Adebayor's started so well for Man City
China in Your Hand
I'm looking forward to talking to the British representative on the International Olympic Committee tomorrow morning. He's called Sir Craig Reedie and he believes there is no point using the Beijing Games as a political football.
Protests about Tibet or China's relationship with Darfur or about the jailing of a Chinese government critic today on subversion charges are not going to force China to change its approach to any of those issues. So why use the games to make a political stand at all he asks?
The Olympic torch arrives in the UK on Saturday as part of its worldwide tour. There have already been protests along the way - in Athens, in China, and at least a thousand people are expected to demonstrate as it travels from Wembley stadium to the O2 arena in Greenwich; as a result the Chinese ambassador to the UK announced while we were on air today that she's pulling out of the Olympic torch relay on Sunday. Luckily Denise Van Outen's still participating.
But whatever happens the games will go ahead, and the 2008 Olympics will be remembered for sporting achievements not political revolution won't they?
Dear V. From a fan of 5live in China. Been here for over 4 years, married a Chinese farmers daughter, picked rice, grow corn, eat dumplings and a pro at using chopsticks. What people fail to understand is that no country is perfect, we all have pasts that we would love to forget, and our presents that tomorrow we wish we could change. China is doing a great job keeping over 1.4 billion people happy, working, fed and making more Chinese. When Mr G Brown was here in Beijing you did not see the Chinese protesting about the Iraq war. Why, respect for ones country. The west love to put their nose in places and other lives because they believe they are right. This we never change. I am British and have been home once in 4 years. The time i went back i could not wait to leave and get back to the family loving, safe, respecting and friendly place i now call home, China. You and your family are welcome to visit us in China and see first hand the real China and not what you read from the press.
Have a good day, all the best from Jack and jojo.
Good morning, China seems to be like a big battery chicken farmer, people shake their heads and say how bad it is but the majority still back it by buying it’s end product, so there is no reason to change. The IOC stance is deplorable, life is life, sport is a part of life as is politics! What about the millions who have been so badly effected by the Chinese and as a result will never be able to take part in sport? What about the millions who have been so badly effected by the Chinese to a point that their lives are no longer their own, who will if they’re lucky see the countries of the world come to China endorsing all that they are doing, wiping out any remaining hope that some of the worlds countries may just stand up together and take a meaningful stand on their behalf, just how demoralising will that be to these people who’s lives are so bad we in the west would struggle to fully comprehend. As with most things it comes down to money in the form of business and money is worth more than life. When China have taken over Americas place as self imposed rulers of the world will we look back and wish we had taken a stand earlier?
what people dont understand about the 'positive religious situation' in china is that the religious leaders, certainly in the catholic church, are selected by the government as a political tool! for this reason the church leaders in china are not recognised!
what people dont understand about the 'positive religious situation' in china is that the religious leaders, certainly in the catholic church, are selected by the government as a political tool! for this reason the church leaders in china are not recognised!
The olimpic flame in London
Politics and protesters should not use or disrupt sport to make their protest. I have no problem with people protesting peacefully. I don’t like people displaying their protests at events, but I accept they are legally allowed to do so. Show banners, shout their protest, but not interfere with an event.
People braking the law should be arrested, charged, punished and should not be allowed to attend protest again. Just as football hooligans are not allowed to attend future football matches.
What could have been a nice event in London was ruined by the idiots among the protesters..
I do not believe many of the protestors fully understand the situation in Tibet. I believe many of the 'protesters' will turn out to be people 'getting on the band wagon' people just out to get involved for the sake of it or just plain trouble makers.
This kind of behaviour makes me once again feel ashamed to be British
I have lived and worked in China, I agree there is a lot to be done regarding their attitude to human rights, but this kind of behaviour will do nothing. I have no doubt the Chinese authorities will not react to this, therefore it is a waste of time and serves only to cause trouble and pour shame on Britain.
I have just finished watching the torch procession. I applaud the protesters for the most part and regret that not one potlitician or sportman from the UK has had the courage to voice any significant support to the protesters. All of them hiding behind the "sport and politics should not mix" slogan. How many of these people, I wonder, supported the exclusion of South Africa from sporting occasions during the apartheid regime.
I also wonder how many Tibetans will be respresented at the olympics, or why, for a country with such a large population, China has no parolympic team.
From the coverage I saw on TV which was covered by Sky NewS and ´óÏó´«Ã½ I thought there was excessive use of force in handling a number of peaceful protesters. On viewing this I thought I lived in A FACIST STATE. tHE Police were clubing people on the side of the road who as far as I could see were only shouting and holding banners. There were far to many Policemen and why did we ever allow an army of Chinese security people dress in Blue Track suits around the runners, You could not see the Runners. Even at No.10 The Chinese were man handling their own security guards. and I did not even see Mr Brown touch the torch. We were being used for Policitical purposes.
