The bloodshed in Lhasa, Tibet is a hot topic on the world news for these few days. The government in Beijing hoped to gain economical benefits after first rail way that links to Tibet starts to run. Indeed China gained economical profits because of people and trading, but this lead to another huge problem. The main reason that caused this protest is because the culture shift. After the rail way is opened, Lhasa become a popular tourist place. Many Han Chinese immigrated in to Tibet and occupied a huge part of Tibetans economy. Many Tibetans felt that those Han Chinese immigrants threatened their life style and their own cultural status.
For more detailed information please read the BBC Special report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456954/html/nn0page1.stm
and more Tibet bloodshed related links:
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=all&edition=i&q=Tibet&go.x=0&go.y=0&go=go
The main reason why I want to bring this issue up (at 12:30am) is because I saw an interesting news report just a few hours ago. (By the way, this is a very good TV program that discuss many current issues around the world. From world economy to local news..)
Give you a little more background of what happened before:
There was a huge bloodshed in the year 1988 because Tibetans wants to become independent from China. The leader of China was Deng Xiaoping at that time and he gave Jiang Zemin (China's leader from 1989-2002) a mission to calm the riot in Tibet. Jiang Zemin used China's People's Liberation Army and gun force to calm the riot down; the riot was appeased under military force. and Jiang Zemin was then appointed to succeed the position as the leader of China by Deng Xiaoping himself. The peace in Tibet lasted for 49 years until few days ago. Chinese government tried to calm Tibetans down by promising them better economy, which is the rail way linked to Tibet, hoping to improve the economy of Tibetans.
And now, the riot starts again.
This riot did not just demonstrate the angriness of Tibetans but also the power of China's communist government. The government seemed to blame the fault on the Dali Lama. The government calls the army to occupy Tibet and there are tanks on the streets... Isn't this replaying what happened in 1988?
The interesting and ironic point is: on the right hand side, Chinese government is trying to boom the economy up, doing everything try to help China to become world's best, and is doing everything they can to welcome the Olympic Games that is coming up in a months. On the other hand, China's Communist government is still using communist army forces to suppress Tibetans. Does this mean that the Chinese government still does not improve, and has not yet abandon their old fashioned way of governing?
I think it is hard for China to abandon these old ideas because they ARE a communist country. Honestly, I do not like communist government. We should be glad that we have a president election coming up... ;)
* The TV program is called "文茜世界週報", hosted by a very famous lady called 陳文茜. I strongly recommend people to watch it. All the information presented in the program are carefully picked and very well-reported!
* I tried to summarize what I heard on the news today and tried to translate everything into English. It took me a long time, sorry if you can't understand some of the things that I wrote.
1 comment:
Tibet has been a hot topic for many years. When the Dali Llama was forced to leave over 45 years ago, China moved in and did it's best to wipe out the culture. Ethnocide, remember Phil Borges or was it Wade Davis. Well, they haven't wiped out their culture yet and thus we still have riots. So, in a way we can see these riots as a good thing. The Tibetan culture is still strong!
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