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Just so we get this clear…
The torch relay has been a disaster, no matter which way one looks at it. Historians will not connect the 2008 Olympic torch relay to such ideals as peace, harmony, or “one world, one dream”. It will be remembered for protesters in London, Paris, and San Francisco – sometimes violent – and that image of Jin Jing clinging to the torch on the streets of Paris.
Much has been made of how the world is against China, to the point we’ve seen a psycho-analysis about western motives and comments on this blog about how westerners really don’t understand China.
Amid this uproar, most western commentators (and regular people) have been quick to point out that nobody is against “China”, just the government. As I’ve stated before, the government and the people are two very different entities. One can be a proud American and despise George W. Bush and the Republicans; likewise, one hopes that Chinese people can distinguish between criticism levelled at their government and criticism directed at the people. Although, admittedly, some protesters haven’t been doing a good enough job of discerning between the two, especially when the line between them in China is blurred.
To further underscore the point that the criticism of China hosting the Olympics – and the torch relay – is not about being anti-China, we turn out attention to the media coverage of the torch relay in Hong Kong. Yes, Hong Kong, legally a part of Chinese territory (even though it sure doesn’t feel like it when there). We toss to this article in the New York Times:
The day before, newspapers mingled images of official celebrations with coverage of protests. The English-language South China Morning Post and the Chinese-language Apple Daily and Ming Pao all ran photos of free-speech activists with gags over their mouths, and a three-story-high “pillar of shame,” which depicts a jumble of naked corpses with desperate-looking faces. Ming Pao showed an inscription on the pillar’s base reading: “The Tiananmen Massacre: The old cannot kill the young,” a reference to the 1989 crackdown in Beijing, photos of which are still censored in the mainland press.
It continues…
Hong Kong’s media, which have a tradition of using satire not always appreciated on the mainland, have been poking fun at Beijing’s efforts to clean up its city and its residents. On April 19, TVB, a local television station that has programming in Cantonese, Mandarin and English, broadcast footage of a woman allowing her young child to relieve himself near the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium.
On April 23, The South China Morning Post followed up, calling a leaky roof at that same stadium an embarrassment. A few days later, it pointed out a shortage of toilets in an article headlined, “Beijing must shake off that know-it-all attitude.”
The April cover of the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review had a political cartoon of President Hu Jintao holding the torch with big earplugs blocking out noise from protesters. “Olympics Horribilis,” the headline read.
On April 18, HK Magazine published an editorial “Torching the Torch,” calling the relay “the perfect microcosm of modern China: a PR exercise surrounded by thugs with batons.” The free weekly continued its taunt: “But what did China expect? A 21-gun salute and a welcome casserole?”
I have been a frequent visitor to Hong Kong, and one of my fears is that its press freedoms will slowly be suffocated until they become a lifeless corpse, like they are in mainland China. One needn’t agree with Hong Kong’s media coverage; the fact is that they have a right to print things that people may disagree with. Beijing deserves credit for keeping its promise of a hands-off approach.
Reviewing Hong Kong’s torch relay coverage should also lay to rest the hollow conflict that has been created in the minds of China’s restless fenqing: that it’s the world vs. China, and the Chinese people need to rally together to protect their pride and fend off the hypocritical foreign barbarians. The fact that Chinese people on Chinese territory in the Chinese media also have problems with Beijing’s policies speaks volumes. At the very least, one hopes this will make the patriotic Carrefour-boycotting masses wonder if they’re getting the full story in the mainland press.
Oh, and Taiwan? The mainland government has been awfully silent about it lately, probably because the torch didn’t, won’t, and will never pass through that territory/region (take your politically correct pick) in 2008. And the fact that even Ma Ying-Jeou himself says he’d welcome the Dalai Lama to Taiwan, well….
