Central Nation: Failing Diplomacy?

I arrived back last week from Hong Kong. We managed to shoot 6 interviews and garnered some interesting views regarding China, the west, Identity and the history of civilizations.

During my time in Hong Kong, the riots in Tibet broke out. What made more headlines in Hong Kong though was the outbreak of Flu in schools. Subsequently schools were closed for an early Easter break and many students wore surgical masks. This is not to say that the television news did not report on the events in Lhasa, but it did not take the form of the most important news story on the planet, nor did it take the form that China is ‘cracking down’ on protestors. As if there was a special kind of policing that China deploys to riots and other governments in other countries do not.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott of the Olympic Games on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. Sarkozy, the French President has hinted at a boycott.

Many Western governments have called for Hu Jiantao, the Chinese President to hold talks with the Dalai Lama.

I myself do not even do any sports anymore, nor do I live in China though I am ‘Chinese’. But I support the event which at it’s core, should be to celebrate athletic achievement and discourse. It should not however be used and overshadowed by supposed political issues. It is not the first time a major sporting event has been overshadowed by the politics surrounding it. Though the question herein lies, where is the diplomacy in dealing with these issues that the respective countries have taken up with China? What in fact will a boycott do to this sporting event? After all, it is a sporting event that was granted to the host country by the IOC. If anyone has a gripe about the host of the event, should it not approach the commissioning body?

For the last few years now, China has been not only been reported about as a rapidly rising economic giant, but a careless one at that. Reportage regarding ‘unsafe’ levels of lead in imported toys and toxic ingredients in processed foods has made out China to be a prisoner of it’s own people and of ‘foreigners’. I do not deny these unsafe and dangerous practices have and should not have occurred but I do not agree with unrepresentative reportage and a lack of questioning. For example, why did the clients such as Mattel check the manufacturing of it’s own products before they entered the market? And in fact the levels of lead were below the safe levels set by the U.S. a few decades ago. You would in fact need to be chewing on a quite a number of paint stripped from the toys to be anywhere near an unsafe level.


The speed in it’s growth as an economic and military giant pretty much scares the bejesus out of western industrialized countries.

I have no doubt that western governments do not care about Tibet from an ethical moral standpoint. In fact they could care less. I suspect a partial reason for the generated noise is intended to sabotage China’s development because let’s face it, which country wants another country as big as China to be more powerful than themselves are? They may be thinking, ‘We not be able to stop a giant running, but we can sure try to trip it in it’s tracks’.

I also suspect that supporters of the Free Tibet organisation have a quaint concept of Tibetans being a ‘spiritual, benign and peaceful people’ that contrasts against the loud economic and dirty Chinese machine. An industrial and material machine that ironically is a reflection of our own capitalist society and materialistic lifestyle. Why do people outside Tibet want an independent Tibet? Tibet has actually been a part of China for thousands of year’s pre dating most western countries. Do they really understand the complex consequences behind this? Or are they simply disgusted with their own state and trying to save another country against the same ‘development’?

Some facts to consider: The CIA funded the Dalai Lama and trained Tibetan Mercenaries until 1974 when Nixon befriended China. Britain fought two wars with China in the 19th century to impose the sale of Opium and then in 1904 launched a full scale military invasion of Tibet.

To cite recent media coverage of the Tibetan riots, many western outlets including CNN, Fox, the Washington Post, the BBC and notably in Germany N-TV, N-24 and Bild Zeittung all have shown fabricated reports with Nepal police beating and arresting protestors but reported as Chinese police (they have different uniforms). Perhaps Merkel has been watching too much TV.

Question: why does the west want Tibet to be ‘free’ of China?

What one can try to understand is this: China is a big complicated country made up of 56 ethnic groups with lots of problems it is trying to solve, step by step. A country that has remained out of the global attention for most of the century and now has to contend not only with it’s rapid growth but the criticism of other countries who are judging China according to their own values and standards. It is a country with people that have thousands of years of history and culture predating most western ‘civilizations’. One cannot understand China In the time it takes for MTV or the BBC to dazzle you with spin or it’s 1 minute news update. If any government wanted to truly help the Tibetan people or the Sudanese refugees, boycotts of this kind only solidify ones own arrogance, lack of understanding and thus, a true absence of diplomacy. This perhaps goes to show where their true intentions possibly lie.

-J