Torch Fiasco Underlines Tibet Repression

Posted: 02/05/2008 at 00:17

I'm not sure talk of 'Cultural Genocide' is useful. The problem in China is one of a corrupt, unaccountable 'elite' exploiting the poor. In Tibet, many of the poor are Tibetan, so they cop it. In Xinjiang, where I live, it's the Muslim Uighur. In most of China it's just their fellow Chinese. This kind of exploitation is not peculiar to China.

I'm actually heading back (briefly) to the UK in less than two weeks. This morning I've been working on the following text for a blog I was writing. It's not finished yet, but I'll post it as is. Some of the phrasing/tense structure will sound odd in the context of an OM forum post, but anyway...

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So, one year on. I’m back in the UK (briefly) and I thought I’d close this blog down with a final post. While the BBC was recently opened up in advance of the Olympics, many blog domains are still shut off behind the Great Firewall. It’s been an interesting year….

I’m not sure whether I’ll be going back to Urumqi. This is partly due to personal reasons, mainly my own character flaws and life priorities (!), but also because of the yawning cultural chasm that’s opened up between me and my Han girlfriend in the wake of the Olympic/Tibet controversy.

Let’s get one thing straight: Western media coverage of China and the Tibetan situation is far from objective. China is portrayed as a nation where brainwashed people cower in fear of a centralized dictatorship, crushed beneath the jackboot of the CCP. I’ve been living in Xinjiang on and off for three years now, a province which has similar issues to Tibet. Of course, Muslims aren’t as sexy as Buddhists so they get less media coverage. There are many problems in China, some of which I’ve mentioned in this blog, but I simply don’t recognize the picture painted by Western media. That isn’t the country I’ve been living in.

Too much Western commentary on China is being framed through a lens looking 20+ years into the past, and the past is a different country. There have been huge changes there, even since my first visit in 1993. My overwhelming impression of China and the Chinese has been quite positive. On a personal level, one to one, I encountered great friendliness and humanity. In many ways China could teach the UK a few things. No fears about getting glassed on a Saturday night, or being mugged when walking around city streets in the dark. Families leave their toddlers to play alone on the grass in communal areas, unthinkable in the UK. People generally rub along with good humour, despite conditions being more cramped and basic than the UK. This wasn’t some Potemkin Village constructed for my benefit, it’s just how day-to-day urban life is there.

However, the whole Olympic/Tibet thing has exposed a collective mindset, as a culture/nation, that worries me. Check out the comments left on Chinadaily to see what I mean plus, increasingly, the postings on western newspapers (often purporting to be the views of foreigners rather than Chinese).

Posted: 02/05/2008 at 05:52

What really concerns me is that there's no debate. It's ALL coming from exactly the same viewpoint - 5000 years of culture, you don't know Chinese history, western media is anti-China, what about X/Y/Z that the West did in the past, you're just jealous now China is getting strong, soon we'll repay you yang gui zi for the Eight Nations' humiliation, yadda yadda yadda. It's infantile, just like the official attempts to control the media. They have real points to score (genuine development in Tibet and Xinjiang, Western bias), but it's being drowned out by a tide of uninformed, triumphalist jingoism. It's not a bunch of redtop reading, BNP-style knuckleheads making these statements. By definition of the fact they speak English, they're the educated elite, the people who will be shaping and influencing public opinion in years to come.

One also has to wonder about the moderation policy of a national media resource that permits blatantly racist and xenophobic commentary, but deletes temperate & reasonable posts expressing a different opinion. I know, I've tried in the past (from cybercafés…). In fact, one recently made it through (link), I’ll be interested to see what the response is…

There’s a fundamental lack of understanding about the way debate and the political system works in the West. The best example I can think of is Iraq. When I talked about, for instance, Chinese policy in Tibet (good and bad), I just got Iraq thrown in my face – and what could I say? All I could fire back is that over a million people demonstrated against the Government on the issue (without being shot in the streets), and it sparked discontent among the public that resulted in Blair losing his job and, possibly, will ultimately contribute to Labour being kicked out. Is it enough, or are Chinese people right to be sceptical?

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Posted: 02/05/2008 at 05:52