At the end of the day, I totally understand the anger and frustration that is felt by young people in China. But when they are spoon-fed state-run propaganda and have little knowledge of the outside world, they develop a distorted sense of reality. It draws a feeling of pity more than frustration. The fact is that it’s the Chinese government which was unprepared for these protests, which have led to the embarassment of China on the world stage. It is the Chinese government, and it’s rigid policy in Tibet, which has resulted in worldwide anger. It is the Chinese government’s reaction to unrest in Tibet, consisting of violent rhetoric, that has drawn the scorn of people worldwide. It is the Chinese government which has closed off Tibet to foreign reporters, but expects them to take its word without any verification or confirmation. It is the Chinese government which announces arrests in apparent planned terrorist attacks and then refuses to provide evidence of their claims.
These complaints are not attacks on the Chinese people, but are critiques of the Chinese people’s current party in power. The Communist Party has done a lot of wonderful things for China – lifting 400 million people out of poverty comes to mind as one of the greatest achievements of any government in history. But this does not erase its atrocities, and the Chinese people must do a better job of holding their government to account.
37 Comments
Ironically, compared to 1989, while the only means for Chinese to access any outsiders’ voice was through listening to VOA in the morning, now we have over 200M people with access to the Internet, and somehow the number of people “spoon-fed by state-run propaganda and have little knowledge of the outside world” has skyrocketed.
In the recent days, it’s been an overwhelmingly popular complaint among Western “observers” that the Chinese were incapable of separating the government from the people, therefore mistaking the bashing of their government as personal attacks against themselves. This accusation is not only condescending, it’s a plain insult to intelligence, because it’s based on the idiotic assumption that there’s no legitimate reason for anyone to be hurt unless he himself is the target of an assault.
Do you feel angry if someone curses your grandmother? What about your favorite writer? Your most admired political leader? The vast majority of political bloggers in the US goes crazy every second day because of what they receive as vicious attacks from the other side of the political spectrum. Are they all as “immature” as the Chinese?
Of course, if you consider it a foregone conclusion that the Chinese government in its entirety is so evil and despicable that anyone who would feel emotionally connected to it must be psychologically damaged in some way, then there is obviously no point for any further discussion…
in this torch relay, we see china gov failed to predict the level of protest and handled it badly. Undoubtedly prc gov did lots of ugly and bad things. among them, tibetans being oppressed.
in this tibetan episode, we also see undeniable western media bias. i am thankful for that as it made me question the selectiveness of western mainstream media. after all, they are my major news sources. for which i have been feeding on for years and thought of as fair balanced reporting. as a result, i checked out lots of alternative media like DemocracyNow and Spiderednews.
google USS LIBERTY, and you would be amazed that ALL mainstream western media, including the most read USA Today, have not reported about massacre of their own army for more than 40 YEARS.
mainstream western media’s selective reporting started at least 40 years ago. its scary to think that, like so many in china, people in the western world are brainwashed to a certain extent. so much so that an American blogger have to defend his photos against ft fighters about tibet.
http://kadfly.blogspot.com/2008/04/few-more-pictures-from-lhasa.html
in all, i am thankful, it helped me see things in a new perspective.
I’m Taiwanese, in Taiwan Ma ying-jeou is getting hammered for appointing a Chairwoman for the Mainland Affairs Council that is deemed to be not conducive to repairing the relationship with the mainland. I’m surprised that Ma Ying-jeou’s presidency and its implications are so ignored in the world wide media. We have already basically the highest contact between the two governments in more then 60 years during the Siew-Hu conference in Boao, yet the Taiwan issue remains on the back burner to Tibet. In any case, well the torch relay has been a “disaster” in many foreign countries, its main purpose in the context of the CCP is no doubt still achieved. In any case though, I do find that their is a tendency in Western media (For a lack of a better term, the description “western” is of course arbitrary but is commonly used both in the “west” and in non-
“west” countries), to refer to themselves and their opinions as the “world”. As if the torch relay in Kazakhstan, Argentina, Tanzania etc, are of less significance. The thing about separation between government and people, which btw is not nearly as separated in the West as many would claim, is that the nature of this particular Olympics. Its obvious to me that most Chinese people around the world do not view the Beijing Olympics as the CCP’s Olympics, or the Chinese government’s Olympics. So its not really a problem between the separation between government and people, it is the fact that most Chinese attach a great importance to this particular Olympics as signifying that China may have finally put behind it 150 years of war and turmoil in which a national catastrophe occurred at the dizzying rate of about once a decade till the current period of relative stability. As the first international event of this magnititude to be held in Chinese soil, Beijing 2008 obviously carries a different significance then perhaps a 2020 Guangzhou Olympics, in which most Chinese people may not care too much, as is in the case in many other countries.
