A Political Glimpse from Ireland

China’s Secret National Security Threat

Who would have thought the day would come in society when a Poet would be considered a national security threat however this day has apparently dawned because the Chinese government considers the Tibetan poet Woeser exactly that. Many of you may not know Woeser and I only discovered her blog through my numerous searches on Digg and other websites, she is one of the few Tibetan blogger’s who posted live images and commentary about the Tibetan protests and the ongoing repression in Tibet. You can find Woeser’s blog on my blog roll however all the posts are in Chinese hence a decent translator is needed or you can visit The Secret of Tibet which often posts some of her posts in English.

The Chinese government promised the IOC that they would respect human rights however this has not been the case and the lack of media coverage in Tibet is evident of how much the Chinese government has to hide. USA Today reported that Beijing is going to allow protests during the Olympic games but these protests are restricted to area’s far away from the arenas. I find that a bit ludicrous because how are the protestors going to get any coverage of their issues when all the camera’s will be focused on the Olympics? It is just another stunt in a series of stunts that is expected to cloak the Olympics in a veil of shadows, hopefully the Western media will be able to pierce that veil once the Olympics commences.

Why China Worries Me

With less than a month to go to the Olympics, I am stunned that the Western Media as essential given The People’s Republic of China a free ride in terms of media coverage. China promised the Olympic committee that they would live up to their pledge to allow “free” reporting by the western media of the Olympics however given the stiff credentialing process required to obtain a Chinese visa, how many non pro-government reporters can we see entering the country? What is the solution? obviously, it is too late for many nations to boycott the games and given China’s increasing influence in the geopolitical stage ( Zimbabwe, Iran etc..), what can any nation do for fear of suffering trade repercussions?

I have been debating writing about this for fear of making some of my Chinese friends mad again however I cannot in good conscience support the Olympic games or the Chinese government. The biggest question on my mind has been moral relativity? Is it fair for me to criticize the Chinese government given the human rights abuses occurring in Guantanamo, CIA detention facilities and possibly other locations? Even if a comparison can be made, how can I equate the loss of human life in numbers? The simple answer I have reached is that with any political/moral argument, you have to take a stand at some point, you have to try to at least speak out against injustice regardless of the consequences. Here is a paragraph from an email I received today from Amnesty International:

First, let me tell you about Ye Guozhu and his family, who were evicted from their home and restaurant in 2003, which were razed to make way for the Beijing Summer Olympics.

Three days after he requested permission to hold a public demonstration against the forced evictions, Ye Guozhu was arrested. He was convicted of “stirring up trouble” and sentenced to four years in prison.

This is just one story of one person who has been arrested for opposing the Chinese “dream” of the perfect Olympics. After the head of the CNN branch in Beijing was called in to explain CNN’s allegedly biased coverage of the Tibet riots; the public should no longer expect truthful coverage of the situation in China because what major news network would want to lose the potential profits of over 1 billion people? The media has taken it increasingly easier on China which is why we only hear about stories like this from organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

I will speak honestly at this point, one of my best friends lives in Taiwan in an age where the current President of the country is unashamed to be pro-China. This bias from the leadership of Taiwan is logical given the recently slow growth within the Taiwanese economy which is all supposed to change according to Jim Rogers who recently stated that the best place to put your money is in Taiwan given its new relationship with China. The problem that President Ma has not taken into account is that the people of Taiwan are fairly split on China hence he has only given half the Taiwanese people a say in the potential eradication of “Taiwanese” as a distinct language.

You might think that I am overstating the situation, but given the demonstration of these tactics in Tibet where the Han now outnumber of ethnic Tibetans, is it truly inconceivable that China will not try to eradicate all remnants of the original Taiwanese culture and tradition in an effort to complete the “One China” fallacy? I think this is a distinct possibility and now the task lies with the media to ensure that the truth behind Human Rights in China is exposed given there new position as a player in the global arena.

