The idea of a boycott of this Summer’s Beijing Olympics in protest at the handling of events in Tibet is not yet an official policy of any government or major human rights organization.
But actor Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, has told Reuters he believes it would be “unconscionable” to attend the Games if China fails to deal with peacefully with the latest unrest.
Do you think Britain — or Britons — should boycott the Games over Tibet?
Britain has long regarded Tibet as autonomous while recognising the special position of the Chinese there but has often been criticised by activists who accuse it of being supine over the issue, preferring not to rock the boat by, for example, allowing the Dalai Lama to meet the prime minister on his visits to the UK and refraining from trenchant public criticism of Beijing over human rights in Tibet. The Dalai Lama next visits Britain in May.
With international attention increasingly focused on China ahead of the Games, has the time come to take a stand, or would such a move merely aggravate the lot of the Tibetans?
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US is trying to split Tibet from China, to steal their resources. The Tibetans including the Dalai Lama are just puppets, and everybody is BRAINWASHED…again. Dalai Lama and Tibetan monks had slaves, serfs, feudalism and theocracy. Britain invaded and stole Tibet in 1904. CIA initiated the monks to revolt in 1959, and has been funding the Free Tibet movement around the world since. US has military bases surrounding China. BEST EXPLANATION of what’s really happening:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c ontext=va&aid=8673
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Support Beijing ! Support China ! Support Olympics !
- Posted by WhigesBritishmen - Chinesemen : be friends forever !
Chinese are our friends forever !
Go to Tibet and see by yourself.
- Posted by xiangThe Dalai Lama was recently in Seattle and I heard him speak. He spoke on several issues and I began to educate myself on Tibet, the monastaries, the invasion by the military, the destruction of a people that didn’t fit into the desired ‘way-of-life’ of the ruling party in China. I have read information from several areas, not from one country but several. The human right’s violations always come when one ‘class’ of people decide they are more important than another. Several of the chinese comments say that things are better in China now. I don’t understand these comments unless they are coming from the ruling class, the mandarin chinese, the govt., and the military. The chinese people in this blog say that they stopped slavery, why then did so many people flee to India? Are you saying that the destruction of a people’s way of life and the imprisonment and torture of so many is okay? Not only Tibetans but other political prisoners. Tibetans are unable to practice their religious beliefs without threat of reprisals. Tibetans admit that there were people who worked the fields, there was conflict with power seeking religious people, etc. Many countries have been violating human rights and it breaks my heart that there has been so much suffering. If my culture was being systematically destroyed, I don’t know how easy it would be to sit idly by… when religion is part of any conflict though, there are no winners or losers, we all end up losing. We all need to question ourselves and determine what is right and wrong. Do we want to continue the violence, the wars, the killings, the greed? This world will suffer unless ‘people’ decide that we have suffered enough.
- Posted by KathleenWhat I want to explain is that what the effective independence was and how the substantial unification was realized. And the innocent people should be aware and cautious of what will happen in the future.
- Posted by xiangTibet is of China’s sovereignty in history. And Dalai Lama system was constituted by Mongolian military group and Mandarian(Qing) monarchy. At the start of this century Tibet was almostly colonized by British. But the central government at that time never signed an official treaty to quit the sovereignty. When the Chinese Communists unified the country, they viewed the local Tibetan government as a kind of Guomingdang’s (Chinese Nationalist Party) regime and forced them to sign a peaceful liberation treaty. But they kept Dalai Lama’s ruling as a kind of minority nation policy. It was the peasantry slaves who saw that labouring people outside Tibetan area had had overthrown their exploiters’ ruling and demanded land and more equal political status with the feudal and religious ruling class in Tibet. This annoyed the ruling monks and official class greatly. They decided to organized a rebellious army and was exiled in 1959. So how comes the exiled Tibetan government. In this point of view it was the Communist Party who unified the country. Now once 90% population of Tibetan peasantry slaves become Chinese citizen and never want to go back to feudal monarchy’s ruling again. But the western propaganda still can influence some people, especially the monks because they need not to labour in the old system.
- Posted by xiangI am near to Hong Kong. So I could read messages from both western and Chinese media. I realize this is a kind of Cold War propaganda. I was bred in a most populous Tibetan province. And I studied the history of Tibetan area. The Chinese Communist government blocks the news and reports because western sociaty is a kind of superior sociaty than that in developing countries and easily overthrows their regimes.
- Posted by xiangI wanna know how many of you who critic Chinese human right as if they knew the truth,have ever been to China?Do you know the truth of the riot happened in Tibet? Or you just accept the news from BBS or other media without any thinking even it’s A BIAS?
In the past years,what i hear about you western people is that you have ideas of your own,you can tell right from wrong.but now i doubt this very much because you trust whatever the media say ,both right and WRONG.
