Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
Chinese Nationalists use the claim that slavery was ended in Tibet when the Chinese took over to justify the invasion. Methinks such slavery claims are grossly overstated, but I don't really know much about it.
Shame on these European leaders who are boycotting. I sure hope the continuing trouble in Tibet doesn't dupe people into depriving pole vaulters of the attention they really, really deserve.
-=-
TORONTO—A rally that was billed as promoting "anti-violence" turned hostile on Saturday as flag-waving Chinese denounced Tibetans who they blamed for the recent turmoil in Tibet in which 100 are said to have died.
Close to 1000 Chinese were in Toronto's Dundas Square for the afternoon event, many of them students.
"Dalai Lama die there!" some Chinese shouted at a group of Tibetans who had gathered across the street from the square to protest. "Leave Canada!" others urged.
Tibetans say the Chinese rally, which began orderly, was designed to incite hate against them.
The event was promoted in Chinese-language press as a rally to tell the "truth" about Tibet and "safeguard the reunification of the motherland."
Several major Chinese-language media outlets in Canada have parroted the Chinese communist regime's line on Tibet, blaming the turmoil on the Dalai Lama and his followers and fanning a nationalist animosity toward Tibetans. ( Read more )
The rally began with a parade of speeches repeating the Chinese regime's line on Tibet: that it has long been part of China, that the Chinese government spent millions trying to help the Tibetan people, and that Tibetan monks and youths led violent protests in Lhasa recently that caused death and suffering of Han Chinese.
The speeches were interspersed with patriotic Chinese songs. No mention was made of police violence used to quash the protests, nor of the Tibetan grievances that experts say sparked the initially peaceful protests in Lhasa.
"China and Chinese people have helped Tibetan people to improve human rights," said one organizer who spoke in English. "How can somebody who cannot even read or write understand anything about human rights? If they cannot read or write, how can they understand what they have lost in the past in Tibet? People were just blind faith to believe in their religion. They were controlled."
Another speaker added, "Tibetan culture not only has not been damaged, but has been greatly protected, spread and developed."
The rally became dramatic when a Tibetan refugee took to the stage waving a Tibetan flag. He was seized by a group of Chinese who dragged him away before police intervened to separate them.
After the incident, the man spoke with The Epoch Times. In tears, he described the suffering of Tibetans under communist rule, explaining that he left Tibet 10 years ago and came to Canada only recently. The man said Toronto Mayor David Miller should reconsider a planned trip to China next month amid the ongoing repression in Tibet by the communist regime.
Angry Chinese turned on the Tibetan protesters, hollering "Dalai Lama die there!" "Dalai Lama lies!" "Liars, liars!" and "Leave Canada!"
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
Apparently those in the West should not criticize China's actions regarding Tibet because it is stocking racial disharmony in Tibet, and It strengthens the Chinese Government as the citizenry resent the criticism. Thats it, I'm convinced. Turns out, we shouldn't protest the Sudanese governments actions in Darfur, either. It only strenghtens the government, afterall.
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
One of the commentators compared Maoism to a strong course of chemotherapy and radiation - destroyed the 'cancer' that afflicted Chinese society, but also had strong side affects. Now, my chinese history isn't exactly up to snuff, but considering the early famines and failed industrial policies, and later the ravages of the cultural revolution, what benefits did Maoism provide? A sense of national unity, perhaps, but I'm not thinking of a whole lot else.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:15 pm Posts: 25452 Location: Under my wing like Sanford & Son Gender: Male
Apparently there's one group of opinion that says China actually wants people to focus on Tibet so that the plight of China's own citizens isn't a story. Makes the most sense to me.
_________________ Now that god no longer exists, the desire for another world still remains.
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:52 pm Posts: 10620 Location: Chicago, IL Gender: Male
Quote:
Same old China By Dennis Byrne Chicago Tribune
Wow, when was the last time the people of San Francisco—"the gentle people with flowers in their hair"—turned out to protest in such numbers the actions of a commie country?
I don't keep track, but there they were last week, thousands fussing over how Red (as it used to be called) China is oppressing Tibet and adding to the miseries of Darfur. Even in Chicago there were protests.
Protests of communist dictatorships are, like the Cold War, gone but not forgotten. The flame of anti-communism burns brightly only in isolated spots, such as in south Miami, where expatriate (and free) Cubans keep hope alive for democracy and liberty in their country.
