1 post tagged “china”

Kansas pushed off, elbowed and fouled their way to a national title, while Memphis missed crucial free throws down the stretch.  Does it matter?  North Carolina rode Sean May's mugging in the low post to a national championship in 2005 and nothing has changed.  I can't say I have ever cheered for Kansas since the days of Greg Ostertag in the 1990s (one of the main reasons I took great joy in Jordan and the Bulls beating the Jazz in the '97 and '98 Finals).  I pulled for Syracuse to win in 2003, then again, there was no way that Carmelo Anthony and that freshman class at the 'Cuse should have lost that game.

The protests over the 2008 Olympics and specifically those supporters of Tibet are pretty serious; well, the French went so far as to provide heavy security for the Olympic Torch in light of the reaction in London.  I did not pay much attention to the noise made earlier by the supporters of Tibet in light of the Chinese reaction to Tibetian unrest, simply chalked it up as the noise made by a small minority.  Even with the vocal and physical protests along the street that the Olympic torch is following, they still make up a minority since the cities the torch has passed through were not clogged to the point that it would cause serious concerns for the local authorities.

Yet, caught in the middle of this are athletes who have trained countless hours for this event that occurs every four years; in a way, these protesters in their current methods to publicize the plight of Tibet have in a sense made regular police and the athletes carrying the torch appear as cronies of a the same government they are railing against in Beijing.  

The sad reality is that China's domination of Tibet is nothing new; this reaches to the defunct imperial dynasties of Chinese history.  No one in the West protested against the Manchus domination of Tibet, if there was any complaints, it was that the Chinese would not allow Western traders to sell opium in China. 

Another interesting point is that the Chinese, in a sense, do have a right to respond to these slights to national prestige; the past unequal treaties, humiliation and partitioning of China amongst the Western Powers (e.g. European nations and the United States) in the 19th century are not forgotten.  What right do westerners have to say when they themselves were the worst violators of human rights for a century or so in Eastern Asia?--this is perhaps on the mind of the propagandists in light of their reaction in popular press. 

It's just point-counter point over and over again.  While protesters in Europe have disturbed the peace (blocking the peaceful passage of the Olympic torch which normally is a sign of international solidarity), the Dahli Lama himself stated that he would step aside from his current role of head of the exiled government of Tibet, leaving a vast divergence in approach in face of the actions of China in Tibet.  They wish to free Tibet, to bring it out of the sphere of Chinese influence and yet they are ignorant of history; the history of Tibet that makes the Chinese wary of an independent Tibet, the same region that gave birth to nomadic steppe warriors that constantly threatened the security of the citizens of China; and the same history of non-violent protests of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. that lead to actual progress. 

What would be the reaction of the United States put down a huge violent and illegal uprising (what is the true definition of illegal in this case) in the former Confederacy (the South)?  Or if the British put down the same in Wales or Scotland?  Or France in Alsace and Lorraine?  Or Poland in Silesia?  Or the Czech Republic in the Sudetenland?

Just food for thought.