Your summary of the events of the last months shows me that you haven’t learned a damn thing from the debates coming from both sides regarding China and the Tibet issues.
You’re just as dumb and tone-deaf as those China angry youths.
On the contrary, Chinese people must do a better job of holding Western governments’ to their hypocracy and bullshits.
If people like you all think like you, then that leads me to one conclusion: Against all odds, China must be come stronger and powerful. It’s the only way to vindicate ourselves.
You are just as incapable of learning anything as those you accuse of.
Cam,
“But when they are spoon-fed state-run propaganda and have little knowledge of the outside world, they develop a distorted sense of reality.”
You, like almost every other western journalist and commentator conveniently and stupidly blames the outrage and nationalist fervor on the state-run propaganda. That might be in the case in mainland China, but what about those overseas Chinese who turned out in large numbers sharing the same outrage and nationalist fervor? A lot of those people are free of Chinese propaganda, you would think that they would have reacted differently?
“The fact is that it’s the Chinese government which was unprepared for these protests, which have led to the embarassment of China on the world stage.”
Funny. Cam, what do you think the Chinese government should have done or could have done to be better prepared for these protests?? Running an editorial on the People’s Daily before hand to warn the Chinese that “there will be nasty protests ahead of us”?? Ridiculous.
” It is the Chinese government, and it’s rigid policy in Tibet, which has resulted in worldwide anger.”
Perhaps, but it is a fact that no matter what the Chinese government does, no matter what policies it has the rest of the world (ignorant and self-righteous world) will always deem the Chinese government the bad guy. Totally unfair.
” It is the Chinese government’s reaction to unrest in Tibet, consisting of violent rhetoric, that has drawn the scorn of people worldwide.”
Before the facts were not the ignorant and self-righteous world have already had a verdict: The evil Chinese are killing the peaceful Tibetans!!
“It is the Chinese government which has closed off Tibet to foreign reporters, but expects them to take its word without any verification or confirmation.”
It is indeed stupid for them to close off Tibet. But, given how sympathetic western journalists have been toward the TGIE, the Chinese government was probably justified to not give them further juice to squeeze.
” It is the Chinese government, and it’s rigid policy in Tibet, which has resulted in worldwide anger.”
” It is the Chinese government’s reaction to unrest in Tibet, consisting of violent rhetoric, that has drawn the scorn of people worldwide.”
LOL, I didn’t read it carefully enough to spot these, how pathetic! Another showcase of the poor “the 900 million people in the west speak for the world” mentality. If anything, the 1.3 billion people in China represent the “world” better than those 900 million, and thus it’s more valid to say that the west has attracted worldwide anger against them.
You said, “At the end of the day, I totally understand the anger and frustration that is felt by young people in China. But when they are spoon-fed state-run propaganda and have little knowledge of the outside world, they develop a distorted sense of reality.”
It is quite the opposite. The Chinese in mainland know the news are state-run. So they have been reading New York Times, Washington Post and CNN, thinking they are unbiased, hoping to get knowledge of the outside world and trying NOT to get/develope a distorted (?) sense of reality (?). But what they have found out is not biased reporting about the Olympic torch relay and Tibet. This is why they are angry and frustated.
Enough is enough with those so-called unbiased western reporting.
How about overseas Chinese? are they “”spoon-fed by state-run propaganda and have little knowledge of the outside world”? why they are in the front line of protesting? oh, yeah, they are being brainwashed too? they have no access to CCTV and they watch BBC/CNN every day, so you are saying they don’t have the whole picture either? it’s a shame you still don’t get it, you are the one who is out of touch of the reality.