China, we're repeatedly told, wants to showcase itself to the world during this summer's Olympics, but the protesters are wounding the country's pride, and we'll be sorry for that. To which democratic nations can rightfully respond: Tough. You want to emerge from the shadows as a member of the civilized world, then become more democratic, as many of us are doing.
My only gripe with the protesters is that they are mostly focused on the suffering that China causes outside, not inside, its borders: the suppression of Tibet and its Sudan dealings that contribute to the genocide in Darfur. Those are big, bad things, but let's not overlook the tyrannical rule that the communist regime imposes on the more than 1 billion of its own people. Human Rights Watch points to abuses that are just the result of its hosting of the Olympics: media and Internet censorship, extrajudicial house arrests and sentences of government critics for the "subversive" crime of criticizing the government, abuses of migrant construction workers and forced evictions of homeowners and tenants.Recently, the group said, "leading human rights advocate Hu Jia was given a 3½-year sentence for criticizing the Chinese government in the context of the Games. Previously, Yang Chunlin received a 5-year sentence for having begun a petition titled, 'We want human rights, not the Olympics.' "
This isn't the progress that the International Olympic Committee had in mind when it awarded the Games to China. By exposing China to the currents of freedom brought to its shores by the international community, the IOC hoped Beijing would moderate its behavior. Nice try.
By blessing China with the Games, the IOC ignored a long history of suppression of religion, association, protest and other rights. "Ordinary citizens face immense obstacles to accessing justice, in particular over issues such as illegal land seizures, forced evictions, environmental pollution, unpaid wages, corruption and abuse of power by local officials, a situation that fuels rising social unrest across the country," Human Rights Watch said. The result has been growing citizen protests and their suppression across the landscape.
But large protests, some involving as many as 10,000 people, were reported last year in almost all of China's 34 provinces. "In speeches and articles top security officials acknowledged the heightening of social conflicts but remained defiant toward greater independence of the judiciary, blaming 'hostile' or 'enemy forces' for trying to use the nation's legal system to undermine and westernize China. A string of lawyers defending human rights cases [has] been suspended or disbarred under a yearly licensing system that acts as a general deterrent to taking cases viewed as 'sensitive' by the authorities."
And we are not even getting into the deadly quashing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests or forced abortions.
The IOC's awarding of the Games to China is itself a violation of the second of the six "fundamental principles of Olympism," which is "to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."
In light of China's abysmal failure to honor that principle, the IOC should be honor-bound to withdraw its sponsorship of the Games. Of course, that would be incredibly naive, considering all the billions of dollars at stake; about as naive as hoping that a grossly commercialized athletic event would convince China to change its ways.
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
Chris_H_2, you clearly demonstrate your anti-China bias. How dare you be so hyprocritical in criticizing China while ignoring the crimes of the Dhali Lhama's cadres in Tibet.
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
Chinese newspapers are demanding an apology from CNN for Jack Cafferty saying, "They (Chinese) are basically the same bunch goons and thugs they have been in the past fifty years."
I understand if they feel there are racial conotations here, but it seems to me that he's charging the government and ruling elite with being goons and thugs rather than the country as a whole. I guess we can chalk this one up to the "How dare you criticize China, we resent foreign interference in domestic issues!!!!111!!!1" I believe that just prior to this statement, he was discussing the tainted chinese goods and perhaps human rights issues.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
simple schoolboy wrote:
Chinese newspapers are demanding an apology from CNN for Jack Cafferty saying, "They (Chinese) are basically the same bunch goons and thugs they have been in the past fifty years."
I understand if they feel there are racial conotations here, but it seems to me that he's charging the government and ruling elite with being goons and thugs rather than the country as a whole. I guess we can chalk this one up to the "How dare you criticize China, we resent foreign interference in domestic issues!!!!111!!!1" I believe that just prior to this statement, he was discussing the tainted chinese goods and perhaps human rights issues.
Dude, Cafferty is totally going to be executed when China takes over the US.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
Journalists from CNN and other organizations have been getting harassing phone calls and death threats for their 'biased' coverage of China. Their contact information has been leaked on the interwebs. (Anonymous?) Is this out of the ordinary? Are journalists often harassed for a piece people don't like, or in the west are they usually considered (relatively) blameless messengers? I presume we are talking about the folks on the ground, not them talking heads.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
Who cares if their information is on the Internet? China can't see it!
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
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okay. It was just kind of funny seeing you propose economic sanctions, and then WHAM! stealth bomber!
