China, The Olympics, Tibet and the West: Let The Games Begin
By Philip Shaw M.Sc.
With Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque Ph.D
China continues to be in the news. The earthquake centered near Chengdu in Sichuan province has so far topped 65,000 dead. It was a terrible second punch to Asia after the cyclone had earlier hit Myanmar. In China aid has poured in from around the world, as the Chinese struggle to stabilize the region.
Natural disasters seemingly come out of nowhere. The loss of life can be tremendous. No matter where it is, it makes headlines around the world. Global sympathy seemingly shows no bounds.
If it only could sway into the world of politics, it would be so much easier for some global powers. In China’s case they have been taking heavy criticism in western circles for their support of the Sudanese regime and the genocide in Darfur. However, the even bigger fiasco might be turning out to be something, which has been ongoing for almost 50 years, that being Chinese domination of Tibet and the coming 2008 Olympic games.
My colleague Enamul might not see this the same way as I do. Simply put the Olympic games in western circles have not only turned into big business, but they are in effect a big commercial for the country that hosts them. For two weeks in August the world will focus on China. For China’s opponents, it’s just the opposite.
That’s why in 2008 you hear so much about Tibet. In 1959 the Chinese took over Tibet and the Dalai Lama soon after escaped to India where he has lived since. However, he can often be found touring the world where he has become a favourite in western media circles. Every western leader almost falls over themselves to host him, anything to stick a needle in the Chinese regime.
Needless to say even after this time the freedom of Tibet still sticks out in the world as a sore thumb. It is kind of a “retro-issue.” In other words, it’s been around so long, our present reality has almost nothing to do with what happened way back in 1959. Now you have a China with a semi-open market economy with double-digit growth rates. Gone is Mao and gone is Chou-En-Lai. However, the Dalai Lama is still with us, along with his coterie of western celebrities and sympathizers who keep the dream alive. In this Olympic year, they are set to go to new heights to push the Tibet issue on China’s Olympic parade.
We’ll see if that gets interrupted. As of now, there has been lots of brutal activity in Tibet. The Dalai Lama has said that China should be able to host the Olympic games but he has called the current domination of Tibet by the Chinese “cultural genocide.” At the same time China has declared a “People’s War” in Tibet and rioting has rocked Lhasa. Simply put, this is not what China wanted for their Olympic stage come August of 2008.
I don’t have a real good sense of how this is being seen in Asia. For instance news reports from China from the earthquake scene have shown some Chinese not happy with western journalists partly because of what they deem unfair coverage of the Tibet question. India certainly would have an opinion about this too. From my perspective from five years of writing this column, the Asian view is different than the western view. Dr. Haque should be able to flesh that out.
Of course from a western perspective, what is the “strategic interest” here? Does the United States, Western Europe, Canada and other western countries feel compelled to intervene in Tibet. I don’t think so. However, everyday somebody throws a stone in Israel, Lebanon, Iraq or Afghanistan and the west gets antsy. New coverage is everywhere. And of course 5 million people are now dead from fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It would seem “strategic interest” trumps everything.
Simply put, the western world’s attention span isn’t balanced. However, China is a big target. From my western perch I can hear the cries of China’s human rights record reaching a crescendo going forward. I can hear western voices extolling the loss of freedom within Tibet. I can hear the righteous voices almost drowning out the run up to the Olympics. The western voices are getting louder and louder.
Nonetheless no one is complaining here about all the cheap imported goods imported from China, which is keeping inflation low. Nobody is complaining about a China, which is increasing their imports of North and South American agricultural commodities. And of course nobody in the west wants to talk about our own human rights problems like Guantanamo Bay, or the treatment of our own aboriginal indigenous peoples.
At the end of the day I hope the Beijing Olympic games succeed. You bet China has its warts, Tibet and all. However, they don’t hold a monopoly on wrongdoing. So it’s not time for the west to act hypocritical.
The Beijing Olympic and China
Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque
While Phil was writing this piece, I was in sitting in Singapore working with 5 other wildlife economists to understand what could be done to arrest the threat of extinction of tigers in Asia. Next month you’ll read more about it.
Tibet is a sensitive issue for China and so is Taiwan and/or was Hong Kong. My understanding of Chinese history has been very limited due to our educational system, which did not pay much attention to Chinese culture, history as well as the economy. However, if I use my limited knowledge I see the following and it is quite different than what western nations see in China.
