PAP, traffic police and riot police all marched into Potala Palace Square to the Lhasa Department Store tower junctionTanks, armored vehicles and firetrucks all moved into the front of Potala Palace.At present, riot police have injured dozens and killed several.One fire truck has been blown up.Countless civilian cars have been blown up, and dozens of shops have been torchedOver a hundred Sichuanese have been killed.Jokhang Temple and Ramoche Temple have both already been burnt down!A friend just called to say: all small and large hospitals in Lhasa are already full with patients! (last night, several hundred Sichuanese got beaten in front of Jokhang Temple, 13 died at the scene, and 80 more were seriously hurt)
I often see the news about the war in Iraq, or attacks happening somewhere, and at the time I just sigh inside, reminded how lucky I am to be Chinese, where here it's at least peaceful, at least there are no battles, and people don't have to live their lives in fear of battle! But the riots which took place in Tibet today just make me see very clearly that in fact some people don't want our China to be a calm and peaceful place! I wonder, when people in other countries see the news about our battles here in China, will they feel the same thing that I did when I saw the news on Iraq?
When those insane dalais gathered in the street today and surrounded and viciously beat those Han Chinese, while they used lighters to light fire to shop after shop, while they threw molotovs at cars parked on the sides of the road, I really felt afraid, and that this is inconceivable. What you are destroying is the very place that you live in. Aren't you followers of the Living Buddha? You think this is something your Living Buddha instructed you to do, to destroy the very place that you live in? I think that most of these people haven't thought about this, and that most of them have been deceived by the words of certain people who would see the motherland split! But if you just think about it, just who was it that made Tibet the developed place it is today? Who set up the bridge between Tibet and the whole world? And who is it that sends qualified people each year from every sector to educate the children of Tibet with knowledge and culture? AND who is it that sends aid from every developed city in the motherland each year to assist Tibet? I think you seem to have forgotten all this……
March 14, Lhasa's lamas have finally “uprisen” again Smashing cars, lighting fires, and other stuff I don't even know whatEven with my build I can't easily get through the gaps in the PAP and army human wall And I definitely don't want to end up cannon fodder beneath the tracks of the armored vehicles Sigh..Lama, why can't you be more law-abiding like other monks?Everyone knows you don't do anything Just always making a commotion
Sunday, March 16:
As of Saturday, YouTube has been blocked in China. Little information seems to be coming out of Lhasa now, although micro-channels remain open. Phayul.com has cellphone video of a large number of monks demonstrating in the early afternoon of March 15 around Labrang Monastery in neighboring Gansu province.Also on Saturday, EconThink MSN Spaces blogger Robert posted a notice from the local law authorities calling on those responsible for the “smashing, looting, burning and killing” to turn themselves in before March 17, saying that those who do may be exempt from punishment, and those who don't will be severely punished, the same for those who are found to be covering up for or harboring criminals. Protection is being offered for those who turn “criminals” in.
I feel sorry for the Han, they may be the only people on earth not aware of the horrific atrocities that have been afflicted on the Tibetan people through the decades by the Chinese government.
March 16th, The fact Han people have no clue why these riots and separatists existed is a part of a carefully calculated program of “culture assimilation”, or in Dalai Lama’s saying: “cultural extinction / genocide”. Their reaction made me think about the cold talk between Israel-Pakistan and Serbia-Kosovo, where ignorance pave the way to war and hell.
I don’t know whether I have been brainwashed or you have been brainwashed. Why every person in developed western countries always think we are voice of goverment? I have been UK for 5 years, I am still working here. I have experienced your freedom or democracy for a long time. I admit it is good, but that doesn’t mean it is suitable for every country. I am here, not speaking for my goverment. I am speaking for my country. Most of you, don’t even know chinese, you received all information that have been filtered by your media. How could you know the truth and the thought of all chinese? I am feeling very sad for you.
I feel very sorry for those all you ignorant and arrogant westerners who know lilttle about China and a part of it, Tibet, and still think that you know much more about 1.3 billion Chinese, nearly 20% of the humanity. SHAME on you.
Rioters are only numbers in thousands if not in hundreds. The thugs (who beat and killed ordinary Hans, Huis, and other Chinese minorities like stray dogs) account for only a small percentage of Tibetan people (just like those ex- serf-owners in exile were a tiny part of the old Tibet), but they are many enough to do too much damage.
Even your much biased media (on one issue or another, one people or another people, like Arabs or Jews, then Paliasteinians or Jews etc) had to call those violent acts RIOTS, because they can’t filter out individual accounts as they used to, thanks to Internet. Just think that!
You guys are making a lot of progresses, though. 20 years ago, you guys would have more biased thoughts.
Don’t forget: vast majority of the officials in Tibet are Tibetans. Just think about that!!
Clearly we Chinese are mainly targeting at those rioters but not Tibetans in general. Why do you think that the rioters are representatives of the Tibetan people, a part of us? Do you really think that the Tibetan people are a violent people? You have to make up your mind!!
March 17
Hui Chinese, most Americans and Canadians who talk about Tibet, they are not interested in talking to you.
They want to talk at you as if you are some kind of subhuman. And they do it while completely ignoring the blood soaked ground we are standing on.
March 17: You should never trust the Western Media. It is amazing how well coordinated and well worded they make the current incident seems. They constantly used the word “protest” instead of the word “riot”. And it is consistent too. The source of course is either from Reuters or AP. There needs to be another more reliable source of news for the internet. Of course the prevalent language is English and most English speakers get their brainwashed news from Reuters or AP. I didn’t realized how stupid these English speakers were until recent years. And I have been in the West most of my life. It is amazing how the world is still being run by a minority. The West is obviously still in control. It is just another coordinated effort to bring more instability to a growing power like China. It is just a way to retain power in the West. The Chinese should see the West in its true light. They don’t intent to bring freedom or democracy to anybody, that is just BS. Nobody truly cares about Tibet or Tibetans. The true intention is to cause trouble for China.
B.RAMAN
The Chinese Army and the People's Armed Police (PAP) have begun house-to-house searches in Lhasa. They have been checking the identity papers of all residents of Lhasa, probably in order to see whether the violent riots of March 14,2008, were caused by residents of Lhasa or whether there was also the involvement of likely infiltrators from the Tibetan diaspora abroad.
2.Even though the ultimatum issued by the Chinese authorities asking the trouble-makers to surrender was to expire only after nightfall on March 17,2008, the searches and arrests began even before the expiry of the ultimatum. The arrested persons were handcuffed and paraded through the streets of Lhasa---some on foot and others on open trucks. Vehicles fitted with loudspeakers have been moving round in the streets of Lhasa saying that the Hans and the Tibetans are brothers and are the same people and that the action is directed against foreign agents and not the Tibetan people. The Chinese have also been alleging that the monks and other rioters killed and destroyed the property of not only the Hans, but also of many Hui Muslims from Central China living in Tibet.
3. Despite the Chinese blockage of the Internet and all blogs and Internet chatter, sporadic chatter continues to take place. Internet-savvyTibetan exile groups had apparently anticipated the Chinese attempts to block all access to the Internet. They have been managing to get through to Tibetans in Tibet and Sichuan through various alternate routes. Myanmar monks and students, who rioted last year, were not that Internet-savvy. The moment the Myanmar military junta blocked all Internet servers, they found themselves totally isolated and without any way of remaining in touch with the outside world.
4. Tibetan exile groups have till now managed to outsmart the Chinese and have managed to keep up their communications with Lhasa. Interestingly, some of the Han settlers in Tibet and abroad have also been keeping up their web chatter. A number of organisations in the West have been closely monitoring the web chatter of the Hans and Hui residents of Lhasa and disseminating them.
5.Extracts of some web chatter by the Hans and Huis of Lhasa taken from one of these web sites are given in the Annexure. I have not had the time to edit them or remove the typos. Some of the chatters are apparently not Hans.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
ANNEXURE (EXTRACTS FROM WEB CHATTER)
Lhasa is rioting…school was closed…spoiled my birthday…fighting in the city is brutal! Army cars keep going by, hand grenades keep getting thrown around, the area all around Jokhang is being blasted, pedestrian streets have been closed by the PAP, Wenzhou Trade St. has been closed too, it seems the gas stations have been blown up…old as I am I've never seen anything like this…the Dalai is really fucking something! I hope he hurries and blows our campus up too! I'll transfer to Renmin U!
Lhasa today doesn't have the sanctity I thought it would; the Lhasa people once always revered has become a fountainhead of tyranny. I'm quite bummed to be staying on the island today; a good number of clothing shops in Lhasa have been burnt down, and everyone here on the island isn't allowed to leave. The lamaists have been fighting with police, don't know if any have been killed. To be honest, as old as I am I have never seen so many armored vehicles before, so many tanks and so much military. What I can't figure out is just what all this that I'm seeing is for. People are even saying they're killing us Han Chinese? All the shops on the island and in Lhasa are closed or are going to go bankrupt, because those shops were opened by Han, us…
The Chinese government allocates funds every year for development in Tibet, but to this day what has it really gotten? This kind of domestic tyranny is supposed to make China more developed? When I first came to Lhasa my feeling was that this place is simple, a place suited to personal development, and a palace suited to making money…because there were too many big business opportunities here, like mineral extraction over the past two years, which has also created a lot of wealth for the Tibet and makes the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway not even look like news.
March 14, 2008: Lhasa's Lama's rebel
This afternoon, PAP, traffic police and riot police all marched into Potala Palace Square to the Lhasa Department Store tower junctionTanks, armored vehicles and firetrucks all moved into the front of Potala Palace.At present, riot police have injured dozens and killed several.One fire truck has been blown up.Countless civilian cars have been blown up, and dozens of shops have been torchedOver a hundred Sichuanese have been killed.Jokhang Temple and Ramoche Temple have both already been burnt down!A friend just called to say: all small and large hospitals in Lhasa are already full with patients! (last night, several hundred Sichuanese got beaten in front of Jokhang Temple, 13 died at the scene, and 80 more were seriously hurt)
I often see the news about the war in Iraq, or attacks happening somewhere, and at the time I just sigh inside, reminded how lucky I am to be Chinese, where here it's at least peaceful, at least there are no battles, and people don't have to live their lives in fear of battle! But the riots which took place in Tibet today just make me see very clearly that in fact some people don't want our China to be a calm and peaceful place! I wonder, when people in other countries see the news about our battles here in China, will they feel the same thing that I did when I saw the news on Iraq?