I thought that as a specticale for the Olmypic Games was a waste of time and money.
I hope that the Goverment and the Police will have learnt enoughfrom this so that we do not have a repeation of this spectical again. I f they cannot let see the runners.then it is time to ban the event.
What garbage! Robert for instance wrote that in China religious leaders were chosen by the Government, but in the UK the religious leaders are selected by the government and were part of the Lords!
The West who are really the white race keep harping on about inhumnity in China but the world is shaped and created by the Europeans who have decimated all the native peoples all over the world and now they are invisibly living in hovels.
Will you hve th courage to publish this little piece of truth?
Can;t disagree more. Robert for instance wrote that in China religious leaders were chosen by the Government, but in the UK the religious leaders are selected by the government and were part of the Lords!
The West who are really the white race keep harping on about inhumnity in China but the world is shaped and created by the Europeans who have decimated all the native peoples all over the world and now they are invisibly living in hovels.
Will you hve th courage to publish this little piece of truth?
I think the way the protestors acted during what should have been a great day for all concerned was dispicable.I agree people should be allowed to protest but the manner in which many showed themselves was a disgrace.
Yet again the west sticks its nose in to issues in other countries whilst their own houses are out of order.I dont see these same people protesting about Native Americans.I do wonder how many of these protestors have been to Tibet themselves to see first hand what is happening and not just listening to what is on the whole a hyped up western media.
Hi, Victoria, just try to show you a professor's common, wish everyone can have a open mind after reading it . I am not saying china is perfect, it is the same as any other countries, but we have to look at it as a whole, general speaking, i think china did very good job in last ten years, and i strongly believe that my country will do much better in the future!
"Protests in Tibet and Separatism: the Olympics and Beyond
Barry Sautman
Recent protests in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas were organized to embarrass the Chinese government ahead of the Olympics. The Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the major Tibetan exile organization that advocates independence for Tibet and has endorsed using violent methods to achieve it, has said as much. Its head, Tsewang Rigzin, stated in a March 15 interview with the Chicago Tribune that since it is likely that Chinese authorities would suppress protests in Tibet, "With the spotlight on them with the Olympics, we want to test them. We want them to show their true colors. That's why we're pushing this." At the June, 2007 Conference for an Independent Tibet organized in India by "Friends of Tibet," speakers pointed out that the Olympics present a unique opportunity for protests in Tibet. In January, 2008, exiles in India launched a "Tibetan People's Uprising Movement" to "act in the spirit" of the violent 1959 uprising against Chinese government authority and focus on the Olympics.
Several groups of Tibetans were likely involved in the protests in Lhasa, including in the burning and looting of non-Tibetan businesses and attacks against Han and Hui (Muslim Chinese) migrants to Tibet. The large monasteries have long been centers of separatism, a stance cultivated by the TYC and other exile entities, many of which are financed by the US State Department or the US Congress' National Endowment for Democracy. Monks are self-selected to be especially devoted to the Dalai Lama. However much he may characterize his own position as seeking only greater autonomy for Tibet, monks know he is unwilling to declare that Tibet is an inalienable part of China, an act China demands of him as a precondition to formal negotiations. Because the exile regime eschews a separation of politics and religion, many monks deem adherence to the Dalai Lama's stance of non-recognition of the Chinese government's legitimacy in Tibet to be a religious obligation.
Reports on the violence have underscored that Tibetan merchants competing with Han and Hui are especially antagonistic to the presence of non-Tibetans. Alongside monks, Tibetan merchants were the mainstay of protests in Lhasa in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This time around, many Han and Hui-owned shops were torched. Many of those involved in arson, looting, and ethnic-based beatings are also likely to have been unemployed young men. Towns have experienced much rural-to-urban migration of Tibetans with few skills
needed for urban employment. Videos from Lhasa showed the vast majority of rioters were males in their teens or twenties.
The recent actions in Tibetan areas differ from the broad-based demonstrations of "people power" movements in several parts of the world in the last few decades. They hardly show the overwhelming Tibetan anti-Chinese consensus portrayed in the international media. The highest media estimate of Tibetans who participated in protests is 20,000 — by Steve Chao
, the Beijing Bureau Chief of Canadian Television News, i.e. one of every 300 Tibetans. Compare that to the 1986 protests against the Marcos dictatorship by about three million — one out of every 19 Filipinos.
Tibetans have legitimate grievances about not being sufficiently helped to compete for jobs and in business with migrants to Tibet. There is also job discrimination by Han migrants in favor of family members and people from their native places. The gaps in education and living standards between Tibetans and Han are substantial and too slow in narrowing. The grievances have long existed, but protests and rioting took place this year because the
Olympics make it opportune for separatists to advance their agenda. Indeed, there was a radical disconnect between Tibetan socio-economic grievances and the slogans raised in the protests, such as "Complete Independence for Tibet" and "May the exiles and Tibetans inside Tibet be reunited," slogans that not coincidentally replicate those raised by pro-independence Tibetan exiles.
