New Zealand politician rejects pro-China Tibet document

[Ray]

New Zealand politician rejects pro-China Tibet document

The former mayor of Christchurch, New Zealand, Sir Bob Parker, says he is not happy to be associated with the document which China is calling the 'Lhasa Consensus.'

Produced at the end of the recently-concluded Fourth Forum on the Development of Tibet held at the Tibetan capital this week, the document is highly critical of the Dalai Lama as well as the Western media.

It also speaks in glowing terms about China's economic policies in Tibet.

China claims that the 100 or so conference attendees "unanimously agree that what they have actually seen in Tibet differs radically from what the 14th Dalai and the Dalai clique have said."

"Participants notice," it says," that Tibet enjoys sound economic growth, social harmony, deep-rooted Tibetan culture and beautiful natural scenery, and the people enjoy a happy life".

Sir Bob is still in Tibet, being given a tour of the countryside and other sites of interest.

Speaking to him on his mobile phone I asked if he had indeed endorsed the statement.

"Not at all," he said. "I'm aware that the statement was made but I certainly haven't signed up to it. I think a number of people who were there were a little surprised to hear about that statement."

"Certainly the conference that I've been attending has been focused on sustainable development and there were no real political themes running through it at all."

Free Tibet, the UK-based group that campaigns against what it calls China's occupation of Tibet, believes though that foreign participants should have been aware that the conference, organised by China's ruling Communist Party, was always going to be a deeply political affair.

"The statement issued at the end of this event makes clear that the whole thing was an utterly cynical exercise in propaganda which Western participants blindly or willingly allowed themselves to become part of," the group's director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren said in a statement

Another of the foreign attendees was the UK Labour Party politician Lord Davidson of Glen Clova, who sits on the party's front bench in the House of Lords.

While in Lhasa, he has given an interview to Chinese state-run TV in which he praises the government's economic policies as having produced some "remarkable accomplishments" such as raising Tibetan living standards and life expectancy.

He is also quoted by state run newspapers as suggesting that Western media organisations are often prejudiced by their "enthusiasm" for the Dalai Lama.

The Labour Party says that Lord Davidson is on a private visit to Tibet.

Asked whether he would be willing to give an interview to clarify whether or not he has been accurately quoted, a party spokesman said he is declining all such requests.

Sir Bob Parker though is happy to go on the record explaining why he chose to attend the conference.

"I came here as a New Zealander with a unique opportunity to get into Tibet and see some of these unique communities with my own eyes," he told me.

"There seems to be a good degree of openness and happiness in the communities that I've been to."

"But I'm not a Tibet expert, I'm not a global politician, I'm just a citizen who had a chance to come to a very special part of the world to see some of these things with my own eyes."

Free Tibet argues that much of Chinese economic development has been a vehicle for the mass migration to Tibet of the majority Han Chinese population and the stripping out of Tibet's resources.

As a result, it says, Tibetans are largely shut out of their own economy.

It suggests few foreign visitors would be aware of this fact "from the window of a car or the comfort of a plush meeting room."

"It remains to be seen," the group asks in its latest statement, "whether the report that they all agree with the outrageous and wholly inaccurate statements in the 'consensus' is true."

We know now that at least one of them doesn't agree. Sir Bob says he will be making his displeasure clear to the Chinese authorities.

"I'm not happy to be included in a document that states some very powerful political perspectives. I don't actually think that's fair and I don't think that's what I signed up to do by coming here and I will be making that point," he said.

"Having said that I'm thrilled to have come here and had a chance to look at the countryside and to meet people."

BBC News - New Zealand politician rejects pro-China Tibet document

it is interesting to note that the Chinese think attending a conference is acquiescing to whatever Chinese propaganda they purvey ad nauseum like the tripe and bligewater as the excerpt below

China claims that the 100 or so conference attendees "unanimously agree that what they have actually seen in Tibet differs radically from what the 14th Dalai and the Dalai clique have said."

"Participants notice," it says," that Tibet enjoys sound economic growth, social harmony, deep-rooted Tibetan culture and beautiful natural scenery, and the people enjoy a happy life"

The Chinese are good at deluding themselves and thinking the rest of the world is actually as stupid to be 'mind controlled' as the Chinese parrots in their gilded cage!

And they are great at double dealing. Act innocuous, neutral in content and once the back is turned, churn out an utterly cynical exercise in propaganda to suit their agendaby claimign that those who attended from foreign lands endorse the Chinese view, which in actuality, the foreigners found as utter, unmitigated nonsense.

 

[Ray]

The Tibet issue

What is China's stance on Tibet? Here, we outline Beijing's position, based on various official Chinese sources.

Is Tibet part of China?
"For more than 700 years, the central government of China has continuously exercised sovereignty over Tibet, and Tibet has never been an independent state. No government of any country in the world has ever recognised Tibet as an independent state."