When those insane dalais gathered in the street today and surrounded and viciously beat those Han Chinese, while they used lighters to light fire to shop after shop, while they threw molotovs at cars parked on the sides of the road, I really felt afraid, and that this is inconceivable. What you are destroying is the very place that you live in. Aren't you followers of the Living Buddha? You think this is something your Living Buddha instructed you to do, to destroy the very place that you live in? I think that most of these people haven't thought about this, and that most of them have been deceived by the words of certain people who would see the motherland split! But if you just think about it, just who was it that made Tibet the developed place it is today? Who set up the bridge between Tibet and the whole world? And who is it that sends qualified people each year from every sector to educate the children of Tibet with knowledge and culture? AND who is it that sends aid from every developed city in the motherland each year to assist Tibet? I think you seem to have forgotten all this……
March 14, Lhasa's lamas have finally “uprisen” again Smashing cars, lighting fires, and other stuff I don't even know whatEven with my build I can't easily get through the gaps in the PAP and army human wall And I definitely don't want to end up cannon fodder beneath the tracks of the armored vehicles Sigh..Lama, why can't you be more law-abiding like other monks?Everyone knows you don't do anything Just always making a commotion
Sunday, March 16:
As of Saturday, YouTube has been blocked in China. Little information seems to be coming out of Lhasa now, although micro-channels remain open. Phayul.com has cellphone video of a large number of monks demonstrating in the early afternoon of March 15 around Labrang Monastery in neighboring Gansu province.Also on Saturday, EconThink MSN Spaces blogger Robert posted a notice from the local law authorities calling on those responsible for the “smashing, looting, burning and killing” to turn themselves in before March 17, saying that those who do may be exempt from punishment, and those who don't will be severely punished, the same for those who are found to be covering up for or harboring criminals. Protection is being offered for those who turn “criminals” in.
I feel sorry for the Han, they may be the only people on earth not aware of the horrific atrocities that have been afflicted on the Tibetan people through the decades by the Chinese government.
March 16th, The fact Han people have no clue why these riots and separatists existed is a part of a carefully calculated program of “culture assimilation”, or in Dalai Lama’s saying: “cultural extinction / genocide”. Their reaction made me think about the cold talk between Israel-Pakistan and Serbia-Kosovo, where ignorance pave the way to war and hell.
I don’t know whether I have been brainwashed or you have been brainwashed. Why every person in developed western countries always think we are voice of goverment? I have been UK for 5 years, I am still working here. I have experienced your freedom or democracy for a long time. I admit it is good, but that doesn’t mean it is suitable for every country. I am here, not speaking for my goverment. I am speaking for my country. Most of you, don’t even know chinese, you received all information that have been filtered by your media. How could you know the truth and the thought of all chinese? I am feeling very sad for you.
I feel very sorry for those all you ignorant and arrogant westerners who know lilttle about China and a part of it, Tibet, and still think that you know much more about 1.3 billion Chinese, nearly 20% of the humanity. SHAME on you.
Rioters are only numbers in thousands if not in hundreds. The thugs (who beat and killed ordinary Hans, Huis, and other Chinese minorities like stray dogs) account for only a small percentage of Tibetan people (just like those ex- serf-owners in exile were a tiny part of the old Tibet), but they are many enough to do too much damage.
Even your much biased media (on one issue or another, one people or another people, like Arabs or Jews, then Paliasteinians or Jews etc) had to call those violent acts RIOTS, because they can’t filter out individual accounts as they used to, thanks to Internet. Just think that!
You guys are making a lot of progresses, though. 20 years ago, you guys would have more biased thoughts.
Don’t forget: vast majority of the officials in Tibet are Tibetans. Just think about that!!
Clearly we Chinese are mainly targeting at those rioters but not Tibetans in general. Why do you think that the rioters are representatives of the Tibetan people, a part of us? Do you really think that the Tibetan people are a violent people? You have to make up your mind!!
March 17
Hui Chinese, most Americans and Canadians who talk about Tibet, they are not interested in talking to you.
They want to talk at you as if you are some kind of subhuman. And they do it while completely ignoring the blood soaked ground we are standing on.
March 17: You should never trust the Western Media. It is amazing how well coordinated and well worded they make the current incident seems. They constantly used the word “protest” instead of the word “riot”. And it is consistent too. The source of course is either from Reuters or AP. There needs to be another more reliable source of news for the internet. Of course the prevalent language is English and most English speakers get their brainwashed news from Reuters or AP. I didn’t realized how stupid these English speakers were until recent years. And I have been in the West most of my life. It is amazing how the world is still being run by a minority. The West is obviously still in control. It is just another coordinated effort to bring more instability to a growing power like China. It is just a way to retain power in the West. The Chinese should see the West in its true light. They don’t intent to bring freedom or democracy to anybody, that is just BS. Nobody truly cares about Tibet or Tibetans. The true intention is to cause trouble for China.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
SUPPRESSION IN TIBET, INCREASED VIGIL IN SICHUAN & XINJIANG
B.RAMAN
Despite meaasures like incapacitating internet servers, blocking foreign web sites reporting on the situation in Tibet, jamming the broadcasts of Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America and blocking overseas telephone calls, the Chinese have not yet been able to enforce a total isolation of Tibet. It is still possible to make telephone calls between Tibet and the rest of China, including Hong Kong . Pro-democracy elements in Hong Kong have been helping the Tibetans in disseminating abroad their accounts of the situation in Tibet. Information continues to flow out through Hong Kong, but the flow is much reduced as compared to the flow till March 14,2008.
2.Lhasa continues to be a closed city with all shops shut down on the orders of the Chinese troops on March 15 and 16,2008. To meet the resulting shortages of essential supplies for the people such as meat, vegetables, bread etc, Chinese troops have been distributing them at selected points.
3. The Chinese have totally sealed off all the monasteries in Lhasa keeping their monks under virtual house arrest. They are not allowed to go out for seeking alms and are being supplied rations by the Army. All religious and social interactions between the monks and the general population have been cut off. The Chinese troops are emulating the methods followed by the military junta in Myanmar last year to suppress the agitation by the monks. As happened in Myanmar last year, in Lhasa the younger monks were in the forefront of the agitation. The older monks were peaceful and refrained from participating in acts of violence.About 80 monks have so far been rounded up by the Army and are being questioned.
4. The Chinese troops have been going slow on their action against the students and other sections of the Tibetan youth, who allegedly participated in acts of violence, including in targeted attacks on shops and other property owned by Han settlers from outside Tibet. There was large-scale destruction of such property. The Chinese suspect that preparations for the revolt must have been going on for some days, if not weeks. It is alleged that on March 14,2008, when large-scale attacks on Han-owned shops took place, many Tibetan-owned shops exhibited outside scarfs of a particular colour to enable the protesting youth distinguish them and refrain from attacking them.
5. The Chinese have been bringing in reinforcements from other parts of China. Till the reinforcements are in position by March 17,2008, they are witholding their action against the students and other sections of the general population. They have been given an ultimatum till the evening of March 17,2008, to surrender to the police on their own. They have been promised a lenient treatment if they did so, provided they had not indulged in acts of murder. Those failing to surrender have been warned of severe action. While Lhasa has been relatively calm on Saturday and Sunday, it remains to be seen whether it would remain calm on March 17,2008, when some of the shops are expected to be allowed to re-open and the Chinese start house-to-house searches for those who participated in acts of violence.
6. Incidents of protest demonstrations by monks have been reported from the interior parts of Tibet and from Sichuan. There have been no reports of the participation of students and other sections of the youth in the interior areas, where the protests have been confined to the monks. According to the Tibetan refugees abroad, there was a major demonstration by over 1000 monks on March 16,2008, in the Amdo Ngaba Kirti monastery located in the Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the Sichuan Province. They shouted slogans for independence and praised the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama under detention in China.
7. Nervous of similar revolts by the general Tibetan population in the Sichuan province and by the Uighurs in the Xinjiang province, the Chinese army has rushed reinforcements to those provinces too and blocked all internet connections in anticipation of trouble. All travel to and from Pakistan from Xinjiang has been stopped and border posts on the Pakistani border have been reinforced.Official Chinese accounts of the March 14 disturbances alleged that the Tibetan demonstrators attacked a mosque in Lhasa frequented by Uighurs. This has been denied by Tibetan refugees.
8. The Nepalese authorities are reported to have succumbed to pressure from Beijing and agreed to stop all movements to the base camp of mount Everest till the Olympic flame is taken by the Chinese mountaineers on the Chinese side of the Everest to the top of the Everest, brought down and then taken out of Tibet. Similar restrictions have already been enforced on the Chinese side.
9. Even before the trouble broke out in Tibet on March 10,2008, a joint team of Chinese security officials had gone to Pakistan for discussions with their Pakistani counterparts regarding the security arrangements for the Olympic flame, which is expected to transit Islamabad on April 16 on its way to New Delhi. According to Pakistani police sources, not only the Chinese but even Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) apprehend that the Uighurs in the North Waziristan area as well as the students of the madrasas of the Lal Masjid might stage an act of suicide terrorism to express their resentment over the role of China in pressurising President Pervez Musharraf to order commando action in the Masjid in July,2007. This happened after the activities of the mullas and students of the madrasas took an anti-China turn with the kidnapping of some Chinese women working in the beauty parlours of Islamabad, who were accused by the Mullas of being prostitutes.
10. The revolt in Tibet and the incidents in Lhasa underline the total failure of the Chinese intelligence. They not only failed to detect in time the preparations being made for the revolt, but were also totally oblivious of the penetration of the Lhasa police by pro-independence recruits. There have been many desertions of Tibetan poliemen from the force. Heads are expected to roll in the Ministries of Public and State Security---- not only in their offices in Tibet, but also in their headquarters in Beijing. Well-informed Hong Kong sources say that even the position of Prime Minister Mr.Wen Jiabao may become shaky.
11. The equestrian events of the Olympics are to be held in Hong Kong. The Chinese are now worried that Falun Gong and pro-democracy elements in Hong Kong might create a diversion there. (16-3-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
B.RAMAN
Despite meaasures like incapacitating internet servers, blocking foreign web sites reporting on the situation in Tibet, jamming the broadcasts of Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America and blocking overseas telephone calls, the Chinese have not yet been able to enforce a total isolation of Tibet. It is still possible to make telephone calls between Tibet and the rest of China, including Hong Kong . Pro-democracy elements in Hong Kong have been helping the Tibetans in disseminating abroad their accounts of the situation in Tibet. Information continues to flow out through Hong Kong, but the flow is much reduced as compared to the flow till March 14,2008.
2.Lhasa continues to be a closed city with all shops shut down on the orders of the Chinese troops on March 15 and 16,2008. To meet the resulting shortages of essential supplies for the people such as meat, vegetables, bread etc, Chinese troops have been distributing them at selected points.
