| One more thing to mention here, and this is very important, so please keep it in mind: For a large number (perhaps the majority) of the people in the "Free Tibet" movement, their pro-Tibetan stance has nothing to do with human rights, but instead has everything to do with Great Power Geopolitics and Realpolitik-- where the aim is to weaken and ultimately break up China, so that China cannot be a strong power. I encountered this attitude in many of the pro-Tibet meetings I attended, and it made me so angry that it became one of the factors pushing me to leave the movement myself. Again: A major motivator for the pro-Tibet movement now is not "human rights," but instead is a desire by many Americans, Canadians, Britons and Australians to break up China into a weak power by pushing Tibet and Xinjiang to leave, leading to a state of civil war, so that China can then be invaded and occupied by US, Canadian and British troops and (as a result) US multinational companies. They want to turn you into Iraq. The reality is, there are many powerful people in the USA, Canada and Britain especially, who intensely hate China and want to make you into a weak country. These people are the so-called "neoconservatives" or "neocons" as they're called for short. They are essentially Anglo-American imperialists, just like the British and French in the 19th century who fought the Opium Wars against China, and burned down the Chinese Imperial Gardens in 1860. The neocons remain bitter about the fact that China defeated the British and Americans in 1950 at the Yalu River, with the Anglo-American powers never being able to avenge that loss, and so the neocons continue to hate China as a result. The neocons are major leaders in the "Free Tibet" movement, an example being Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post: www.slate.com/id/2186753/ Her views have nothing to do with helping Tibetans, and everything to do with hurting China. It is the neocons who are responsible for the American-British-Australian disaster of the Iraq War, and I and most other Americans hate the neoconservatives because of it. As you can see from Anne Applebaum's article above, the neocons support secession of Tibet and Xinjiang because they see it as a way to weaken China, and thus turn China into a defenseless nation that can be invaded and occupied by the USA and US allies. That's what so much of this pro-Tibet propaganda in the US, Canada and Britain is about-- not helping Tibetans, but weakening China instead. The neocons don't care about human rights at all-- after all, they supported the bloody invasions and occupations of both Iraq and Afghanistan, that have killed millions of people. Rather, the neocons care about power for the USA, Canada and Britain, and since they see China as a potential rival, they want to attack you because of it. My advice to you in China to fight against the neocons who hate you and want to weaken you: 1. You must, ***absolutely must*** ensure a long-term, large and stable Han majority in Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as the rest of China. Inner Mongolia now has about 80% or so Han population, which has stopped unrest there. The same must be true for Tibet and Xinjiang. So long as these geographical regions are associated with a majority of one ethnic group (Tibetans, or Uighurs in Xinjiang), they will always be a security threat for your country. That's because the neocons in the USA, will constantly instigate "freedom movements" for Tibet and Xinjiang like this, encourage protests and riots in those provinces, and write propaganda articles in the US, British and Canadian press, claiming "atrocities" by the Chinese and encouraging these regions' secession. The neocons will constantly be encouraging trouble and unrest in these regions until there's a strong Han majority there, mingling and working together with the Uighurs and Tibetans, and with these regions economically benefiting along with the rest of China. The danger is that, if there were a Tibetan majority in Tibet and/or a Uighur majority in Xinjiang, then these regions ***would*** attempt to secede, whenever China had a period of temporary weakness or economic crisis-- such a recession, high inflation, poor harvests or anything else causing turmoil. This would lead to a civil war in China, because the neocons in the USA, Canada and the UK would be fomenting "revolution" in Tibet and Xinjiang, providing weapons, spreading propaganda and doing other things to push a civil war to weaken China. Make no mistake-- you have enemies in the USA, Canada and Britain especially, i.e. the neoconservatives, who would just love to see China violently break up in a civil war, ***even though this would be horrible for Tibetans and Uighurs*** as well as Han Chinese! Once again, the neocons don't care about human rights-- they care only about power, and weakening China. On the other hand, if there is a Han majority throughout China including in Tibet and Xinjiang, then these regions would be more stable and calm during any period of economic crisis, recession, or turmoil throughout China. There wouldn't be violence, and no danger of the neocons fomenting a civil war there. It's even better if the Han Chinese intermarry and mingle with the Tibetans and Uighurs, and especially if Tibet and Xinjiang are better integrated with the rest of China, sharing in the country's economic growth. 