“It is the Chinese government which has closed off Tibet to foreign reporters, but expects them to take its word without any verification or confirmation”, oh yeah, that’s right, but wait a second, foreign reporters just take whatever the pro-Tibet movement feed up to them and did not do any verification or confirmation, over 100 people being killed? where is the verification?
Your media screwed up big time. I was one of the students who listened to BBC/VOA during the 89 protests, it is a shame to find out you are no better than CCTV, at least CCTV doesn’t claim to be fair and balanced, but you do and you CHEAT. shame on you.
“what about those overseas Chinese ”
You mean the college students from the PRC on student visas waving the PRC flag? I’m pretty sure none of them was born outside of the PRC, didn’t see any Taiwan flags. Don’t believe any are Singapore or Malaysian born chinese.
“what do you think the Chinese government should have done or could have done to be better prepared for these protests”
instead of seizing the tibet situation to stir up nationalism they could have been using their CCTV and Xinhua propaganda tools to tone down the nationalism and empasized the international scope of the games, instead they built it up as being something that belongs to “China”
“Chinese government the bad guy. Totally unfair”
if the actions of the PRC were good and altruistic then the “bad guy” image would not exist.
“The evil Chinese are killing the peaceful Tibetans”
open the door to an independent team of red cross, journalist, the un, and chinese college students got to the TAR and visit the prisons, hospitals, and gravesites to determine the “truth”
“the Chinese government was probably justified to not give them further juice to squeeze”
if they are truly innocent then they should not be afraid to confess.
The logic behind this posting is really flawed.
Some HK people – not to mention many mainland and overseas Chinese people too – have problems with Beijing policies. But they overwhelmingly NOT in the pro-Tibet, pro-boycott camps.
Besides a literal handful of protesters who got some press, HK was overwhelmingly welcoming of the torch.
Talk to most HKers and they have misgivings over China. They will also agree recent Western coverage of China was unfair.
“Olympic torch gets warm HK welcome”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7380099.stm
“Major support in HK torch run”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24380292/
Snidely Whiplash,
“I’m pretty sure none of them was born outside of the PRC, didn’t see any Taiwan flags.”
What about this?
http://www.cfdd.org.cn/bbs/attachments/month_0804/20080421_055e884445b612b58c53XxfovT683LQq.jpg
It’s really easy for you to be “pretty sure” of something huh? Learn and do more homework before you are “pretty sure” of other things.
Really “sure” ? I personally know American and Canadian born Chinese who took part in pro-China rallies, not to mention millions of Hong Kong residents. Are they all college students from the PRC ? the torch didn’t go to Singapore or Malaysia but i wouldn’t doubt there some Sing or Malay born Chinese in the rallies overseas.
“You mean the college students from the PRC on student visas waving the PRC flag? I’m pretty sure none of them was born outside of the PRC, didn’t see any Taiwan flags. Don’t believe any are Singapore or Malaysian born chinese.”
Snidely,
I dare you to say that again that oversea Chinese are only PRC student on Visa. I, myself, is an oversea Chinese who holds a Canadian citizenship. And oh, I bet ya, there are people from Taiwan joining in with their sunshine flag (晴天旗)! There are plenty of oversea Chinese I talk to online who are born outside China, never watched CCTV, some couldn’t even read proper Chinese! So I beg you don’t be so self-righteous and assume things you have NO IDEA about!
“if they are truly innocent then they should not be afraid to confess.”
Nop, don’t think so. One German media had sunk so low to photoshop police officer into a picture to demonstrate how “evil” China is. So pathetic! Their photoshop job was awful too. Couldn’t even get the lighting right.
I’m suspecting that Cam deliberately wrote this article in such fashion to whip up viewership of his blog. For I can’t see how any China blogger can come to such idiotic conclusion other than to have some even more idiotic motive behind such blog posting.