While separatists will not succeed in detaching Tibet from China by rioting, they believe that China will eventually collapse, like the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and they seek to establish their claim to rule before that happens. Alternatively, they think that the United States may intervene, as it has elsewhere, to foster the breakaway of regions in countries to
which the US is antagonistic, e.g. Kosovo and southern Sudan. The Chinese government also fears such eventualities, however unlikely they are to come to pass. It accordingly acts to suppress separatism, an action that comports with its rights under international law.
Separatists know they can count on the automatic sympathy of Western politicians and media, who view China as a strategic economic and political competitor. Western elites have thus widely condemned China for suppressing riots that these elites would never allow to go unsuppressed in their own countries. They demand that China be restrained in its response; yet, during the Los Angeles uprising or riots of 1992 — which spread to a score of
other major cities — President George H.W. Bush stated when he sent in thousands of soldiers, that "There can be no excuse for the murder, arson, theft or vandalism that have terrorized the people of Los Angeles . . . Let me assure you that I will use whatever force is necessary to restore order." Neither Western politicians nor mainstream media attacked him on this score, while neither Western leaders nor the Dalai Lama have criticized those Tibetans who recently engaged in ethnic-based attacks and arson.
Western elites give the Chinese government no recognition for significant improvements in the lives of Tibetans as a result of subsidies from the China's central government and provinces, improvements that the Dalai Lama has himself admitted. Western politicians and media also consistently credit the Dalai Lama's charge that "cultural genocide" is underway in Tibet,
even though the exiles and their supporters offer no credible evidence of the evisceration of Tibetan language use, religious practice or art. In fact, more than 90% of Tibetans speak Tibetan as their mother tongue. Tibet has about 150,000 monks and nuns, the highest concentration of full-time "clergy" in the Buddhist world. Western scholars of Tibetan literature and art forms have attested that it is flourishing.
Ethnic contradictions in Tibet arise from the demography, economy and politics of the Tibetan areas. Separatists and their supporters claim that Han Chinese have been "flooding" into Tibet, "swamping" Tibetans demographically. In fact, between the national censuses of 1990 and 2000 (which count everyone who has lived in an area for six months or more), the
percentage of Tibetans in the Tibetan areas as a whole increased somewhat and Han were about one-fifth of the population. A preliminary analysis of the 2005 mini-census shows that from 2000-2005 there was a small increase in the proportion of Han in the central-western parts of Tibet (the Tibet Autonomous Region or TAR) and little change in eastern Tibet. Pro-
independence forces want the Tibetan areas cleansed of Han (as happened in 1912 and 1949); the Dalai Lama has said he will accept a three-to-one Tibetan to non-Tibet population ratio, but he consistently misrepresents the present situation as one of a Han majority. Given his status as not merely the top Tibetan Buddhist religious leader, but as an emanation of Buddha, most Tibetans credit whatever he says on this or other topics.
The Tibetan countryside, where three-fourths of the population lives, has very few non-Tibetans. The vast majority of Han migrants to Tibetan towns are poor or near-poor. They are not personally subsidized by the state; although like urban Tibetans, they are indirectly subsidized by infrastructure development that favors the towns. Some 85% of Han who
migrate to Tibet to establish businesses fail; they generally leave within two to three years. Those who survive economically offer competition to local Tibetan business people, but a comprehensive study in Lhasa has shown that non-Tibetans have pioneered small and medium enterprise sectors that some Tibetans have later entered and made use of their local knowledge to prosper.
Tibetans are not simply an underclass; there is a substantial Tibetan middle class, based in government service, tourism, commerce, and small-scale manufacturing/ transportation. There are also many unemployed or under-employed Tibetans, but almost no unemployed or underemployed Han because those who cannot find work leave. Many Han migrants have racist attitudes toward Tibetans, mostly notions that Tibetans are lazy, dirty, and obsessed
with religion. Many Tibetans reciprocate with representations of Han as rich, money-obsessed and conspiring to exploit Tibetans. Long-resident urban Tibetans absorb aspects of Han culture in much the same way that ethnic minorities do with ethnic majority cultures the world over. Tibetans are not however being forcibly "Sincized." Most Tibetans speak little or no Chinese. They begin to learn it in the higher primary grades and, in many Tibetan areas, must study in it if they go on to secondary education. Chinese, however, is one of the two most important languages in the world and considerable advantages accrue to those who learn it, just as they do to non-native English speakers.
