[Vision2020] The "Free Tibet" Question from a Chinese Perspective

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

The video of the Chinese view on Tibet is clumsy, inaccurate, and distasteful.  Yes, it is true that Tibet has always been considered a part of China and Tibetan Buddhism played a very powerful role in many of the dynasties, especially the Qing.  Remember the Tibetan monks in the Forbidden City in "The Last Emperor," and don't forget the impressive Lama Temple right in the middle of Beijing.

It is true that pre-1949 Tibet was an oppressive society, and the Dalai Lama has been honest enough to confess that the bad karma of that feudal society has "ripened" and the Chinese response is nothing but the sprouting of those bad karmic seeds.

The video glosses over the distinction between Tibetan radicals who want independence and the Dalai Lama who is willing to work with Beijing about a way to preserve his role as spiritual leader of his people.  The sad fact is that when the Dalai Lama dies, the Chinese are going to put in their own puppet Dalai Lama and bring out a fully brain washed Pachen Lama to be figurehead spiritual leaders of Tibet.

Yes, the CIA foolishly trained and supported Tibetan freedom fighters, and at first they were very successful.  If they had stayed in small groups as the CIA had advised them to do, then they might have survived longer, but in the long run the Chinese army would have wiped them out in a brutal campaign.

Just because we treated our native peoples badly does not mean that we cannot protest the destructive means by which the Beijing government is destroying Tibetan culture.

Nick Gier