3. The Chinese have totally sealed off all the monasteries in Lhasa keeping their monks under virtual house arrest. They are not allowed to go out for seeking alms and are being supplied rations by the Army. All religious and social interactions between the monks and the general population have been cut off. The Chinese troops are emulating the methods followed by the military junta in Myanmar last year to suppress the agitation by the monks. As happened in Myanmar last year, in Lhasa the younger monks were in the forefront of the agitation. The older monks were peaceful and refrained from participating in acts of violence.About 80 monks have so far been rounded up by the Army and are being questioned.
4. The Chinese troops have been going slow on their action against the students and other sections of the Tibetan youth, who allegedly participated in acts of violence, including in targeted attacks on shops and other property owned by Han settlers from outside Tibet. There was large-scale destruction of such property. The Chinese suspect that preparations for the revolt must have been going on for some days, if not weeks. It is alleged that on March 14,2008, when large-scale attacks on Han-owned shops took place, many Tibetan-owned shops exhibited outside scarfs of a particular colour to enable the protesting youth distinguish them and refrain from attacking them.
5. The Chinese have been bringing in reinforcements from other parts of China. Till the reinforcements are in position by March 17,2008, they are witholding their action against the students and other sections of the general population. They have been given an ultimatum till the evening of March 17,2008, to surrender to the police on their own. They have been promised a lenient treatment if they did so, provided they had not indulged in acts of murder. Those failing to surrender have been warned of severe action. While Lhasa has been relatively calm on Saturday and Sunday, it remains to be seen whether it would remain calm on March 17,2008, when some of the shops are expected to be allowed to re-open and the Chinese start house-to-house searches for those who participated in acts of violence.
6. Incidents of protest demonstrations by monks have been reported from the interior parts of Tibet and from Sichuan. There have been no reports of the participation of students and other sections of the youth in the interior areas, where the protests have been confined to the monks. According to the Tibetan refugees abroad, there was a major demonstration by over 1000 monks on March 16,2008, in the Amdo Ngaba Kirti monastery located in the Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the Sichuan Province. They shouted slogans for independence and praised the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama under detention in China.
7. Nervous of similar revolts by the general Tibetan population in the Sichuan province and by the Uighurs in the Xinjiang province, the Chinese army has rushed reinforcements to those provinces too and blocked all internet connections in anticipation of trouble. All travel to and from Pakistan from Xinjiang has been stopped and border posts on the Pakistani border have been reinforced.Official Chinese accounts of the March 14 disturbances alleged that the Tibetan demonstrators attacked a mosque in Lhasa frequented by Uighurs. This has been denied by Tibetan refugees.
8. The Nepalese authorities are reported to have succumbed to pressure from Beijing and agreed to stop all movements to the base camp of mount Everest till the Olympic flame is taken by the Chinese mountaineers on the Chinese side of the Everest to the top of the Everest, brought down and then taken out of Tibet. Similar restrictions have already been enforced on the Chinese side.
9. Even before the trouble broke out in Tibet on March 10,2008, a joint team of Chinese security officials had gone to Pakistan for discussions with their Pakistani counterparts regarding the security arrangements for the Olympic flame, which is expected to transit Islamabad on April 16 on its way to New Delhi. According to Pakistani police sources, not only the Chinese but even Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) apprehend that the Uighurs in the North Waziristan area as well as the students of the madrasas of the Lal Masjid might stage an act of suicide terrorism to express their resentment over the role of China in pressurising President Pervez Musharraf to order commando action in the Masjid in July,2007. This happened after the activities of the mullas and students of the madrasas took an anti-China turn with the kidnapping of some Chinese women working in the beauty parlours of Islamabad, who were accused by the Mullas of being prostitutes.
10. The revolt in Tibet and the incidents in Lhasa underline the total failure of the Chinese intelligence. They not only failed to detect in time the preparations being made for the revolt, but were also totally oblivious of the penetration of the Lhasa police by pro-independence recruits. There have been many desertions of Tibetan poliemen from the force. Heads are expected to roll in the Ministries of Public and State Security---- not only in their offices in Tibet, but also in their headquarters in Beijing. Well-informed Hong Kong sources say that even the position of Prime Minister Mr.Wen Jiabao may become shaky.
11. The equestrian events of the Olympics are to be held in Hong Kong. The Chinese are now worried that Falun Gong and pro-democracy elements in Hong Kong might create a diversion there. (16-3-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
Saturday, March 15, 2008
REVOLT IN TIBET: LIKELY IMPLICATIONS IN ARUNACHAL PRADESH
B.RAMAN
The Government of India has adopted a two-pronged policy in relation to the outbreak of a revolt in Tibet in protest against the continued occupation of Tibet by China and the violation of the human rights of the Tibetans by the Chinese.
2.It has prevented the Tibetan refugees in India from indulging in activities which might result in acts of violence or disruption directed against Chinese nationals and interests in India and in dramatic acts such as their professed intention of crossing the border into Tibet, which could lead to an undesirable escalation of cross-border tensions. At the same time, it has expressed its distress over the situation in Tibet and called for a dialogue so that the Tibetans don't feel the need to take to acts of violence in their desperation. A spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India said on March 15,2008: , "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."
3. This is the right approach--- expressing our moral support to the Tibetans in accordance with our national interests without identifying ourselves with the attempts of anti-China activists in the West---particularly the US--- to exploit the continued alienation of the Tibetans and their desperation to create embarrassment for China before and during the Olympic Games in the hope of thereby achieving their own foreign policy goals in matters such as greater Chinese pressure on North Korea on the nuclear issue and on the military junta in Myanmar on the issue of the restoration a of genuine democracy and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
4. There are two issues involved here---- the aspirations of the Tibetans and using the Tibetans to needle China and create diificulties for it in organising the Olympic Games and making a success of it. While supporting the aspirations of the Tibetans in a sophisticated manner, we should not identify ourselves with the attempts of anti-China activists to sabotage the Olympic Games. We should do whatever we can in helping China in making a success of the Olympic Games. If India is seen as discreetly helping the efforts of the anti-China activists in their anti-Beijing Olympics Great Game, we will hurt the feelings of national pride of over a billion Chinese. This is not in our national interest.
5. Indira Gandhi disapproved the attempts of the West to exploit the Afghanistan issue to embarrass and humiliate the erstwhile USSR as the host of the 1980 Olympics by organising a boycott of the Moscow Games.A similar attempt is now on to exploit the Tibetan issue to embarrass and humiliate China as the host of the forthcoming Olympics by organising, if possible, a boycott of the Beijing Olympics or at least, a disruption of it. India should strongly oppose this and should advise the Dalai Lama too not to let the Tibetanbs be used by the anti-China activists in the US to target the Beijing Olympics. These activists had waged a fierce campaign against the award of the Beijing Olympics by the International Olympics Committee. Having failed in their attempts, they are now trying to sabotage the Games.
6. Our aim should be not to embarrass and humiliate China, but to persuade it to change its policy on Tibet and enter into a dialogue with the Dalai Lama on mutually agreed terms. India should play the role of a facilitator of such a dialogue. India has done well in expressing openly its distress over the turn of events in Tibet and in expressing its interest in a dialogue and not a street confrontation between the Chinese and the Tibetans. It could consider one more step at this important point in the history of the Tibetan issue----- removing all informal restrictions on official and social interactions with the Dalai Lama and his advisers. Though not openly admitted, such informal restrictions exist. We saw it at the end of last year, when the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India was reported to have advised all Ministers of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Dr.Manmohan Singh, not to attend a public reception for the Dalai Lama to felicitate him on the award of the Congressional Medal of Honour to him in the US. Greater interactions between the Prime Minister and the Dalai Lama in the form of exchange of courtesy calls, meetings for discussions etc should be considered.
7. Till now, our policy has been to make a clear distinction between the religious and political dimensions of our stand with regard to the Dalai Lama. We have been saying that the courtesies and honour extended by us to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan refugees is because of his stature as a highly respected Buddhist leader in the land where Buddhism was born, but it has no political significance and does not imply our tacit support for his political views. We should now make it clear that we consider that the Dalai Lama is also an important political figure in the eyes of the Tibetans and hence, his political views have to be considered in determinuing our policy on Tibet.
8. Expressing our moral support to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans, without damaging our relations with the Chinese leadership and people----that should be the objective of our policy. The Tibetan issue has defied a solution for over 50 years. It will be wrong and unwise to think that it can be solved now---- or at least a beginning made in that direction--- by exploiting the Chinese eagerness to make a success of the Beijing Olympics.
9. There are many landmines in the path of policy-making and implementation. As we fine-tune our policy and push it forward gradually, there could be misperceptions and misinterpretations in China with not only negative impact on our relations with China, but also with renewed tensions across the border, particularly in the Arunachal Pradesh sector. We are likely to see a reversion back to the period between the 1960s and the 1980s when the Chinese military was in the driving seat of policy-making on Tibet. It was during that period that we saw the military confrontation of 1962 and the subsequent tensions in Sino-Indian relations.
10. The confidence of the Chinese political leadership that they have pacified Tibet and its people once and for all has been badly shaken. The current revolt shows there has been no emotional integration between the Tibetans and the Han settlers in Tibet. The fear of the masses would once again distort the Chinese military mindset in Tibet. They would not admit that their policies towards the Tibetan people are responsible for the revolt. Instead, they would see with greater conviction than in the past that the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan refugees in India are the source of all their problems in Tibet and not their policies. The temptation to divert international attention away from Tibet to Arunachal Pradesh and Dharamsala by engaging in military moves in the Arunachap Pradesh area would be strong..
11. The conventional wisdom holds that the Chinese are so eager to make a success of the Olympics that they would not make any negative moves. This could be so, if the situation in Tibet calms down without any more escalation. But if the revolt further deteriorates and if the Chinese find themselves facing a situation where the choice is between saving their hold on Tibet and saving the Olympics, they would not hesitate to give priority to the suppression of the Tibetans. Their behaviour with relation to Arunachal Pradesh could become unpredictable.
12. Renewed cross-border military tensions----even Chinese incursions of a major nature--- in the Arunachal Pradesh sector after the Olympics is a possibility to be factored into in our scenario-buiding and policy-making exercise
13. Our presence in Arunachal Pradesh should be further strengthened and the various infrastructure projects recently announced by the Prime Minister during his visit to the area should be pushed through vigorously.