2. Thus, you should strongly encourage Han immigration into both Xinjiang and Tibet through those rail lines among other means, while also encouraging Tibetans and Uighurs to leave Xinjiang and Tibet and prosper throughout China, not just in Tibet and Xinjiang. Encourage intermarriage among the different groups and some degree of assimilation, spread education in the Mandarin Chinese language (which is essential for economic success anyway) while allowing for Tibetan and Uighur cultural celebrations throughout China, not just in Tibet and Xinjiang. Maybe make an exception to the One Child Policy for Han Chinese who move there-- thus, for Han in Tibet and Xinjiang, allow them to have their desired family size, since these regions need development anyway. Also, of course, encourage Han entrepreneurs to set up businesses and employ Tibetans and Uighurs in Tibet and Xinjiang. Simultaneously provide microcredit and loans to help Tibetans and Uighurs start their own businesses. The overall objective here, is to make Tibetans and Uighurs feel more like respected citizens of China, as more Chinese than Tibetan/Uighur (even as they maintain some degree of their prior cultural heritage), to provide them with educational and economic opportunities throughout China. In other words, the best way to address any tensions among the Tibetan and Uighur peoples is *absolutely not to encourage ethnic separateness*, but to instead encourage intermarriage and opportunities in education and business. This is why a country like Brazil, for example, is able to stay unified despite dozens of ethnic groups-- they intermarry, and people are focused on improving themselves in education and business, rather than ethnic grievances. As an added benefit, when Tibet and Xinjiang are secure, then China won't have to worry so much about meddling and hateful outsiders such as the neocons, stirring up trouble within China. You can therefore proceed more confidently toward various reforms-- such as better intellectual property protections, a freer press, more open intellectual discussions (in areas like the sciences, which will help to increase the number of Nobel Laureates among the Chinese and the quality of Chinese universities!). You'll then attract more business from the outside, while also attracting more intelligent people from other countries to work in China, especially if environmental reforms go with these other benefits. As for Tibetans and Uighurs, my sense is that once Tibet and Xinjiang are secure, then Uighur and Tibetan culture will actually flourish ***much better***, since there won't be any political/geographical threat to China's integrity, and cultural celebrations can happen throughout China. Plus, you won't have to worry about further unrest and bad press for China as a result! 3. In terms of China's "geostrategic orientation," I would encourage you to diversify, to be less US-centric in your education and business relations but to cultivate closer ties with other powers, such as Russia, India and especially the European Union. Just as one example, I would strongly encourage Chinese schools to promote mastery of a greater variety of foreign languages-- such as Spanish, Russian, Hindi, Japanese and ***especially German***-- rather than just English. I was talking to a Chinese colleague recently who told me that all Chinese students must take English courses, while other languages are optional. This makes no sense to me, even as an English-speaking American! It would be much better to diversify the languages that your students master, so that you can better do business with a broader section of the world-- not just English-speaking countries, but *especially* the German regions, Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi. For those of us who work in engineering and the sciences, we essentially have to learn German anyway, since the Germans are the leaders of the European Union and still are pretty much the best scientists and technical people in the world, as has been the case for about two centuries now. So German is now a big scientific and business language again. As an added bonus, I have been in Germany on several occasions for work, and I can tell you that the Germans are probably the most pro-Chinese people in the Western World. The Germans, after all, were among the few Europeans who did not try to attack China during the Opium Wars period, or force an "Unequal Treaty" onto China, and so the Germans have long had more respect for China, India, Korea, Vietnam and Japan than the British, French and Americans, who either attacked these Asian countries or in some cases set up colonies there (as the British did in much of India). Thus, the Germans are much more comfortable with the 21st century as one led by countries such as China and India, than are the USA, Britain, Canada and Australia. Since Germany, again, leads the European Union-- a bigger economic bloc than the USA-- German is already becoming very important all throughout Europe and even North America and South America. So, I'd strongly suggest that Chinese schools and universities drop the mandatory English requirement, and instead encourage Chinese students to master a variety of languages. In fact, it might be beneficial to focus more on German in particular-- write some scientific papers and technical journals in German, give talks in German, do business in German, get professional training in the language and so forth. Obviously English will still be very important, but this way, your students will diversify and be strong in a broader array of languages. I'd also strongly suggest Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese, Korean and Russian as "encouraged electives" for Chinese students to study. I want nothing more than to see China succeed-- and for Tibetans and Uighurs to succeed as China succeeds-- since this, once and for all, will shut down the dangerous neocon movement. I hope that these suggestions will help you to do that. |
Why I Didn't Cover About Tibet