Here,I am proud to tell you that I AM CHINESE! I’ve been living in China for 21 years and i think i have a louder voice on the fact of human rights in china than you guys who critc it but lived hundreds of thousand miles away.I dare say that the human rights in China is no worse than any western countries.The U.S always critics the human rights in China,but what about the fact of his domestic human rights?—wars in Iraq,maltreating the captures,high crime rate etc. Why there is a double-criteria in human rights? why the human rights in the western country is always GOOD ?
sometimes when i read news about tibet riot from the west media i felt that the west media are so “considerate”.they are so” pitiful” to us Chinese .it seems that they know us chinese more clearly than ourselves.The fact that we are living a happy life turns into a deep distress in their descriptions.
Obviously ,there is a cabal,a cold war against China.
The reports from the main west media all with distorted voice astonished us.Look at the media’s great creation!Even vilify the riot happened in Nepal and Indian to tibet . who attacts whom on earth? why lots of the west media have selective BIAS,neglecting truth? Thanks to CNN ,BBS,Spiegel,all the liar western Media .Their behavior have educated a whole generation of young Chinese what the western Media really is. There are always various obstructions on the process of Torch Relay,but We all chinese people will spare no effor to guard the Olypic torch ,to guard our GREAT MOTHERLAND -China!
what the human righs really is in China and what the truth of tibet riot is on earth,TIME WILL TELL!
- Posted by I LOVE CHINA?Boycotting the Olympics tries to nullify a very spirit of the Games, which is a consensual unity of folks round a globe for peace and a better life for all.
Perhaps, this ancient notion is among a few traditions should really be kept through epochs.
- Posted by Michael KerjmanWhat is human right? Is to allow and even instigate some Dalai mob to kill innocent civilian,to burn stores,to rob of bank? I think any government never permit any mob to ruin country’s public security.Before post your comment on Tibet,you’b better read its history carefully first,even go there and realize Tibetan’s normal life,not only trust on some media and newspaper like CNN,BBC etc.
- Posted by Gawainboycott? how very stupid an idea! Tibetans were killing people, Tibetans were burning stores and civilian vehicles, Tibetans were throwing stones at pedestrians. Why boycott the government! Doing so would turn the whole nation into your foe, because the Chinese government has the support from the great majority of the Chinese population. Would you be able to fight us, a population of 1.3 billion? You’re no match!
- Posted by RonanBefore we do anything, please read the history first,
not from a single book, Tibet was part of China since more than 1000 years, longer than the history of US + Canada + Australia, if you know more about the history of Tibet, you will know more, and will not mislead by those people,
Most people in Tibet were slave before 1950, one of two boys of the family has to be a lama,
I do not know people like you will to support such kind of violence against Olympic.
Open your eyes , wider !
- Posted by ScottPeople outside china do not understand the situation of and in tibet,or pretend not to know.
- Posted by lihtqdFor western political people, they want to spoil the games, and china’a development, out of their evil cold war thinking and envy.
For ordinary people outside china, especially in west countries, their heads are whitewashed by their very strong propoganda machine.
human rights abuses, slaughter of their own people?
oh, please, come to china to see with your own eyes!
Or no, do not come to china, because you know what you are thinking and doing, therefore not welcome in China.
Please these men and women do not come to china games, I beg you.
Did the Chinese Communist Party pay these people to write these blogs? The Chinese government has invaded Tibet and held its population hostage. The Chinese government has one of the worst human rights records in recorded history. Christians are persecuted regularly—home churches are raided and Bibles are regularly confiscated. The official Chicom “Christian church” is a ruse. The “official” Chinese Bible is heavily edited. If the Chinese are so confident in their civilized progress, why are they so afraid of free speech and freedom of religion? I think it is a sham that the world has rewarded this bloody government with the honor of hosting the Olympics. It devalues the event and turns it into a propaganda stunt for the primitive Chicom elite.
- Posted by RoosterYes, boycott. The Olympic idea is beautiful, but more than any other previous Olympics, more than Berlin 1936, the Beijing Olympics are a cynical attempt by the Chinese communist regime to claim world-wide respectability for themselves.
@DingDing and others who work for the Chinese propaganda machine:
What is happening in Tibet is colonialism in its most brutal, violent, cynical form — hence it’s completely beside the point to criticize any former colonial power that has since rejected colonialism. It is like saying: “Stalin was a murderer, therefore it’s okay for me to be a murderer too.” That kind of argumentation does not hold good among free, intelligent, thinking people.
@Chen:
“Few Westerners can understand the Chinese language and Chinese people inside China can’t visit the web site of Reporters Sans Frontieres. So, lacking communications between China and the rest of the world, Reporters sans Frontieres is manipulating the whole world.”