A Lesson From The Dalai Lama

I was doing my end of the night browse through Digg when I came across the headline that Time had released their list of the 100 most influential people. Number one on that list for “Leaders & Revolutionaries” was the Dalai Lama which is quite fitting given the strength of the character the man has shown in recent months considering the deaths of over 100 of his people at the hands of the Chinese government. Despite all of this adversity, he has chosen the peaceful course for his country which is simple autonomy rather than pure independence. Can you imagine making such a decision? Can you imagine the harmony that must  exist in the man’s soul to deal with adversity on a daily basis? I simply cannot since I quite often lose patience over the simplest things therefore the lesson I would like all of us to take away today is one of “Patience.” Patience in all things especially politics.

Nationalism Fanatics

Well I have decided to create a whole new category today and make two posts in one day because of a conversation I had with a Korean friend of mine this morning. This did not see quite the coverage that it should have got here in the West but some Pro-Chinese demonstrator’s beat up some Pro-Tibetan demonstrator’s in Seoul during the Torch Relay. This video is quite disturbing however I must state that the Chinese people in this video do not represent the whole of China but merely a fringe few who have taken nationalism/patriotism a fair bit too far. This kind of behavior is intolerable and also gives credence to my theory that the nationalistic tendency in China is only increasing rather than abating as the Olympics draws closer. Nationalism/Patriotism can be deadly and I hope people around the world realize that you should be proud of your country but that pride must be balanced with logic, common sense and control. This video is in Korean but you don’t need to understand the language to feel my disgust.

The Party Line

This is going to be the second non-American related post in two days which is a record for me but I just received another email from Mr. Howard Kuff who is one of the few Westerners that have ever been to Tibet and seen the reality of the situation there. Many Chinese have accused Westerners like myself of not understanding the situation and that we should comment once we have visited Tibet. Here is a man who has been there and verifies what the Western Media has been saying about the oppression of the Tibetan people by the government of China.

You can find his website at http://www.changing-history.com, where you can also purchase his book which I plan to do at the end of the month once I get paid since I seemed to have squandered my money on the wonderful world of electronics again. Mr. Kuff further goes on to give his theory as to why China is so insistent about Tibet:

China wants world power. Water is the key to the future. Tibet is the key to the waters of Asia. It will take the World to force China to give this up. Control of water is control of humanity. We are all water and we all share water. China seeks domination. The people of Tibet are simply pawns in China’s quest for power.

I know this sounds a bit hard to believe that water is key to the future but many people overlook the issue of changing environment because it is quite convenient and makes our lives easier but millions of people around the world do not have access to clean water. Water is a key component of our human nature so given the fluctuating state of the global climate; wouldn’t it make sense that sometime in the future as the population of the world expands, that we will start to run out of this precious substance? I think so and given the fact that we just had the first World Water Day on March 22nd, perhaps this is something to think about. Here is an excerpt from the UNESCO World Water Day Report:

According to the Millennium Development Goals Report 2007, an estimated 1.6 billion people must acquire access to improved sanitation over the period 2005-2015 to meet the MDG target on sanitation. If trends since 1990 continue, the world is likely to miss the target by almost 600 million people.

To those of you who still doubt the assertion that China is trying to control the water, I urge you to adopt that as a premise (Also examine Mr. Kuff’s website) and follow along with my argument. Let’s look back at yesterday’s post, the Chinese in essence sold weapons to an unstable and illegitimate government for the sake of money or destabilizing the government. Which ever way you side, neither of these situations would have been good for Southern Africa however I think we can come to the conclusion that China is going to continue to try to flex its power over the coming years in order to make up for years of mediocrity. This is a shame and I hope that the Chinese people will eventually see through the shallow nature of the CCP’s policies. Tibet was free before China and deserves to be free now. The Tibetans are not Chinese and have a unique culture, tradition and understanding of the world. I honestly hope that the world will not fall for the CCP’s tricks in their efforts to cloak their actions with the “peaceful” Beijing Olympics.

This is a beautiful photo I got over at 看不见的西藏～唯色博客, the lady who runs the blog is Tibetan and lives in China and gives us the story on the ground whereas most News outlets are continuously tailed by Chinese policeman when they enter China. I really admire this lady because you cannot dispute what the is saying in there and the worst part of this whole story is that her blog has been hacked into twice with her passwords change because the nationalistic tendencies of some Chinese people cannot be controlled. Seriously, leave this excellent blogger alone and get over the Party Line.