(People's Daily, April 2008)

What was Tibet like before the Communists established control in 1951?
"Even in the first half of the 20th Century, Tibet remained a society of feudal serfdom under a theocracy, one even darker and more backward than medieval Europe. The ecclesiastical and secular serf owners controlled the personal freedom of the serfs and slaves who made up more than 95% of the population of Tibet. By resorting to... extremely savage punishments, including gouging out eyes, cutting off ears, tongues, hands and feet, pulling out tendons, throwing people into rivers or off cliffs, they practiced cruel economic exploitation."

(Xinhua News Agency, March 2008)

What has happened since then?
"Since its peaceful liberation in 1951, Tibet has undergone profound social changes, including democratic reform, reform and opening up, and has achieved remarkable social and economic progress."

(China's Foreign Ministry handbook, July 2007)

Who was behind a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, after which the Dalai Lama fled to India?
"In face of the ever-growing demand of the people for democratic reform, some people in the upper ruling strata of Tibet, in order to preserve feudal serfdom and supported by imperialist forces, staged an armed rebellion all along the line on 10 March 1959 in an attempt to separate Tibet from China."

(Xinhua News Agency, March 2008)

Who was responsible for the recent unrest in Tibet?
"We now possess sufficient evidence to prove that the Lhasa incident is part of the 'Tibetan people's uprising movement' organised by the Dalai clique. Its purpose is to create crisis in China by staging co-ordinated sabotage activities in Tibet. 'Tibet Independence' separatist forces led by the Dalai Lama takes the 2008 Beijing Olympics as their last straw to realise 'Tibetan independence'."

(China's Ministry of Public Security press release, April 2008)

"The Dalai Lama keeps talking about a peaceful way. However, solid facts prove that his much-vaunted 'middle way' policy and 'peaceful demonstrations' are blatant lies fabricated by the Dalai himself and the Dalai clique."

(China's Ministry of Public Security press release, April 2008)

What does the Chinese government think about reports by the Western media about the recent events in Tibet?
"It is unfortunate that a few Western media outlets, including some from the United States, are ignorant of the obvious truths and are basing their reports on distorted facts and unfounded claims."

(Zhang Yun, Chinese consul general for Los Angeles, Xinhua, April 2008)

BBC News - The Tibet issue: China's view

 

[Ray]

The Tibet issue

The Dalai Lama's director of information, Thubten Samphel, outlines the Tibetan government-in-exile's stance on the China-Tibet issue.

Is Tibet part of China?
"It is beyond dispute at various periods of its long history that Tibet came under differing degrees of foreign influence: the Mongols, the Gurkhas of Nepal, the Manchu emperors of China and the British rulers of India all played their parts. At other periods in the plateau's history, it was Tibet which exercised power and influence over its neighbours - including China.

It would be hard to find any state in the world today that has not been subjected to foreign domination or influence at some era in its history. In Tibet's case the degree and duration of foreign influence and interference was relatively limited."

What was Tibet like before the Communists established control in 1951?
"Traditional Tibetan society - like most of its Asian contemporaries - was backward and badly in need of reforms. However, it is completely wrong to use the word "feudal" from the perspective of medieval Europe to describe traditional Tibetan society. Tibet before the invasion, in fact, was far more egalitarian than most Asian countries of that time. Hugh Richardson, who spent a total of nine years in Tibet as Britain's last and independent India's first representative, wrote: "Even communist writers have had to admit there was no great difference between rich and poor in [pre-1949] Tibet."

What has happened since then?
"An internal Chinese military document states that from 1952 to 1958, the People's Liberation Army crushed 996 rebellions and killed over 10,000 Tibetans in the north-eastern region of Kanlho. Golog, another Amdo area, saw its population halved from an estimated 140,000 in 1956 to about 70,000 in 1964.

Referring to this area, the late Panchen Lama [the second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama] told Beijing's leaders: "If there was a film made on all the atrocities perpetrated in Qinghai Province, it would shock the viewers. In Golog area, many people were killed and their dead bodies rolled down the hill into a big ditch. The soldiers told the family members and relatives of the dead people that they should celebrate since the rebels had been wiped out. They were even forced to dance on the dead bodies."

Who was behind a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, after which the Dalai Lama fled to India?
"The '59 uprising against Chinese rule was a people's movement to resist all the changes the Chinese Communist Party were introducing in Tibet.

In the 17 Point Agreement signed between Tibet and China in 1951, the Chinese Communist Party promised that in return for Tibet coming to the fold of motherland, China would not change Tibet's traditional social system or tamper with the powers of the Dalai Lama. Both these promises were not kept, and the introduction of collectivisation and other aspects of the social system in Tibet forced the Tibetans to rise up."

Who was responsible for the 2008 unrest in Tibet?
"In the early 1980s, a liberal policy was introduced in Tibet. This policy dismantled collectivisation and there were plans to withdraw 85% of the Chinese cadres working in the Tibet Autonomous Region. This policy was aimed at letting Tibetans govern themselves.

However, in 1994, all these liberal measures were withdrawn and a new policy called "grasping with both hands" was implemented in Tibet. This policy continued Tibet's economic development while reimposing political repression targeted at undermining Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism. The widespread protests in Tibet are Tibetans' resistance to this hardline policy."
BBC News - The Tibet issue: Tibetan view

 

[CCP]

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