Cam, you’re either dumb or dumber, which is it?
Cam, your post between this and the last post confused me of your point view. @_@
http://www.zhongnanhaiblog.com/2008/04/the-psychology-of-western-peop.htm
Cam,
“Much has been made of how the world is against China”.
Who made that? You or your colleagues? I have one suggestion for you and your colleagues in the west: stop abusing the phrases “the world” and “internatioal community”. You guys in the west are NOT the WORLD. A few countries in the west are NOT the INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY. 600 million always think they have a god-given, divine right to speak for 6 billion, and whenever they make much of something, that is the world is making much of something. Egotistic!
More ranting from the anti-CNN.com crowd, something which has to be one of the world’s best examples of ‘astroturfing’ – i.e., the creation of a false ‘grass-roots movement’.
People keep making the same lame point about overseas Chinese. But these are not foreign-born Chinese, Taiwanese or HKers, but people who have in the main only been overseas for less than ten years , who grew up under the communist system and received communist education, and who did not trust the western media on China to start with.
Anyway, why do people keep talking about the west? Al-Jazeera, RIA Novosti, the Times of India, the South African Guardian and Mail – all of these reported the Tibet riots and the torch relay in substantially the same manner. Anti-CNN.com conspiracy theorists can repeat the words ‘bias’ all they like – they haven’t proved their point.
It’s all about Han pride and their wanting some respect. The Han was expecting it. They ain’t getting it, and they ain’t happy.
FOARP,
You are pathetic. Stop your egotistic ranting. Today is London protest, tomorrow in Paris, How much did you get paid? €30 per hour? or Maybe £?
I’ve never seen such a dam idiotic article on this blog.
I was a uni student in Beijing in 1989. I was there when students gethered in ShiFanDaYue at night and marched to Tiananamen in the early morning which started the months long protest. I was in Tiananmen squre when troops moved in in early morning of the 4th of June.
I’ve been living in a English spoken contry for many years and don’t have a satellite to watch CCTV and not interested in CCTV. I am sure I am not among the people who “when they are spoon-fed state-run propaganda and have little knowledge of the outside world, they develop a distorted sense of reality.”
I’ve seen lots of protest by TBIE,FLG and othe groups in front of the Chinese consiler in the city or on the days of Chinese leaders visiting.
I never cared. They have rights to protest a goverment everyones knows has lots of wrong doings. I’ve also seen biased media all the time.I did not care.
But this time,I feel really hurt by those so called rights people who can not distinguish between criticism levelled at government and criticism directed at the people, who do know Beijing Olimpic is not only Chinese goverment’s Olimpic, who do know Olimpic is a national pride of the people in the hosting country. Those so called rights people who do not respect the rights of 1.3 billion Chinese people who also have the rights to proud and to see a peaceful tortch like to have the same rights enjoyed by Australians,by Americans whose goverment has tons of things to be protested in the past Olympics.
There is no justification of the massive media bias and the violent torch protest this time.
@Mick,
I am sure you know there are not only Han in China. Do you represent every none Han Chinese in China because you seem know all none Han are not proud of Olimpic and were not waiting for respect.
@FOARP
Do you mean because” Al-Jazeera, RIA Novosti, the Times of India, the South African Guardian and Mail – all of these reported the Tibet riots and the torch relay in substantially the same manner” so you can proove the media in the “west” are not biased?
I think cam must be laughing while this dam article can draw more hitting on his blog. we should all ignore and go back to daily life.
Hey guys…
I saw your posts comming in throughout the day via email but wasn’t at a computer to respond.
First, I’ve never said anywhere on this blog, or in any articles I’ve written, that Tibet should be independent. I’ve also admitted that the western media has had troubles avoiding bias. While I respect everyone’s opinions on these topics, the point of this article was to point out a couple of things that I feel get missed from time to time, and perhaps I did a poor job of articulating:
1. Not all people of Chinese descent are united when it comes to Chinese patriotism and the Tibet issue (as it is with nearly every country, save North Korea)
2. The Chinese government needs/can do a better job of articulating its case, rather than just declaring things and assuming the media will swallow it without question. I think China, and the Chinese people, deserve better.