Let the Chinese government stop manipulating not only our, but also the Chinese public opinion and unblock access in China to information from the rest of the world - as well as from Tibet, whether you call it ‘Chinese’ or not. Let Western journalists freely go to Tibet and see for themselves and write news for all us poor people who don’t read Chinese.
“The world needs more communication, more understanding, more compromise and more harmony. Otherwise, self-confidence would become arrogance.”
It seems that China is not setting a good example…
The news media put an end to the Vietnam war, and the Chinese know that - that is why they cannot tolerate freedom of expression, that is why reporters are not allowed to see Tibet.
The world boycotted South Africa and freed Mandela. China is worse than South Africa ever was, both in extent as well as intensity. Think about that, people.
Where decency and dialogue do not work to get an important message across, other means are needed. Subtlety is wasted on the brutal Chinese exploiter class that is maming and killing off the Tibetans who do not obediently toe their line. It’s a pity the French did not succeed in putting out the flame of shame. That would have been a unique protest.
Avoid “Made in China”. Avoid anything that gives the goons more power.
- Posted by freeobserverThe Tibetan people’s life expectancy under Dalai Lama’s rule was only 35.7 years. Now, their life expectancy has reached 67 years and their population doubled in the past 49 years.
- Posted by NZI am not against anyone who advocates for a Free Tibet, but just don’t fan hatred like Michael and Sunny. You can read Dunham’s Buddha’s Warriors, but what can a book full of lies do to advance the Dalai Lama’s cause?
One of the major baseless accusations is that we Chinese have killed 1.2 millions of Tibetans. A report sent by the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan government to the central government in 1952 said the Tibetan population in Tibet was 1.2 millions. If we have killed 1.2 millions of Tibetans, then where did the 2.6 millions of Tibetan people(2004 census) now living in Tibet come from?
History will prove that what happens this year is going to be a major setback for the free Tibet movement which is based more on lies than on facts. It is doomed more than ever to fail.
I’m in favour of boycotting the Chinese Olympics. China is using these games for propaganda and sees any acceptance of their games as being acceptance of their terrible behaviour. If it was the 1936 games and we knew then what we know now, would we boycott the German games run by Hitler. Yes we would. So there are situations that morally justify a boycott and I think China is another.
- Posted by DavidLTheir shocking human rights abuses, their intimidation of other countries in the region, their massive increase in the size of thier military and weapons, their anti-satellite weapon that increased the amount of debris in orbit by 20%, their supply of billions of dollars of nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and missile technology to many countries in defiance of numerous treaties, etc, etc. They act without ethics or morality but wield a big stick economically that most countries are afraid to inflame. We need to support China’s victims such as Tibet.
Boycotting the Beijing Olympics is a pointless and stupid exercise, it did not work in the past. The only people to suffer will be the Athletes and the people of Tibet.
- Posted by Ken SparkesLook first at own backyards and clean them up first as we all live in glass houses.
How many of the demonstrators have been to China? For example Shanghai is a far more organised city compared to London or Sydney with NO Bank robberies or ATM ram raids plus they have to cope with a population of 27 million in Greater Shanghai.
I feel safer in Shanghai then I do in my home City and have never experienced any personal of religious harassment.
As for the French posturing about the Beijing Olympics look at their track record on human rights.
So folks CLEAN let’s clean up our own act before we go off and tilt some windmills.
I see the Chinese propaganda brigade is out in force. This is the same lot that can’t access basic information on the massacre in Tianenmen Square on google from China but are willing to tell the world about Tibet! And don’t try justifying your brutality by going back to the Opium wars - yes European colonization happened, but most former colonies got over it and moved on. If you are lot are SUCH a “super power” why do you still have an inferiority complex about Britain? Get real - your little communist party slips are showing.
Btw, I DID grow up with Tibetans - all refugees - in India, and there is no gentler, more compassionate people in the world anywhere. They have been a model refugee population, dying for the countries that gave them refuge, contributing to local cultures and economies. I am proud that my nation (India) hosts the Tibetan government-in-exile, has provided a home to the refugees since the invasion. And I am VERY angry that our current government is bending over backwards to appease Beijing.
And DONT talk about the Dalai Lama unless you have seen His Holiness and the compassion he carries within him - EVEN for the Chinese.
Finally, to Julie de Souza - GOOGLE Buddhism. The Gautama (Siddharth) was a warrior before he gave up material world to seek the truth and found it in boundless compassion. And I agree with Michael - read Dunham’s Buddha’s Warriors - if only to realise how the Chinese troops forced innocent civilians and children to humiliate monks and rape nuns, have since tortured, killed, resettled and “re-educated” Tibetans.
- Posted by Sunny