14.Some of the articles written by me during the last one year relating to the Olympics and Tibet----implications of the Olympics for Tibet and the implications of Tibet for the Olympics--- are available at http://ramanstrategicanalysis.blogspot.com/ (16-3-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
B.RAMAN
The Government of India has adopted a two-pronged policy in relation to the outbreak of a revolt in Tibet in protest against the continued occupation of Tibet by China and the violation of the human rights of the Tibetans by the Chinese.
2.It has prevented the Tibetan refugees in India from indulging in activities which might result in acts of violence or disruption directed against Chinese nationals and interests in India and in dramatic acts such as their professed intention of crossing the border into Tibet, which could lead to an undesirable escalation of cross-border tensions. At the same time, it has expressed its distress over the situation in Tibet and called for a dialogue so that the Tibetans don't feel the need to take to acts of violence in their desperation. A spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India said on March 15,2008: , "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."
3. This is the right approach--- expressing our moral support to the Tibetans in accordance with our national interests without identifying ourselves with the attempts of anti-China activists in the West---particularly the US--- to exploit the continued alienation of the Tibetans and their desperation to create embarrassment for China before and during the Olympic Games in the hope of thereby achieving their own foreign policy goals in matters such as greater Chinese pressure on North Korea on the nuclear issue and on the military junta in Myanmar on the issue of the restoration a of genuine democracy and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
4. There are two issues involved here---- the aspirations of the Tibetans and using the Tibetans to needle China and create diificulties for it in organising the Olympic Games and making a success of it. While supporting the aspirations of the Tibetans in a sophisticated manner, we should not identify ourselves with the attempts of anti-China activists to sabotage the Olympic Games. We should do whatever we can in helping China in making a success of the Olympic Games. If India is seen as discreetly helping the efforts of the anti-China activists in their anti-Beijing Olympics Great Game, we will hurt the feelings of national pride of over a billion Chinese. This is not in our national interest.
5. Indira Gandhi disapproved the attempts of the West to exploit the Afghanistan issue to embarrass and humiliate the erstwhile USSR as the host of the 1980 Olympics by organising a boycott of the Moscow Games.A similar attempt is now on to exploit the Tibetan issue to embarrass and humiliate China as the host of the forthcoming Olympics by organising, if possible, a boycott of the Beijing Olympics or at least, a disruption of it. India should strongly oppose this and should advise the Dalai Lama too not to let the Tibetanbs be used by the anti-China activists in the US to target the Beijing Olympics. These activists had waged a fierce campaign against the award of the Beijing Olympics by the International Olympics Committee. Having failed in their attempts, they are now trying to sabotage the Games.
6. Our aim should be not to embarrass and humiliate China, but to persuade it to change its policy on Tibet and enter into a dialogue with the Dalai Lama on mutually agreed terms. India should play the role of a facilitator of such a dialogue. India has done well in expressing openly its distress over the turn of events in Tibet and in expressing its interest in a dialogue and not a street confrontation between the Chinese and the Tibetans. It could consider one more step at this important point in the history of the Tibetan issue----- removing all informal restrictions on official and social interactions with the Dalai Lama and his advisers. Though not openly admitted, such informal restrictions exist. We saw it at the end of last year, when the Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India was reported to have advised all Ministers of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Dr.Manmohan Singh, not to attend a public reception for the Dalai Lama to felicitate him on the award of the Congressional Medal of Honour to him in the US. Greater interactions between the Prime Minister and the Dalai Lama in the form of exchange of courtesy calls, meetings for discussions etc should be considered.
7. Till now, our policy has been to make a clear distinction between the religious and political dimensions of our stand with regard to the Dalai Lama. We have been saying that the courtesies and honour extended by us to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan refugees is because of his stature as a highly respected Buddhist leader in the land where Buddhism was born, but it has no political significance and does not imply our tacit support for his political views. We should now make it clear that we consider that the Dalai Lama is also an important political figure in the eyes of the Tibetans and hence, his political views have to be considered in determinuing our policy on Tibet.
8. Expressing our moral support to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans, without damaging our relations with the Chinese leadership and people----that should be the objective of our policy. The Tibetan issue has defied a solution for over 50 years. It will be wrong and unwise to think that it can be solved now---- or at least a beginning made in that direction--- by exploiting the Chinese eagerness to make a success of the Beijing Olympics.
9. There are many landmines in the path of policy-making and implementation. As we fine-tune our policy and push it forward gradually, there could be misperceptions and misinterpretations in China with not only negative impact on our relations with China, but also with renewed tensions across the border, particularly in the Arunachal Pradesh sector. We are likely to see a reversion back to the period between the 1960s and the 1980s when the Chinese military was in the driving seat of policy-making on Tibet. It was during that period that we saw the military confrontation of 1962 and the subsequent tensions in Sino-Indian relations.
10. The confidence of the Chinese political leadership that they have pacified Tibet and its people once and for all has been badly shaken. The current revolt shows there has been no emotional integration between the Tibetans and the Han settlers in Tibet. The fear of the masses would once again distort the Chinese military mindset in Tibet. They would not admit that their policies towards the Tibetan people are responsible for the revolt. Instead, they would see with greater conviction than in the past that the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan refugees in India are the source of all their problems in Tibet and not their policies. The temptation to divert international attention away from Tibet to Arunachal Pradesh and Dharamsala by engaging in military moves in the Arunachap Pradesh area would be strong..
11. The conventional wisdom holds that the Chinese are so eager to make a success of the Olympics that they would not make any negative moves. This could be so, if the situation in Tibet calms down without any more escalation. But if the revolt further deteriorates and if the Chinese find themselves facing a situation where the choice is between saving their hold on Tibet and saving the Olympics, they would not hesitate to give priority to the suppression of the Tibetans. Their behaviour with relation to Arunachal Pradesh could become unpredictable.
12. Renewed cross-border military tensions----even Chinese incursions of a major nature--- in the Arunachal Pradesh sector after the Olympics is a possibility to be factored into in our scenario-buiding and policy-making exercise
13. Our presence in Arunachal Pradesh should be further strengthened and the various infrastructure projects recently announced by the Prime Minister during his visit to the area should be pushed through vigorously.
14.Some of the articles written by me during the last one year relating to the Olympics and Tibet----implications of the Olympics for Tibet and the implications of Tibet for the Olympics--- are available at http://ramanstrategicanalysis.blogspot.com/ (16-3-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
CHINA & OLYMPICS--WHAT I WROTE IN THE PAST
B.RAMAN
October 26,2007--http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers25/paper2427.html
China in Hu's Colours--Part III
By B. Raman
In a despatch on October 21, 2007, the State-owned Hsinhua news agency of China reported as follows: "For the first time in its history, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has mentioned the word "religion" in an amendment to its Constitution, adopted on Sunday (October 21, 2007) at the closing session of the 17th CPC National Congress. To insert CPC's guiding principles and policies in religious work in the Party Constitution is conducive to their full implementation, according to a resolution on the amendment to the Constitution. It said the insertion has been made to meet the demands posed by the new situation and new tasks. The CPC has been widely known as atheistic since its founding in 1921."
2. The actual text of the amendment has not been available so far. However, a resolution on the amendments passed by the Congress at its concluding session stated as follows: "The Congress holds that incorporating into the Constitution the principles and policies the Party has formulated for guiding efforts to strengthen the armed forces as well as the work related to ethnic and religious affairs, the united front and foreign affairs in light of the new circumstances and tasks is conducive to fully implementing these principles and policies and getting better results in the work in these areas."
3. In the past, the reference used to be to "the work related to ethnic affairs". The Tibetans and the Uighurs were treated as ethnic communities and not as distinct religious communities. The Catholics and the Protestants were not treated as distinct religious communities. They were identified with whatever ethnic group to which they belonged. Does the present reference to "ethnic and religious affairs" presage their being treated as not only ethnic groups, but also distinct religious groups? It would be difficult to answer this question till more details become available.
4. The Chinese project every concept or idea as having unique Chinese characteristics. Thus, they have "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "democracy with Chinese characteristics". Similarly, they have religious freedom too with Chinese characteristics, though they do not openly use that expression. One could give the following examples of the Chinese characteristics of religious freedom:
The Buddhists have the freedom of worship in their places of worship, but they cannot project the Dalai Lama as their leader or possess his picture. Nor can they speak of their faith in reincarnation. They have to accept the Panchen Lama chosen by the Communist Party. When the Dalai Lama dies, they have to similarly accept the Dalai Lama chosen by the Party. Reports from Sikkim say that local trans-border traders have complained of harassment by the Chinese police in Tibetan territory for possessing pictures of the Dalai Lama.
The Catholics and the Protestants similarly have the freedom of worship in their churches, but the Catholics cannot project the Pope as the head of the Catholic church or possess his picture. The Chinese look upon the Dalai Lama and the Pope as political and not religious figures.
The Muslims too have the freedom of worship in their mosques, but they cannot have madrasas to impart religious education to their children. There are also restrictions on how they worship in order to prevent large gatherings at the time of worship. To talk of jihad even in the benign sense (the inner struggle to make oneself a better Muslim) is a crime.
5. The apparent decision of the Congress to give a de jure recognition to religion in the Party Constitution has come in the wake of continuous pressure from the West---particularly the US--- on the Chinese Government to grant full religious freedom to those Chinese who believe in religion. The decision has also been motivated by the desire to improve the image of China as it nears next year's Beijing Olympics. To improve its visage, China has been using a lot of cosmetics and religious freedom is one of them.
