Tibet part of ‘dirty war’ the West is waging against China
Re: “Why China’s liberation of Tibet was no such thing”, Have Your Say, April 28.
For centuries Tibet was a part of China – dating back to the Yuan Mongol dynasty (1279-1368) – ruled by a theocracy in which most people were peasants and serf-slaves.
After Communist China was founded in 1949, it abolished the feudal serfdom of Tibet and returned Tibetans’ rights by burning their slavery deeds made with landlords. In 1951, a 17 Point Agreement was signed between the 14th Dalai Lama and the Chinese central government granting wide autonomy to Tibet and affirming Chinese sovereignty over the region.
In those days any communist country was treated by Americans as an enemy of the state, and the US government began to conduct anti-China campaigns on all fronts. In his book “The United States, Tibet and China”, American author Norman C Hall details how the CIA conducted covert “political action, propaganda, paramilitary and intelligence operations” and trained kamba guerrillas to destabilise China as part of a greater campaign against the Chinese communist regimes. In the September 5, 1975 issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review a report was published detailing the 1959 riots and insurgency in Tibet. When that revolt was finally put down by Chinese authorities, the Western media naturally followed up by accusing the Chinese government of “killing so many people” – a tactic used by the West in many other countries, especially those in the Middle East.
I have respect for the religion in Tibet, but it is not the same Buddhism that the Gautama Buddha teaches. The concept of giving the Dalai Lama overwhelming power to rule the Tibetan people, and the superstition surrounding the nomination of Lamas, is not what Tibet needs for its modernisation. China has proved to the world that its current political system has driven it to become a world-class economic power, and the government’s goal is to relieve all Chinese, including Tibetans, of the burdens of poverty.
Considering Tibet’s plight, letter-writer S Tsow invites us to call a spade a spade.
Let us also consider the countless smear campaigns carried out by the West against China in the past, where spades have been conjured from clubs and hearts with all the skill of a magician.
Yingwai Suchaovanich