The Tibetan exiles argue that religious practice is sharply restricted in Tibetan areas. The Chinese government has the right under international law to regulate religious institutions to prevent them from being used as vehicles for separatism and the control of religion is in fact mostly a function of the state's (overly-developed) concern about separatism and secondarily about how the hyper-development of religious institutions counteracts "development" among ethnic Tibetans. Certain state policies do infringe on freedom of religion; for example, the forbidding, in the TAR (Tibet Autonomous Region), of state employees and university students to participate in religious rites. The lesser degree of control over religion in the eastern Tibetan areas beyond the TAR– at least before the events of March, 2008 — indicate however that the Chinese government calibrates its control according to the perceived degree of separatist sentiment in the monasteries.
The Dalai Lama's regime was of course itself a theocracy that closely regulated the monasteries, including the politics, hierarchy and number of monks. The exile authorities today circumscribe by fiat those religious practices they oppose, such as the propitiation of a "deity" known as Dorje Shugden. The cult of the Dalai Lama, which is even stronger among monks than it is among Hollywood stars, nevertheless mandates acceptance of his claim that restrictions on religious management and practice in Tibet arise solely from the Chinese state's supposed anti-religious animus. Similarly, the cult requires the conviction that the Dalai Lama is a pacifist, even though he has explicitly or implicitly endorsed all wars waged by the US.
The Dalai Lama is a Tibetan ethnic nationalist whose worldview is — in US terms — both liberal and conservative. He and many of his foreign supporters have a pronounced affinity for conservative politicians, such as Bush, Thatcher, Lee Teng-hui and Ishihara Shintaro, but they can get along well with liberals like US Speaker Nancy Pelosi, because they are virulently anti-communist and anti-China.
The Dalai Lama is far from being a supporter of oppressed peoples. For example, in 2002, when he visited Australia, the Dalai Lama, upon arriving in Melbourne, noted "he had flown over 'a large empty area' of Australia that could house millions of people from other densely populated continents." The area is, of course, not wholly empty, as it contains Aborigines. To them, the Dalai Lama proffered the advice that "black people 'should appreciate what white people have brought to this country, its development.'" (R. Callick, "Dalai Lama Treads Fine Line," Australian Financial Review, May 22, 2002).
The development of the "market economy" has had much the same effect in Tibetan areas as in the rest of China, i.e. increased exploitation, exacerbated income and wealth differentials, and rampant corruption. The degree to which this involves an "ethnic division of labor" that disadvantages Tibetans is however exaggerated by separatists in order to foster ethnic antagonism. For example, Tibet is not the poorest area of China, as is often claimed. It is better off than several other ethnic minority areas and even than some Han areas, in large measure due to heavy government subsidies. Rural Tibetans as well receive more state subsidies than other minorities. The exile leaders employ hyperbole not only in terms
of the degree of empirical difference, but also concerning the more fundamental ethnic relationship in Tibet: in contrast to, say, Israel/Palestine, Tibetans have the same rights as Han, they enjoy certain preferential economic and social policies, and about half the top party leaders in the TAR have been ethnic Tibetans.
Tibet has none of the indicia of a colony or occupied territory and thus has no relationship to self-determination, a concept that in recent decades has often been misused, especially by the US, to foster the breakup of states and consequent emiseration of their populations. A settlement between the Chinese government and Tibetan exile elites is a pre-condition for the
mitigation of Tibetan grievances because absent a settlement, ethnic politics will continue to subsume every issue in Tibet, as it does for example, in Taiwan and Kosovo, where ethnic binaries are constructed by "ethnic political entrepreneurs," who seek to outbid each other for support.
The protests in Tibet had no progressive aspect. Many who participated in the ethnic murders, beatings and arsons in Lhasa were poor rural migrants to the city, but the slogans there and elsewhere in Tibet almost all concerned independence or the Dalai Lama. There have been many movements the world over in which marginalized people have taken a reactionary and often racist road, for example, al-Qaeda or much of the base of the Nazis. The riots in Tibet also have done nothing to advance discussions of a political settlement between the Chinese government and exiles, yet a settlement is necessary for the substantial mitigation of Tibetan grievances. For Tibetan pro-independence forces, a setback to such efforts may have been their very purpose in fostering the riots. Tibetan pro-independence forces, like separatists everywhere, seek to counter any view of the world that is not ethnic-based and to thwart all efforts to resolve ethnic contradictions, in order to boost the mobilization needed to sustain their ethnic nationalist projects. They have claimed that China will soon collapse and the US will thereafter increase its patronage of a Tibetan state elite, to the benefit of ordinary Tibetans. One only has to look round the world at the many humanitarian catastrophes that have resulted from such thinking to project what consequences are likely to follow for ordinary Tibetans if the separatist fantasy were fulfilled."