The right to interfere in China

Among other things, it shows Chinese plain-clothes police bullying people even on the Nepali side of the border. The clip can be seen at http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/02/22/pkg-sidner-nepal-tibet-crackdown.cnn?iref-allsearch.

The Chinese government habitually snarls that anyone who expresses concern about the way it treats the Tibetans is interfering in China’s internal affairs. I wonder how this principle ever came to be accepted by the international community? It suggests that any government has the right to oppress, bully, torture and murder its own people, and nobody has the right to say boo. Such a principle should be rejected by every civilised society.

The Chinese government must be familiar with the famous Chinese proverb, “Tian xia wei gong.” This translates as “Everything under Heaven is one commonwealth”; or, more roughly, “The human race is one family.” The Chinese government would do well to heed this noble expression of its ancient culture. China has a rich humanistic tradition, but you’d never know it nowadays.

The narrow notion that nobody has a right to interfere in another country’s internal affairs – not even when that country’s government is brutalising its own people – has long since passed its sell-by date. The principle of human brotherhood ought to be paramount. What concerns one human being concerns every human being, and we are our brothers’ keepers. 

S Tsow

Bangkok