6. The pre-Olympics angle is evident from the report on this amendment carried by the Chinese media. To quote from a despatch of the Hsinhua news agency: "The CPC is atheistic but allows freedom of religious beliefs. China is home to 100 million religious faithful, largely Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Catholics and Islamites. "The Party's secret in handling well China's religious issues lies in its principles and policies," said Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs. "Their insertion in the Party Constitution shows the Party is sincere, and capable, of its implementation of policies on the freedom of religious beliefs." He said religious problems are reported in many parts of the world. "But in China we enjoy peace and quiet because we have the established policies and principles." With the new elaboration on religious work, Ye said the Party is determined to enhance the active role of the religious circle and faithful in boosting social and economic development. Hao Peng, vice Party chief in Tibet, described the relations between the Party and the religious faithful as "united, cooperative and mutually respectful". The CPC's tenet of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, featuring prosperity, democracy, cultural advancement and harmony, reflect the common aspirations of Tibet's religious faithful, said Zhukang Tubdankezhub, president of the Tibetan branch of the Buddhist Association of China. As the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, China has pledged to offer religious services for foreigners arriving for the Games. "A large number of religious faithful will be arriving for the Games," Ye Xiaowen told reporters at a news conference on the sidelines of the 17th Party congress. He said China is working on religious facilities at its Olympic venues with the help of the International Olympic Committee and referring to the practices at previous Games. "Our religious services will be up to previous standards." Ye also dismissed allegations that China restricted the printing and sale of Bibles, which he said receive state subsidies and other preferential policies. China, with 16 million Protestant Christians, has printed 42 million Bibles, he said. "
7. In an article under the title "God As A Threat To National Security" written by me on July 11, 2002, which is available at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers5/paper492.html, I had stated as follows: "The Chinese people have reasons to be grateful to their leadership, which has given them increasing prosperity and a well-run administration. People definitely have more money in their pockets now than in the past and than the people of India have in theirs. Despite this, why are they attracted to God? Why this feeling of emptiness inside them despite a bulging money purse? Why more and more people seek solace in religion and spirituality, even at the risk of falling foul of the establishment? These are questions which continue to confuse and haunt the Chinese leadership, which is not able to find an answer to them. The way they monitor religious and spiritual activities, one gets the impression as if they feel that God is a major threat to their national security. The pragmatic and far-sighted Chinese leadership has handled the economy with aplomb. The chances of political instability due to economic causes are low. One wishes the leadership develops an equal understanding of the force of religion and spirituality. If one day there is serious instability in China and if its society comes unstuck, it will, most probably, be not due to political, economic or social causes, but due to the State continuing to come in the way of the religious and spiritual yearnings of the people. "
8. Mr. Hu's China may no longer see, to the same extent as in the past, God as a major threat to national security, but they continue to see the Dalai Lama as a major threat to their national security and to the smooth holding of the Olympics. Their concerns have increased after the high-profile treatment accorded to His Holiness during his current tour of the US. Their concerns have also increased after seeing the recent massive demonstrations by the Buddhist monks in Myanmar in support of democracy. They are worried over the possibility of the monks of Tibet emulating those of Myanmar. That is why they have been nudging the Myanmar Junta to make overtures to the pro-democracy activists in order to keep the monks off the streets. Remember how the huge demonstrations in Bulgaria, Romania and other Communist countries of East Europe in the late 1980s spread like an European flu? They don't want the Myanmar flu to spread to Tibet.
9. On the eve of the Congress, the Chinese authorities further stepped up their campaign to denigrate His Holiness. They have been projecting the Dalai Lama not as a respected Buddhist leader, but as the leader of an evil sect comparable to the Aum Shinrikiyo of Japan and the Falun Gong of China. They accuse all the three of being evil birds of the same feather. Annexed is an article on the Dalai Lama, which was carried by the "People's Daily" on October 9, 2007. To be continued
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)
ANNEXURE ARTICLE ON THE DALAI LAMA CARRIED BY THE "PEOPLE'S DAILY" OF OCTOBER 9, 2007
Xinhua was authorized on Tuesday to release a signed article by Shi Shan on the relationship between the 14th Dalai Lama, Aum Shinrikyo cult and Falun Gong. The full text of the article is as follows:
The world has seen rapid development in the scientific civilization of mankind, but the malignant tumor of evil cults is still rampant, plunging innocent people into the depths of suffering. Evil cults such as the Solar Temple Cult of the United States, the Falun Gong of China and the Movement of the Restoration of God's Ten Commandments of Uganda wantonly preach the fallacy of "the End of the World", destroy social stability and jeopardize the lives and property of the public. Such perverse acts have aroused strong indignation of the people and governments of various countries. Many countries have staged a fight against evil cults by enacting legislation and setting up special agencies.
Buddhist doctrine advocates good deeds and extrication from the earthly weal and woe. It has also long been viewing evil cults as the "feud of Buddha" and maintaining that "Buddha and demons do not coexist with each other". The 14th Dalai Lama, who boasts to be a "follower of Buddhism" and "human rights fighter", however not only has no hatred toward evil cults but instead shows a great deal of compassion for them. Isn't it worth pondering the reasons behind this? Let's first start with the Aum Shinrikyo cult of Japan. The cult leader Shoko Asahara claimed that it was "the 14th Dalai Lama who personally led him into the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism" and that he could shorten the time needed for one to become a Buddha from 2,000-3,000 years to just 10 years, urging people to ditch the ascetic practices advocated by Buddhism and follow his sect tenets to merrily achieve longevity and even to become a Buddha. The 14th Dalai Lama kept writing certificates or letters of recommendation for Shoko Asahara to the authorities of Tokyo, hailing Shoko Asahara as "a very capable religious teacher" and hoping the authorities would "allow the Aum Shinrikyo Sect to be exempted from tax payments and propagandize its credo. The German weekly Focus reported that without the support of the 14th Dalai Lama, it would have been absolutely impossible for Shoko Asahara to build up his sect empire and, within a short period of very few years, gain status as a cult leader in Japan. In other words, it is the 14th Dalai Lama's all-out "support" that turned Shoko Asahara, a swindler and a mountebank, into "a religious teacher".
It was because of the 14th Dalai Lama who persistently supported and trumpeted Shoko Asahara that the Aum Shinrikyo cult could acquire the privilege of "tax exemption" and accumulated funds to bankroll his cruel evil doing against the Japanese people. In the Spring of 1995, Shoko Asahara organized a terrorist attack by discharging poisonous gas in Tokyo's subway, killing 12 people and injuring 5,000 others. The event sparked indignation from the Japanese people. In October of the same year, Shoko Asahara and his die-hard followers stood public trial in a local court of Tokyo and were punished in line with laws.
Even at this moment, the 14th Dalai Lama who claimed to be a "human rights fighter" still spoke plausibly to the Kyodo News Service that Shoko Asahara remained his friend and that he still thought what the Aum Shinrikyo cult preached was in accordance with Buddhist doctrines. It was the support and connivance of the 14th Dalai Lama who took the foe for his friend that made Asahara feel secure in the knowledge that he had strong backing. The evil cult continued to do evils under the guise of constantly-changed names and leaders. Eventually in 1999, the Japanese Senate completed the legislative procedures against evil cults including the Aum Shinrikyo. The Tokyo authorities also took a number of measures to crack down on the leaders of the evil cult.
Why would the 14th Dalai Lama openly violate the teachings of Sakyamuni that urge his followers to get rid of demons and uphold truth and laws to favor Aum Shinrikyo? Why would he flout the tenets of Buddhism urging the masses not to do evils but to do good deeds? The 14th Dalai Lama had confessed in a letter to the cult, appreciating the Aum Shinrikyo Sect for its "generous donation to our Buddhist collective in exile". Aha, it turned out to be that the "leader" even bartered away the sacred tenet of Buddhism as a cheap bargaining chip in money deals.
It is the 14th Dalai Lama's own deeds that have step by step betrayed his real intentions and political ambitions put under the guise of Buddhism and peace. A weekly newspaper in Manila commented it was a pity that the 14th Dalai Lama wore the cassock of a Lama but played political tricks, spoke of the pursuit of freedom through peaceful means but harbored in mind the vain attempt of restoring the past feudal rule of Lamaism. Even catholic senator P. Santorum of the United States couldn't help exclaiming that such conduct reflected a subdued religious sentiment. He held that to establish a society respecting life, cracking down upon crimes and promoting dignity of mankind, efforts must be made to prevent religion from being individualized. It appears that many people of insight across the world have recognized the tricks of the 14th Dalai Lama in using Tibetan Buddhism to engage in political activities and have stayed on high alert to and repulsed the deed of the Dalai Lama.
Let's now have a look at the 14th Dalai Lama's attitude toward China's evil cult Falun Gong. Cult leader Li Hongzhi of Falun Gong took religion as pretence, trampled upon religious doctrines and thus invited indignation, reprimands and stern objections from the religious circles. They said that Li Hongzhi had blasphemed Buddhism by fabricating his birthday from July 1952 to May 13, 1951, the date on which Sakyamuni was believed to be born. His attempt to pass himself as the reincarnation of Sakyamuni and his bragging about getting true knowledge from Sakyamuni and thus being more powerful than Sakyamuni was "an extreme blasphemy to Buddhism", they said. However, even such an evil cult leader who is denounced by many people and had to flee abroad to escape the punishment of laws secured compassion and admiration from the 14th Dalai Lama. The latter first dispatched his representative to comfort Li Hongzhi and then sent over his representatives to conspire with Li and staged various farces at the time when the 56th World Human Rights Conference was held in Geneva, stopping at nothing to spread lies and rumors and to trumpet anti-China bills.
As one Chinese saying goes: Birds of a feather flock together. The real reasons for the collusion of the 14th Dalai Lama and Li Hongzhi are their shared situation. They are both in exile after their illegal acts to subvert the Chinese government and the Chinese people ended in constant failures under the august Chinese Constitution and laws; Shared nature--They are both not resigned to failures and attempt to hoodwink and manipulate their few domestic followers to carry on making turbulence and to hold back the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation; Shared intention--They are both hostile to their motherland and regard the 1.3 million Chinese as enemies, dreaming a pipe dream of returning to China, with the support of their masters, to materialize their evil objective of splitting China. Imagine the 14th Dalai Lama, the self-proclaimed "religious leader", even condescended to associate with Li Hongzhi who has been labeled by the United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters as a preacher of evil cult and a swindler! This obviously reflects that the 14th Dalai Lama has cornered himself into a dead end!
Source: Xinhua
B.RAMAN
October 26,2007--http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers25/paper2427.html
China in Hu's Colours--Part III
By B. Raman
In a despatch on October 21, 2007, the State-owned Hsinhua news agency of China reported as follows: "For the first time in its history, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has mentioned the word "religion" in an amendment to its Constitution, adopted on Sunday (October 21, 2007) at the closing session of the 17th CPC National Congress. To insert CPC's guiding principles and policies in religious work in the Party Constitution is conducive to their full implementation, according to a resolution on the amendment to the Constitution. It said the insertion has been made to meet the demands posed by the new situation and new tasks. The CPC has been widely known as atheistic since its founding in 1921."
2. The actual text of the amendment has not been available so far. However, a resolution on the amendments passed by the Congress at its concluding session stated as follows: "The Congress holds that incorporating into the Constitution the principles and policies the Party has formulated for guiding efforts to strengthen the armed forces as well as the work related to ethnic and religious affairs, the united front and foreign affairs in light of the new circumstances and tasks is conducive to fully implementing these principles and policies and getting better results in the work in these areas."