At first I was surprised at the vitriol this post drew, but after re-reading it I see perhaps I could’ve been a bit more articulate. I’m not against China by any stretch, and I’ve repeated several times how happy I am to be here. But sometimes I think the people accept their government as “good enough” and are quick to blame the outside world when perhaps the government could’ve done a better job.
China has some unique claims to Tibet that one may or may not agree with. But rather than declaring that Tibet is peaceful and Tibetans are happy, why not introduce some happy Tibetans to speak to the media? Why not let the media head in to talk to them? If the Chinese government is telling the truth, why is Tibet closed? Why are military checkpoints set up? I’m asking this not as a China-bashing, bigoted foreigner, but as an inquiring mind. And I’d hope that people of all nationalities – including Chinese – would ask these same tough questions of their government.
For the record, I question the US government and it’s collapsing economy, disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and faltering currency with the same venom. I question my government equally (in fact, I have never – ever – voted for the party in power in Canada). I am not picking on China here… people in power need to answer tough questions from their citizenry, regardless of nation or political stripe.
Finally… I do respect those with a different point of view. At the end of the day, we can all agree to disagree. I think everyone here has a unique attachment or love of China, and I’d hope that nobody here wants to see China fail. Because of this shared interest, there is no need for name-calling.
Oh… one last thing. I have a card-carrying Communist Chinese journalist girlfriend. For once, this blog directed almost as much venom at me as she usually does over these issues.
OMG! You were serious!
I was hoping that you were joking.
tom said:
the torch didn’t go to Singapore or Malaysia but i wouldn’t doubt there some Sing or Malay born Chinese in the rallies overseas.
FYI, torch relay did go to Malaysia, since you didn’t know about it, i assume you are still reading mainstream western media. there is only a Japaneses family of 3 member protested for FT movement. So low key was the pretest that most Western Media did not bother to report. There are hundreds of China (with Malaysian visa) students supporting the relay. not to mention thousands of Malaysians, among them at least 50% Malaysian born Chinese there to greet the torch relay. For the record the, malaysian chinese were not there to support CCP gov and protect the torch, they were there to be part of the Olympics event.
said:
“More ranting from the anti-CNN.com crowd, something which has to be one of the world’s best examples of ‘astroturfing’ – i.e., the creation of a FOARP false ‘grass-roots movement’.
People keep making the same lame point about overseas Chinese. But these are not foreign-born Chinese, Taiwanese or HKers, but people who have in the main only been overseas for less than ten years , who grew up under the communist system and received communist education, and who did not trust the western media on China to start with. ”
I am a 4th generation Malaysian Chinese, BORN in this country. By choice, i never read any CCP propaganda. i never visited anti-CNN.com either. Tibetan form of Buddhism is getting big in Malaysia. we are exited about a new branch of Buddhism flourishing here.
If you ask any chinese in Malaysia, they will say they are either indifferent towards this “protest the olympics torch relay issue”, or against western media’s biasness. so far i asked, and visited Chinese Malaysian blogs and mailing list, its 50/50. We never in our lives have to tolerate any form of CCP propaganda.
Its just our educated opinion, after checking at the mainstream media and alternative media that western media is bias in a lot of issue, including this Tibet/Olympics issue. and certain western people are partly brainwashed by their own war machine of a media into some form of blind-dogmatic moral superiority. by your words like “ranting” and blind belief, your generalization of us from different parts of the world to anti-CNN.com crowd. you are a good example of that.
unlike you, FOARP, i freely admit to not knowing the opinion of in Canada or USA born Chinese. though i am aware of some blogger’s view like: http://chineseinvancouver.blogspot.com/
unlike you, i wouldn’t make judgmental opinion about who is “anti-cnn folks” and claim “Chinese born in that country is China student in a foreign country”.
