Wednesday, March 14, 2007

News: US House Panel Urges China to end Tibet stalemate

US House Panel Urges China to end Tibet stalemate
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
Reuters
Tuesday, March 13, 2007; 4:11 PM

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Talking to the Dalai Lama offers China's best chance for a peaceful solution in Tibet, U.S. lawmakers and activists said on Tuesday, arguing that Beijing's refusal to meet the exiled leader hurt China.

China has held five rounds of fruitless talks with the envoy of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against Communist rule in 1959, eight years after the Chinese military marched in to annex Tibet." Read full article

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found this quote from the Washington Post article particularly apt:

"The Dalai Lama embodies China's lack of legitimacy and it is therefore reasonable to assume that Chinese leaders fear that a return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, and the emotional welcome that would greet him, would only underscore this point," said Gere, a devout Buddhist.

Overall I've kinda discounted celebrities' involvement in the Tibet issue, acknowledging the (usually) positive attention they bring but not really expecting them to have anything sophisticated to say. But regardless of whether he thought the ideas up himself or got them from ICT, Gere has a really nice soundbite here, and he's telling the Congress something they desperately need to hear: both about the illegitimacy of China's role in Tibet, and the core of the reason why the talks are getting no where.

I've actually been worried at times about China possibly pulling some sort of stunt of inviting HHDL to the Olympics (or similar) to try to shut down protest and take away the movement's opportunity, but the more I think about it and the more I talk with people, the more I think that His very presence in China or Tibet would be something so radically upsetting to the warped reality they want to project, and so unpredictably destabilizing in Tibet, that they won't dare do such a thing.

Tenzin Yangdon said...

This is a nice soundbite and a very true one. I agree with your opinion on Mr. Gere's address to the congress. I also don't think there is any chance that China will dare to invite the Dalai Lama during the Olympics. That would be a nice stunt but not likely to happen for all the reasons you gave and also that it would make the Chinese government leadership look like hypocrites. They have been labelling his Holiness the Dalai Lama with the deragotory name "separatist" for several decades now and when all of China and the world watches, the Dalai Lama's presence would take away China's spotlight and yes lead to very destabalizing effects post Olympics.