3. In the past, the reference used to be to "the work related to ethnic affairs". The Tibetans and the Uighurs were treated as ethnic communities and not as distinct religious communities. The Catholics and the Protestants were not treated as distinct religious communities. They were identified with whatever ethnic group to which they belonged. Does the present reference to "ethnic and religious affairs" presage their being treated as not only ethnic groups, but also distinct religious groups? It would be difficult to answer this question till more details become available.
4. The Chinese project every concept or idea as having unique Chinese characteristics. Thus, they have "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "democracy with Chinese characteristics". Similarly, they have religious freedom too with Chinese characteristics, though they do not openly use that expression. One could give the following examples of the Chinese characteristics of religious freedom:
The Buddhists have the freedom of worship in their places of worship, but they cannot project the Dalai Lama as their leader or possess his picture. Nor can they speak of their faith in reincarnation. They have to accept the Panchen Lama chosen by the Communist Party. When the Dalai Lama dies, they have to similarly accept the Dalai Lama chosen by the Party. Reports from Sikkim say that local trans-border traders have complained of harassment by the Chinese police in Tibetan territory for possessing pictures of the Dalai Lama.
The Catholics and the Protestants similarly have the freedom of worship in their churches, but the Catholics cannot project the Pope as the head of the Catholic church or possess his picture. The Chinese look upon the Dalai Lama and the Pope as political and not religious figures.
The Muslims too have the freedom of worship in their mosques, but they cannot have madrasas to impart religious education to their children. There are also restrictions on how they worship in order to prevent large gatherings at the time of worship. To talk of jihad even in the benign sense (the inner struggle to make oneself a better Muslim) is a crime.
5. The apparent decision of the Congress to give a de jure recognition to religion in the Party Constitution has come in the wake of continuous pressure from the West---particularly the US--- on the Chinese Government to grant full religious freedom to those Chinese who believe in religion. The decision has also been motivated by the desire to improve the image of China as it nears next year's Beijing Olympics. To improve its visage, China has been using a lot of cosmetics and religious freedom is one of them.
6. The pre-Olympics angle is evident from the report on this amendment carried by the Chinese media. To quote from a despatch of the Hsinhua news agency: "The CPC is atheistic but allows freedom of religious beliefs. China is home to 100 million religious faithful, largely Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Catholics and Islamites. "The Party's secret in handling well China's religious issues lies in its principles and policies," said Ye Xiaowen, director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs. "Their insertion in the Party Constitution shows the Party is sincere, and capable, of its implementation of policies on the freedom of religious beliefs." He said religious problems are reported in many parts of the world. "But in China we enjoy peace and quiet because we have the established policies and principles." With the new elaboration on religious work, Ye said the Party is determined to enhance the active role of the religious circle and faithful in boosting social and economic development. Hao Peng, vice Party chief in Tibet, described the relations between the Party and the religious faithful as "united, cooperative and mutually respectful". The CPC's tenet of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, featuring prosperity, democracy, cultural advancement and harmony, reflect the common aspirations of Tibet's religious faithful, said Zhukang Tubdankezhub, president of the Tibetan branch of the Buddhist Association of China. As the host country of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, China has pledged to offer religious services for foreigners arriving for the Games. "A large number of religious faithful will be arriving for the Games," Ye Xiaowen told reporters at a news conference on the sidelines of the 17th Party congress. He said China is working on religious facilities at its Olympic venues with the help of the International Olympic Committee and referring to the practices at previous Games. "Our religious services will be up to previous standards." Ye also dismissed allegations that China restricted the printing and sale of Bibles, which he said receive state subsidies and other preferential policies. China, with 16 million Protestant Christians, has printed 42 million Bibles, he said. "
7. In an article under the title "God As A Threat To National Security" written by me on July 11, 2002, which is available at http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers5/paper492.html, I had stated as follows: "The Chinese people have reasons to be grateful to their leadership, which has given them increasing prosperity and a well-run administration. People definitely have more money in their pockets now than in the past and than the people of India have in theirs. Despite this, why are they attracted to God? Why this feeling of emptiness inside them despite a bulging money purse? Why more and more people seek solace in religion and spirituality, even at the risk of falling foul of the establishment? These are questions which continue to confuse and haunt the Chinese leadership, which is not able to find an answer to them. The way they monitor religious and spiritual activities, one gets the impression as if they feel that God is a major threat to their national security. The pragmatic and far-sighted Chinese leadership has handled the economy with aplomb. The chances of political instability due to economic causes are low. One wishes the leadership develops an equal understanding of the force of religion and spirituality. If one day there is serious instability in China and if its society comes unstuck, it will, most probably, be not due to political, economic or social causes, but due to the State continuing to come in the way of the religious and spiritual yearnings of the people. "
8. Mr. Hu's China may no longer see, to the same extent as in the past, God as a major threat to national security, but they continue to see the Dalai Lama as a major threat to their national security and to the smooth holding of the Olympics. Their concerns have increased after the high-profile treatment accorded to His Holiness during his current tour of the US. Their concerns have also increased after seeing the recent massive demonstrations by the Buddhist monks in Myanmar in support of democracy. They are worried over the possibility of the monks of Tibet emulating those of Myanmar. That is why they have been nudging the Myanmar Junta to make overtures to the pro-democracy activists in order to keep the monks off the streets. Remember how the huge demonstrations in Bulgaria, Romania and other Communist countries of East Europe in the late 1980s spread like an European flu? They don't want the Myanmar flu to spread to Tibet.
9. On the eve of the Congress, the Chinese authorities further stepped up their campaign to denigrate His Holiness. They have been projecting the Dalai Lama not as a respected Buddhist leader, but as the leader of an evil sect comparable to the Aum Shinrikiyo of Japan and the Falun Gong of China. They accuse all the three of being evil birds of the same feather. Annexed is an article on the Dalai Lama, which was carried by the "People's Daily" on October 9, 2007. To be continued
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)
ANNEXURE ARTICLE ON THE DALAI LAMA CARRIED BY THE "PEOPLE'S DAILY" OF OCTOBER 9, 2007
Xinhua was authorized on Tuesday to release a signed article by Shi Shan on the relationship between the 14th Dalai Lama, Aum Shinrikyo cult and Falun Gong. The full text of the article is as follows:
The world has seen rapid development in the scientific civilization of mankind, but the malignant tumor of evil cults is still rampant, plunging innocent people into the depths of suffering. Evil cults such as the Solar Temple Cult of the United States, the Falun Gong of China and the Movement of the Restoration of God's Ten Commandments of Uganda wantonly preach the fallacy of "the End of the World", destroy social stability and jeopardize the lives and property of the public. Such perverse acts have aroused strong indignation of the people and governments of various countries. Many countries have staged a fight against evil cults by enacting legislation and setting up special agencies.
Buddhist doctrine advocates good deeds and extrication from the earthly weal and woe. It has also long been viewing evil cults as the "feud of Buddha" and maintaining that "Buddha and demons do not coexist with each other". The 14th Dalai Lama, who boasts to be a "follower of Buddhism" and "human rights fighter", however not only has no hatred toward evil cults but instead shows a great deal of compassion for them. Isn't it worth pondering the reasons behind this? Let's first start with the Aum Shinrikyo cult of Japan. The cult leader Shoko Asahara claimed that it was "the 14th Dalai Lama who personally led him into the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism" and that he could shorten the time needed for one to become a Buddha from 2,000-3,000 years to just 10 years, urging people to ditch the ascetic practices advocated by Buddhism and follow his sect tenets to merrily achieve longevity and even to become a Buddha. The 14th Dalai Lama kept writing certificates or letters of recommendation for Shoko Asahara to the authorities of Tokyo, hailing Shoko Asahara as "a very capable religious teacher" and hoping the authorities would "allow the Aum Shinrikyo Sect to be exempted from tax payments and propagandize its credo. The German weekly Focus reported that without the support of the 14th Dalai Lama, it would have been absolutely impossible for Shoko Asahara to build up his sect empire and, within a short period of very few years, gain status as a cult leader in Japan. In other words, it is the 14th Dalai Lama's all-out "support" that turned Shoko Asahara, a swindler and a mountebank, into "a religious teacher".
It was because of the 14th Dalai Lama who persistently supported and trumpeted Shoko Asahara that the Aum Shinrikyo cult could acquire the privilege of "tax exemption" and accumulated funds to bankroll his cruel evil doing against the Japanese people. In the Spring of 1995, Shoko Asahara organized a terrorist attack by discharging poisonous gas in Tokyo's subway, killing 12 people and injuring 5,000 others. The event sparked indignation from the Japanese people. In October of the same year, Shoko Asahara and his die-hard followers stood public trial in a local court of Tokyo and were punished in line with laws.
Even at this moment, the 14th Dalai Lama who claimed to be a "human rights fighter" still spoke plausibly to the Kyodo News Service that Shoko Asahara remained his friend and that he still thought what the Aum Shinrikyo cult preached was in accordance with Buddhist doctrines. It was the support and connivance of the 14th Dalai Lama who took the foe for his friend that made Asahara feel secure in the knowledge that he had strong backing. The evil cult continued to do evils under the guise of constantly-changed names and leaders. Eventually in 1999, the Japanese Senate completed the legislative procedures against evil cults including the Aum Shinrikyo. The Tokyo authorities also took a number of measures to crack down on the leaders of the evil cult.
Why would the 14th Dalai Lama openly violate the teachings of Sakyamuni that urge his followers to get rid of demons and uphold truth and laws to favor Aum Shinrikyo? Why would he flout the tenets of Buddhism urging the masses not to do evils but to do good deeds? The 14th Dalai Lama had confessed in a letter to the cult, appreciating the Aum Shinrikyo Sect for its "generous donation to our Buddhist collective in exile". Aha, it turned out to be that the "leader" even bartered away the sacred tenet of Buddhism as a cheap bargaining chip in money deals.
It is the 14th Dalai Lama's own deeds that have step by step betrayed his real intentions and political ambitions put under the guise of Buddhism and peace. A weekly newspaper in Manila commented it was a pity that the 14th Dalai Lama wore the cassock of a Lama but played political tricks, spoke of the pursuit of freedom through peaceful means but harbored in mind the vain attempt of restoring the past feudal rule of Lamaism. Even catholic senator P. Santorum of the United States couldn't help exclaiming that such conduct reflected a subdued religious sentiment. He held that to establish a society respecting life, cracking down upon crimes and promoting dignity of mankind, efforts must be made to prevent religion from being individualized. It appears that many people of insight across the world have recognized the tricks of the 14th Dalai Lama in using Tibetan Buddhism to engage in political activities and have stayed on high alert to and repulsed the deed of the Dalai Lama.