Chinese writings from the Shang Dynasty have been carbon dated to around 1500BC. China has nearly 5000 years of recorded history. This particular information is overlooked or deliberately ignored by writers in the west. If you are interested in this go to www.wikipedia.com. It will provide some important points to all of us. Just to give you some idea, the Sichuan province was included in China as early as 256BC. And between the the 3rd and 4th century Tibet came under Chinese rule. Buddhism came to China by the 1st century and by the 5th century it became a predominant religion in China.
It was possibly after the Opium war of 1840 western (mainly British) influence in China began to rise. The central Chinese government, which controlled China became weak and many regions which had separate culture and dialects declared independence. By 1890 China was divided by France, Germany, UK, Japan and Russia. For years after this China virtually remained under control of these imperial powers. The Qing dynasty under the their influence made the central Chinese government in Beijing very weak.
In between 1890 and 1910, the Sino-France war, Japanese war took place which further weakend the central government and many remote provinces of China declared independence (Tibet included). It was probably after 1910 San Yat-Sen took control of the presidency but by 1920 he forged an alliance with the Communist Party of China. By 1925 with help from western powers Chiang Kaishek seized control of power. By 1927 he started to fight the growing communist movement. However, by 1934 his government became very weak which lost control of many of its northern, southern and western provinces. By 1949 Mao took control of Beijing. Kaishek took shelter in Taiwan.
It is clear from history lessons that I could get that it was from the 4-5th century Tibet was part of China and only in the last 40-50 years prior to the Communist revolution Tibet (also many other provinces) became independent. Compare its period of independence with the period when it was claimed as part of China you can easily see the hole in the general claim that Tibet was annexed by China.
The period of Tibet under the rule of Communist China was clearly painful for many reasons. The Chinese government’s refusal to give religious freedom to its people is not something that people in any part of the world like. However, it is acceptable to me to separate this issue with so-called Chinese occupation of Tibet.
After the end of the war in 1945, Britain, France and also other European nations did not have the ability to fight a big communist movement in China. On the other hand, the US was busy with Japan and Europe and so Mao with help from Lenin took control of China, and communist China began its journey.
The US, UK and also France did not relish the Chinese rebirth as a powerful nation. Besides promoting communism throughout China, Mao also underlined the need to bring back all regions (who were previously under Chinese rule) under one government. UK/US allies neither could accept the changing map of the world nor could they effectively stop Chinese re-incarnation. However, as always western powers were all around China. India was independent but still lived within the Commonwealth and was heavily influenced by the British. The Chinese claim on the Indian province of “Arunachal” (which the British took over during the weak central government in China) was a matter of dispute. The US decided to give protection to Chiang Kaishek and so they provided protection for him in Taiwan. For a new China, it was impossible to pick a fight with the west as they were already fighting them ideologically, so China technically accepted a defeat and allowed the renegade province of Taiwan to enjoy the pseudo-independence status since 1949.
India, on the other hand, understood the difficulty of dealing with China in terms of the Chinese claim of part of its north-eastern province. People in these areas are clearly ethnic Chinese. As such, India decided to gamble politically with China and provided the Dalai Lama a political shelter for his rebellion against Chinese moves to limit religious freedom in Tibet. His stay was clearly supported by the western powers. You can easily compare these steps with the last scenes of a thriller when monsters leave some form of evidence to come back in the future in its next movie.
I hope I have been able to dispel my understanding of Chinese history. As I have mentioned, there are many issues with which we cannot agree with either China or the West.
Finally, the Beijing Olympics will be a staging ground for many players to expose China again. However let us understand this clearly. This is going to be true for all future media events like this. Tibetans have been very successful to flag their issues to the world. Many other similar movements will take place in the future in the wake of the Beijing Olympic. Human rights groups, Muslim religious groups, Christian groups, and many others will try to use this occasion to flag their issues. I see nothing wrong with it is as long as the objective is to flag their issues and not to disrupt the game itself. The Olympics shall remain apolitical but the ground will become a political ground to raise awareness against humanity.
To me in the future, this will be the case for all Olympics, World Cups in Soccer, Cricket and so on. Every nation has their weaknesses and people will expose them whenever an opportunity arises. Let us not forget it happened in Seattle, Seoul, Tokyo, London, Melbourne, Mexico, Johannesburg, Paris and Moscow. It is going to be happening in Beijing and will continue take place in the future as long as the politics of the war remains unfair.
[Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque is a Professor of Economics at the United International University in Dhaka, Bangladesh.]