Cam,
Yeah, I do concern how the Tibetans’ lives are, I went there, I read articles of other people who visited there, I concluded that lives there are okay compared to other parts of China. You told me I was wrong because Tibetans don’t tell the truth to Chinese visitors, I asked you how is it possible that normal Tibentans all become great actors that while they hate the government, and they hate us, that somehow no one could notice the hatred, you didn’t respond.
Anon,
Haha, he always held similar opinions, if you are surprised it means you didn’t follow this blog closely.
This blog belongs to the bottom of the China blog pile. Writers in this blog is one worse than the other. You have Cam spewing idiotic shit, then you have Paul looking to exercise his peanut brain by answering his own question in his out of this world attempt to compare the May 4th movement to the West concocted “Angry youth” of 2008.
You guys are really terrible when it comes to blogging about China. You guys really don’t know anything about China and worse, you guys show no signs of learning anything about China in your blogging process.
XniteMan,
You know what? I thought Cam was mocking these old cliches and stereotypes.
After all the time he spent in China, and after all these debates on his blog, you would think he’d learn something. And I always thought that Cam, despite his very limited knowledge and understanding of China, is the more open-minded one. Boy, was I wrong!
I’ve deleted this blog from my reading list, it’s not worth my time.
“It is the Chinese government…
It is the Chinese government…
It is the Chinese government…”
I agreed most of these.
But is this the justification to take away the pride of all Chinese people because some wrong doings of the government?
I found the similarity of what is happening to Serb people and Iraq people.
I never understand of so called “Tibetans are treated as second class citizen”
The one child policy dose not apply Tibetans
Tibetan students only need much lower uni entry score
Tibetans don’t pay tax while get billions of dollars help from other tax payer. the other also poor western provinces dominated by no-Tibetans don’t receive this much financial help.
Can you find that many government financed buddhist monasteries with hundreds of monks in each in other part of China which is also traditional Buddhism region?
the so called human rights issues in Tibet exist in every corner of China while the others don’t receive those “second class citizen” treatments surely we all want.
What kind of blindness and prejudice
Anon/ XniteMan,
Stupid Pig’s China blog has more balanced view I think. http://chunzhu.wordpress.com/
and also
http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com/
I won’t visit this blog any more.
But it’s still a better one than shanghailist and pekingduck who are just trying to draw attention of sex seekers on their front page:come over to China after you visit Thailand and Philippine.
Bing Ma Yong said:
the so called human rights issues in Tibet exist in every corner of China….
Thats right. As an employee of a company, i have been to places in china where land is taken away from the farmers for cooperations to use. the local gov will ask the cooperations to compensate the farmers. the gov officials got fat, while farmers get beaten by hired ‘mercenaries’ off their land. mini riots occur in many places in china because farmers lose their land. i know officially the land do not belong to them, but its sad for losing your livelihood.
The plight of china farmer, and their clashes with the multinational capitalist, and their inhumane treatment by local corrupted gov officials, deserve as much media attention, if not more than Tibetans.
Lwe
Definition of LWE in the list of acronyms and abbreviations prov
Bing Ma Yong – You are absolutely right that there are problems all across China, not just in Tibet. It’s possible to have different serious problems in different areas, all of which have to be dealt with. China has a heavy burden.
Yes, Tibet has grabbed the world’s attention.
However, when media — Western or Chinese — try to report on the many small uprisings, or the police way of dealing with them, journalists are often stopped. There have been several “land right” riots in Guangdong the last few years, but journalists are forced out, and residents are punished if they try to tell their stories.
Residents say police shot at protesters, but the state denies this. Who is right?
When the child slave-labor ring was uncovered in Dongguang, no names of companies or factories were released to the media. Why? What is the state hiding? I heart goes out to those children.
Aside from obvious differences (like religion), Tibetans actually seem to face many of the same issues others do across the country: How to solve rural poverty with development? Is money and infrastructure being compromised by corruption and business interests? Do the police crack down too hard on dissent?
I hope China can open up so all these problems can get the media attention they deserve.