Let's now have a look at the 14th Dalai Lama's attitude toward China's evil cult Falun Gong. Cult leader Li Hongzhi of Falun Gong took religion as pretence, trampled upon religious doctrines and thus invited indignation, reprimands and stern objections from the religious circles. They said that Li Hongzhi had blasphemed Buddhism by fabricating his birthday from July 1952 to May 13, 1951, the date on which Sakyamuni was believed to be born. His attempt to pass himself as the reincarnation of Sakyamuni and his bragging about getting true knowledge from Sakyamuni and thus being more powerful than Sakyamuni was "an extreme blasphemy to Buddhism", they said. However, even such an evil cult leader who is denounced by many people and had to flee abroad to escape the punishment of laws secured compassion and admiration from the 14th Dalai Lama. The latter first dispatched his representative to comfort Li Hongzhi and then sent over his representatives to conspire with Li and staged various farces at the time when the 56th World Human Rights Conference was held in Geneva, stopping at nothing to spread lies and rumors and to trumpet anti-China bills.
As one Chinese saying goes: Birds of a feather flock together. The real reasons for the collusion of the 14th Dalai Lama and Li Hongzhi are their shared situation. They are both in exile after their illegal acts to subvert the Chinese government and the Chinese people ended in constant failures under the august Chinese Constitution and laws; Shared nature--They are both not resigned to failures and attempt to hoodwink and manipulate their few domestic followers to carry on making turbulence and to hold back the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation; Shared intention--They are both hostile to their motherland and regard the 1.3 million Chinese as enemies, dreaming a pipe dream of returning to China, with the support of their masters, to materialize their evil objective of splitting China. Imagine the 14th Dalai Lama, the self-proclaimed "religious leader", even condescended to associate with Li Hongzhi who has been labeled by the United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters as a preacher of evil cult and a swindler! This obviously reflects that the 14th Dalai Lama has cornered himself into a dead end!
Source: Xinhua
CHINA & OLYMPICS: WHAT I WROTE IN THE PAST
dECEMBER 4,2007---http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers25/paper2488.html
Pre-Olympics Revving up of Tibetan Issue: Chinese Concerns
By B. Raman
China has been increasingly concerned over what it views as a US-inspired revving up of the Tibetan issue in the months preceding the Beijing Olympics of August, 2008.
2. This concern, which was there even before, has gone up ever since the recent high-profile visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the US and Canada and the honours given to him in the US----particularly the award of the Congressional Medal of Honour at a Congressional function, which was attended by President George Bush. Even though the Americans projected it merely as an expression of their respect and admiration for a spiritual and humanitarian leader with no political significance, the Chinese suspected that the honours concealed a desire to needle China on the Tibetan issue.
3. As the Olympics approach, what the Americans are up to in Tibet has become a more worrisome question for Chinese policy-makers than what the Americans are up to in Taiwan. Beijing has not treated the Congressional Medal of Honour as a one-event issue to be criticised and forgotten. It continues to express its concerns and unhappiness in various subtle ways. The recent Chinese refusal of permission to US naval ships transiting to and from Japan to touch Hong Kong---which was a significant departure from the post-1997 policy of allowing them to halt in Hong Kong--- is believed to be an outcome of the Chinese unhappiness over the Dalai Lama issue.
4. On November 21, 2007, China cancelled a permission given months ago to the US naval aircraft-carrier USS Kitty Hawk and some support ships to dock in Hong Kong to enable the sailors to spend the Thanksgiving holidays on shore, but it reversed its cancellation, when it realised that it had already given permission months ago. By the time the refusal was reversed, the ships were already on their way to Japan and hence did not dock in Hong Kong.
5. Subsequently, Pentagon officials were quoted by the media as alleging that Beijing also turned away two minesweepers seeking refuge from a storm and a US military flight to resupply the US consulate in Hong Kong. They were quoted as claiming that the Chinese Government has formally notified the Pentagon that it is refusing a request for a port call in Hong Kong over the New Year's holiday by the guided missile frigate USS Reuben James.
6. While neither US nor Chinese officials have connected these refusals to the Dalai Lama issue, non-governmental analysts have. The "Washington Post" of November 25, 2007, has quoted Prof. Shi Yinhong of the People's University in Beijing, as saying as follows: "The U.S. selling weapons to Taiwan is an old issue, and China expresses its dissatisfaction constantly on that. By blocking the warship (USS Kitty Hawk) and its support vessels, China just hoped to use its reluctance, changing its attitude, to tell the United States that China is unhappy with Bush over his decision to personally present the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama."
7. The Chinese concerns have further increased following the pronouncements of the Dalai Lama over the selection of his successor. Just as the Chinese Communist Party has imposed a Panchen Lama of its choice on the Tibetan people, it is determined that when the Dalai Lama dies, his successor would be chosen by a religious process controlled by the party in which the Tibetan exiles would have no role.
8. To pre-empt the Chinese imposing a Party-selected Dalai Lama on the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama has started discussing in public the various options available to him and the Tibetan people. During a visit to Japan in November, 2007, the Dalai Lama was reported to have told the "Sankei Shimbun" newspaper that the Tibetan people would not support a successor who was selected by China. He added: "If the Tibetan people wish to uphold the Dalai Lama system, one possibility would be to select the next Dalai Lama while I am still living. Among options being considered are a democratic selection by the high monks of Tibetan Buddhism, or the appointment of a successor by myself."
9. Subsequently, the Dalai Lama was reported to have told journalists in the margins of an inter-faith conference at Amritsar on November 27, 2007, as follows: "If my death comes when we are still in a refugee status then logically my reincarnation will come outside Tibet." He added that in view of the difficulties that could be faced in following the Buddhist tradition of choosing his re-incarnation, his successor could be selected by election, like the pope; by seniority, or could take over in the traditional way (reincarnation), but outside Tibet.
10. In a strong criticism of the Dalai Lama's views, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: "The reincarnation of the living Buddha is a unique way of succession of Tibetan Buddhism and follows relatively complete religious rituals and historical conventions. The Dalai's remarks obviously violated the religious rituals and historical conventions."
11. Beijing has strong reasons to be concerned over the fact that the Dalai Lama has started talking of other options after his recent visit to the US. It strongly suspects that the idea of a pre-emptive strike at Beijing on the succession issue must have been suggested to him by his followers and advisers in the US. Beijing seems to be worried that his US advisers might persuade the Dalai Lama to announce who would be his successor on the eve of the Olympics just to draw international attention away from the games.
12. The attempts of the critics of China and supporters of the Dalai Lama in the US to organise a boycott of the Olympics in protest against the continuing violations of the human rights of the Tibetans has not picked up momentum. They are now focussing on preventing the Olympic Torch being allowed to touch the US. The Olympics Organisers have reportedly chosen San Francisco as the US City where the torch will be taken in April, 2008. The supporters of the Dalai Lama have started a campaign to pressurise the local municipal authorities not to agree to this. "The torch should not be permitted to be used as a propaganda vehicle for the communist dictatorship in China," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who in August, 2007, co-sponsored resolutions calling for the US to boycott the Olympics over China's role in Darfur and its human-rights violations at home. In a letter to Mr. Gavin Newsom, the Mayor of San Francisco, an organisation called the San Francisco Tibet Coalition has said : "Your welcoming of the Olympic torch would suggest ... that you are ready to turn your back on a unique opportunity to promote legitimate international concerns and ... take a stand for justice in Tibet and China."
13. Aware of the Chinese unhappiness over the award of the Congressional Medal of Honour to the Dalai Lama, the Government of India was recently reported to have advised Ministers of the Government and senior Government officials not to attend a function in New Delhi in honour of the Dalai Lama after his return from the US. The organisers of the function had reportedly notified that one of the objectives of the function would be to congratulate His Holiness on the US honour. The Government of India does not want any wrong impression that the supporters and well-wishers of His Holiness in India are acting in tandem with those in the US.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)
dECEMBER 4,2007---http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers25/paper2488.html
Pre-Olympics Revving up of Tibetan Issue: Chinese Concerns
By B. Raman
China has been increasingly concerned over what it views as a US-inspired revving up of the Tibetan issue in the months preceding the Beijing Olympics of August, 2008.
2. This concern, which was there even before, has gone up ever since the recent high-profile visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the US and Canada and the honours given to him in the US----particularly the award of the Congressional Medal of Honour at a Congressional function, which was attended by President George Bush. Even though the Americans projected it merely as an expression of their respect and admiration for a spiritual and humanitarian leader with no political significance, the Chinese suspected that the honours concealed a desire to needle China on the Tibetan issue.
3. As the Olympics approach, what the Americans are up to in Tibet has become a more worrisome question for Chinese policy-makers than what the Americans are up to in Taiwan. Beijing has not treated the Congressional Medal of Honour as a one-event issue to be criticised and forgotten. It continues to express its concerns and unhappiness in various subtle ways. The recent Chinese refusal of permission to US naval ships transiting to and from Japan to touch Hong Kong---which was a significant departure from the post-1997 policy of allowing them to halt in Hong Kong--- is believed to be an outcome of the Chinese unhappiness over the Dalai Lama issue.
4. On November 21, 2007, China cancelled a permission given months ago to the US naval aircraft-carrier USS Kitty Hawk and some support ships to dock in Hong Kong to enable the sailors to spend the Thanksgiving holidays on shore, but it reversed its cancellation, when it realised that it had already given permission months ago. By the time the refusal was reversed, the ships were already on their way to Japan and hence did not dock in Hong Kong.
5. Subsequently, Pentagon officials were quoted by the media as alleging that Beijing also turned away two minesweepers seeking refuge from a storm and a US military flight to resupply the US consulate in Hong Kong. They were quoted as claiming that the Chinese Government has formally notified the Pentagon that it is refusing a request for a port call in Hong Kong over the New Year's holiday by the guided missile frigate USS Reuben James.
6. While neither US nor Chinese officials have connected these refusals to the Dalai Lama issue, non-governmental analysts have. The "Washington Post" of November 25, 2007, has quoted Prof. Shi Yinhong of the People's University in Beijing, as saying as follows: "The U.S. selling weapons to Taiwan is an old issue, and China expresses its dissatisfaction constantly on that. By blocking the warship (USS Kitty Hawk) and its support vessels, China just hoped to use its reluctance, changing its attitude, to tell the United States that China is unhappy with Bush over his decision to personally present the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama."
7. The Chinese concerns have further increased following the pronouncements of the Dalai Lama over the selection of his successor. Just as the Chinese Communist Party has imposed a Panchen Lama of its choice on the Tibetan people, it is determined that when the Dalai Lama dies, his successor would be chosen by a religious process controlled by the party in which the Tibetan exiles would have no role.
