Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The Big Picture

Here’s a great comment left under the article quoted below.  The name used was Jack Chen, so I assume he’s of Chinese descent.

The problem with China is not about ethnic rivalries… The problem is that all races have been oppressed equally. But those in the West who assign their own racial frameworks only serve to alienate and subvert the 1.2 billion Han Chinese needed to bring more rights to everyone in “China”.

For every Tibetan temple destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, another 100 Confucius/Daoist/Buddhist temple were destroyed. For every TIbetan jailed for “subversion”, there have been 1000 Han Chinese for the same activities. For every Tibetan persecuted for religion, another 10,000 Han Chinese suffer the same fate.

But when you shout Free Tibet and “Down with China”, you are conveying an Anti-China sentiment that Chinese people recoil and react negatively, so deep is the sensitivities to the idea that “Foreigners Know Best”. This is not just Communist propaganda. It is the same overwhelming sentiment that led the the rise of the KMT to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, that led Chinese students to take to the streets on May 4, 1919.

Too many kind-hearted folks in the West believe that things are black and white. I’d caution everyone to make such simplistic solutions, much the same way we believed Iraq was a cakewalk, and that the people would naturally unite once Saddam fell.

What the Free-Tibet crowd don’t realize is that their actions have given the communist party popular legitimacy in China to reduce all the hard-won political/civil gains that activists have given their lives too.

What I find ironic is that the same liberal activists who wailed incessantly about the nuance and “shades of gray” necessary to deal with Iraq are taking such a blinkered, black and white approach to this issue.  I guess “Deal logically with China over Tibet” doesn’t make a good bumper sticker.