Mar
20
The Problem With Tibet
March 20, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
by Carol (6)
” Tibet…Tibet…Tibet”
More than violations of human rights and religious freedom, is what fueled the riots in Lhasa and across Tibet last week — the largest and most violent protests since 1989, when Tibetans last stood up to Chinese rule. Today, Tibetans stand at an economic threshold, about to be overwhelmed by the tsunami of China’s great expansion in ways that may ultimately be more devastating than the previous decades of repressive rule.
The focus of all Intenational news media continues to be the problem with Tibet this week. From my point of view, there are several kinds of resources:
1) The foreign journalists of AP, Reutres, AFP and also some other international news media, their reports are relatively objective. Everyday they updated the situations in Lhasa. CNN reported some details about “News of Tibet under scrutiny” -”Chinese authorities have obstructed foreign journalists at least 30 times as they sought to cover unrest in Tibet and nearby provinces in recent days”
2)Hong Kong Journalists-Actually some of my friends from TVB, ATV and Cable TV interviewed in Lhasa. Beyond their expectation, they reached there easily and no one stopped them on the beginning. But Hong Kong journalists were stopped and ordered away from sites of violent clashes later.
3)chinese media-At the beginning, kept silent as usual. Then speak from the government’s point of view.
4)media close with Dalai Lama, especially some websites report exclusively.
No matter what kind of resources we get, the point is what we believe.
I have been to Tibet to interview the Qinghai-Tibet Railway story. Local residents told me, “Tibetan culture is so deeply rooted here.”
On my visit, Lhasa was described as a quaint city brimming with Chinese influence but largely characterized by its ancient Tibetan architecture, Tibetan goods and, of course, Tibetan people. The Chinese who did reside there often left in the winter, when temperatures drop below freezing and the 12,000-foot-high city is whipped with winds off the Himalayan plateau.
In the accepted Western narrative on Tibet, economic development itself is villainized, the suggestion being that Tibet should remain as it was a thousand years ago because it represents something so peaceful and idyllic. Because it feeds the simplistic cliche of Buddha-loving pacifists oppressed by the atheist Chinese. The assumption is that Tibetans feel confortable living in this way. I agree.
All the expansion and wealth that has streamed into Tibet has benefited Tibetans very little. Even after decades of investment, the illiteracy rate remains four times that of neighboring Sichuan province, and vocational schools per capita are one-fourth as prevalent as in the rest of China.
The Beijing Olympics in August may be their last great opportunity to draw the world’s attention to the inequity of China’s economic miracle. For the Tibetans, it may be their final chance to hold onto an ethnically, religiously and economically unique homeland before it is lost forever. I believe this is what makes the uprising of 2008 different from that of 1989, and this is what is bringing Tibetans into the streets.