8. To pre-empt the Chinese imposing a Party-selected Dalai Lama on the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama has started discussing in public the various options available to him and the Tibetan people. During a visit to Japan in November, 2007, the Dalai Lama was reported to have told the "Sankei Shimbun" newspaper that the Tibetan people would not support a successor who was selected by China. He added: "If the Tibetan people wish to uphold the Dalai Lama system, one possibility would be to select the next Dalai Lama while I am still living. Among options being considered are a democratic selection by the high monks of Tibetan Buddhism, or the appointment of a successor by myself."
9. Subsequently, the Dalai Lama was reported to have told journalists in the margins of an inter-faith conference at Amritsar on November 27, 2007, as follows: "If my death comes when we are still in a refugee status then logically my reincarnation will come outside Tibet." He added that in view of the difficulties that could be faced in following the Buddhist tradition of choosing his re-incarnation, his successor could be selected by election, like the pope; by seniority, or could take over in the traditional way (reincarnation), but outside Tibet.
10. In a strong criticism of the Dalai Lama's views, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said: "The reincarnation of the living Buddha is a unique way of succession of Tibetan Buddhism and follows relatively complete religious rituals and historical conventions. The Dalai's remarks obviously violated the religious rituals and historical conventions."
11. Beijing has strong reasons to be concerned over the fact that the Dalai Lama has started talking of other options after his recent visit to the US. It strongly suspects that the idea of a pre-emptive strike at Beijing on the succession issue must have been suggested to him by his followers and advisers in the US. Beijing seems to be worried that his US advisers might persuade the Dalai Lama to announce who would be his successor on the eve of the Olympics just to draw international attention away from the games.
12. The attempts of the critics of China and supporters of the Dalai Lama in the US to organise a boycott of the Olympics in protest against the continuing violations of the human rights of the Tibetans has not picked up momentum. They are now focussing on preventing the Olympic Torch being allowed to touch the US. The Olympics Organisers have reportedly chosen San Francisco as the US City where the torch will be taken in April, 2008. The supporters of the Dalai Lama have started a campaign to pressurise the local municipal authorities not to agree to this. "The torch should not be permitted to be used as a propaganda vehicle for the communist dictatorship in China," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., who in August, 2007, co-sponsored resolutions calling for the US to boycott the Olympics over China's role in Darfur and its human-rights violations at home. In a letter to Mr. Gavin Newsom, the Mayor of San Francisco, an organisation called the San Francisco Tibet Coalition has said : "Your welcoming of the Olympic torch would suggest ... that you are ready to turn your back on a unique opportunity to promote legitimate international concerns and ... take a stand for justice in Tibet and China."
13. Aware of the Chinese unhappiness over the award of the Congressional Medal of Honour to the Dalai Lama, the Government of India was recently reported to have advised Ministers of the Government and senior Government officials not to attend a function in New Delhi in honour of the Dalai Lama after his return from the US. The organisers of the function had reportedly notified that one of the objectives of the function would be to congratulate His Holiness on the US honour. The Government of India does not want any wrong impression that the supporters and well-wishers of His Holiness in India are acting in tandem with those in the US.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)
CHINA & OLYMPICS: WHAT I WROTE IN THE PAST
B.RAMAN
October 30,2007 http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers25/paper2435.html
CHINA in Hu's Colours---Part VI
By B. Raman
In the Chinese perspective, a major success of China's international relations during the first tenure of President Hu Jintao as the Party Secretary was the close relations established with African countries in order to tap their energy resources and markets for Chinese goods and the China-Africa summit held in 2006.
2. Two more international events of even greater significance in their eyes are scheduled to take place during his second tenure. The first will be the Beijing Olympics of August, 2008, and the second will be Expo--2010, an ambitious international trade fair, which is to be held in Shanghai in 2010. Presently, much of the energy of the Party and the Government is devoted to making the Olympics a spectacular success, which, they hope, will enhance the image of China in the eyes of the international community and the image of the party leadership in the eyes of their people. Any mishap in the handling of the Olympics could damage the standing of not only Mr.Hu and Mr. Wen Jiabo, the Prime Minister, but also the entire Standing Committee of the Party Politburo, which was elected at the recent 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC),
3. Even while working with determination for making a success of the Olympics, the Chinese have already started thinking of ways of making Expo 2010 an equally spectacular success. As they go ahead with the preparations for the Olympics, three concerns keep bothering them:
Will Western human rights activists try to organise a boycott of the Olympics similar to the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics by the Western countries in protest over the intervention of Soviet troops in Afghanistan? It is in this context that the human rights situations in Darfur in Sudan and Myanmar keep worrying them, because of their close involvement in both countries. While there is little likelihood of the Darfur situation providing a handle to the critics of China in the Western world, if the situation in Myanmar deteriorates badly in the months before the Olympics, this would definitely provide a handle to the critics of China interested in spoiling the Olympics. The Chinese were rattled by the recent demonstration of Buddhist monk power in Myanmar and the dissemination of dramatic images of that power through the Internet and world TV channels. Worried over its possible copy-cat effect on the monks of Tibet, they quickly nudged the military junta in Myanmar to come out of its diplomatic isolation and be more responsive to the concerns of the international community. They should have been relieved when the Junta effectively closed its Internet servers and prevented images of monk power being flashed across the world. The Chinese would be closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar in order to make sure it does not come in the way of a grand Olympics of their dreams.
Would there be threats to the Olympics not only from Al Qaeda and its associates, but also from the Tibetan activists, the Uighurs, the Falun Gong and others?
Could China face a situation similar to what South Korea faced after the 1988 Seoul Olympics when the relaxation of restrictions on the political freedoms of the people by the then dictatorship set in motion a train of events, which led to the end of dictatorship?
4. The Chinese are very keen to avoid any frictions in their relations with the US in the months before the Olympics. The co-operation of the US would facilitate the success of the Olympics. The US has the equipment, technology and know-how to prevent any threats from terrorism. The Chinese are aware of the role played by the US and other NATO countries in ensuring the security of the Athens Olympics of 2004. The Americans are already fully co-operating with the organisers of the Olympics in this regard. The Chinese have also reportedly enlisted the services of big names in Hollywood to choreograph a spectacular closing function, which would bring the best of Hollywood before the eyes of the Chinese spectators. They would not like this co-operation from the US to be affected by any misunderstanding.
5. While the US Government and its security agencies have been helping the Chinese in whatever way they can, Beijing is worried over the possible machinations of die-hard anti-China elements among right-wing American intellectuals, Christian missionaries and others. The Chinese do not want to underestimate their capacity for a political sabotage of the Olympics.
6. For the present, the present leadership under Mr.Hu is confident that nothing can come in the way of a successful and spectacular Olympics. Will their confidence be belied? If it is, Mr. Hu could face serious embarrassment, if not trouble, in the party.
(The writer is Additional secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. e-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)
B.RAMAN
October 30,2007 http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers25/paper2435.html
CHINA in Hu's Colours---Part VI
By B. Raman
In the Chinese perspective, a major success of China's international relations during the first tenure of President Hu Jintao as the Party Secretary was the close relations established with African countries in order to tap their energy resources and markets for Chinese goods and the China-Africa summit held in 2006.
2. Two more international events of even greater significance in their eyes are scheduled to take place during his second tenure. The first will be the Beijing Olympics of August, 2008, and the second will be Expo--2010, an ambitious international trade fair, which is to be held in Shanghai in 2010. Presently, much of the energy of the Party and the Government is devoted to making the Olympics a spectacular success, which, they hope, will enhance the image of China in the eyes of the international community and the image of the party leadership in the eyes of their people. Any mishap in the handling of the Olympics could damage the standing of not only Mr.Hu and Mr. Wen Jiabo, the Prime Minister, but also the entire Standing Committee of the Party Politburo, which was elected at the recent 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC),
3. Even while working with determination for making a success of the Olympics, the Chinese have already started thinking of ways of making Expo 2010 an equally spectacular success. As they go ahead with the preparations for the Olympics, three concerns keep bothering them:
Will Western human rights activists try to organise a boycott of the Olympics similar to the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics by the Western countries in protest over the intervention of Soviet troops in Afghanistan? It is in this context that the human rights situations in Darfur in Sudan and Myanmar keep worrying them, because of their close involvement in both countries. While there is little likelihood of the Darfur situation providing a handle to the critics of China in the Western world, if the situation in Myanmar deteriorates badly in the months before the Olympics, this would definitely provide a handle to the critics of China interested in spoiling the Olympics. The Chinese were rattled by the recent demonstration of Buddhist monk power in Myanmar and the dissemination of dramatic images of that power through the Internet and world TV channels. Worried over its possible copy-cat effect on the monks of Tibet, they quickly nudged the military junta in Myanmar to come out of its diplomatic isolation and be more responsive to the concerns of the international community. They should have been relieved when the Junta effectively closed its Internet servers and prevented images of monk power being flashed across the world. The Chinese would be closely monitoring the situation in Myanmar in order to make sure it does not come in the way of a grand Olympics of their dreams.
Would there be threats to the Olympics not only from Al Qaeda and its associates, but also from the Tibetan activists, the Uighurs, the Falun Gong and others?
Could China face a situation similar to what South Korea faced after the 1988 Seoul Olympics when the relaxation of restrictions on the political freedoms of the people by the then dictatorship set in motion a train of events, which led to the end of dictatorship?
4. The Chinese are very keen to avoid any frictions in their relations with the US in the months before the Olympics. The co-operation of the US would facilitate the success of the Olympics. The US has the equipment, technology and know-how to prevent any threats from terrorism. The Chinese are aware of the role played by the US and other NATO countries in ensuring the security of the Athens Olympics of 2004. The Americans are already fully co-operating with the organisers of the Olympics in this regard. The Chinese have also reportedly enlisted the services of big names in Hollywood to choreograph a spectacular closing function, which would bring the best of Hollywood before the eyes of the Chinese spectators. They would not like this co-operation from the US to be affected by any misunderstanding.
5. While the US Government and its security agencies have been helping the Chinese in whatever way they can, Beijing is worried over the possible machinations of die-hard anti-China elements among right-wing American intellectuals, Christian missionaries and others. The Chinese do not want to underestimate their capacity for a political sabotage of the Olympics.
6. For the present, the present leadership under Mr.Hu is confident that nothing can come in the way of a successful and spectacular Olympics. Will their confidence be belied? If it is, Mr. Hu could face serious embarrassment, if not trouble, in the party.
(The writer is Additional secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. e-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)
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