That Other Lama: The Panchen Lama

Although the Dalai Lama clearly blows up his spot internationally, you may have heard of another lama who occasionally makes it into the news: the second highest lama in the Tibetan hierarchy, the Panchen Lama. He’s been in the news a lot more recently, and he will definitely be an important figure in years to come, so this seems like as good a time as any to go into a bit more depth than I have in the past.

The Panchen Lamas have played second fiddle to the Dalai Lamas for centuries, but they still play a huge role in Tibetan affairs and have also often held a strong regional power base at Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet. Crucially, they play a very important role in the selection of Dalai Lamas.

The 10th Panchen Lama, born in 1938, saw Tibet through some tumultuous years. He stayed in the country after the Dalai Lama left for India, and for a time courted the Chinese government, even going so far as to accept a seat on the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. After a number of years spent acquiescing to their demands and attempting to legitimize their rule, however, he had a dramatic reversal. He penned what is known as the “70,000 Character Petition,” a lengthy rebuke of Chinese rule that is the most thorough trashing of Beijing to have emerged from a member of the Chinese government. Mao referred to it as a “a poisoned arrow shot at the Party.” At first he was merely thrown out of the government, but that soon led to an imprisonment that ended up lasting almost twenty years.

After his release in the 80’s he resumed his role inside Tibet, and ended up being one of the only voices in support of Tibetans inside the government when the Tibetan protests of the late 80’s began. Arjia Rinpoche recounts this story, featuring a cameo by a younger Hu Jintao:

The cadres arranged for a viewing at the Panchen Lama’s residence of videotapes taken during the demonstrations that would prove the Chinese were blameless. There was lots of footage of the monks shouting and demonstrating in the streets, but no coverage at all of how, exactly, the police were handling the Tibetans. When it was over, the lights came on and the Panchen Lama looked around the room. He said, “That’s it? That’s all? Where are the police in all this?”

And then he got really mad. You should understand that the Panchen Lama could be very imposing
when it suited him. He cast a big shadow. So he walked over to the guy who was operating the video and grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up to his feet and yelled at him. It must have been about midnight. The Panchen Lama said, “OK, let’s go!” and herded us out to the cars waiting outside. “Get into the cars!” he ordered. “All of you!” Off we went to Tibet Provincial Headquarters—just five or ten minutes away—which was also the private residence of Tibet Provincial Party Chief, Hu Jintao.

The Panchen Lama knocked on Hu Jintao’s front door. All of us Tibetans were a little proud at that moment. It was such an unusual feeling to watch a high-ranking member of the Party being bullied by a Tibetan!

Hu actually came to the door in his pajamas. Personally, the Panchen Lama and Hu were friends at that time, so when Hu saw him, he called him “Great Master” or something like that and was very shocked and asked what in the world had happened. The Panchen Lama said, “Do you trust me or not? If you don’t trust me, I can go back to Beijing. I can leave tonight! If you don’t want me to investigate, then you report back to the Central Government!”

The Panchen Lama— I’ve never seen someone so brave. The next thing I knew, everybody was making
phone calls. The Panchen Lama was calling Beijing. Hu Jintao was calling his police. A little later, a Chinese guy came to Hu’s residence and produced a tape and gave it to the Panchen Lama. This version of the demonstrations was entirely different. This time, we could see Chinese police all along the rooftop of the Jokhang. Then the monks came crowding down the street. The police started yelling very bad things down at the monks, and then we saw the police open fire on the monks.

After seeing this version, the Panchen Lama confronted the police, “Why would you start shooting the people? You are supposed to represent and protect the people.” The Panchen Lama could be fearless.

He died in 1989, setting the stage for a struggle between the Chinese government and the Tibetan leadership in exile. Traditionally the Dalai Lama had played a key role in choosing new Panchen Lamas, and vice versa. Beijing clearly decided that they didn’t want to put up with another Panchen Lama along the lines of the last one, and saw an opportunity to legitimize their own future Dalai Lama somewhere down the line. The Dalai Lama announced the name of the boy that he, with the help of senior lamas still inside Tibet, had chosen- but within three days the Chinese had disappeared the boy. He remains missing today.

To justify installing their own candidate, Beijing cited a historical precedent in which a name had been drawn from a golden urn to select a lama, and then proceeded to throw a faux-religious event while they rigged the name drawing. Again from Arjia Rinpoche, who describes arriving in Lhasa for the farce:

The terminal was swarming with armed Chinese soldiers. As you know, Gonggar Airport is sixty miles south of Lhasa. Along the way, from the terminal to the Lhasa hotel—on both sides of the road, about fifteen feet apart—there stood armed soldiers! All the way to Lhasa! And that kind of intensity never let up. After we checked into the hotel, we were called together and told:

“You will not leave the premises of the hotel. You will not ask friends or associates to come into the hotel to visit. You will be prepared to leave for the ceremony without prior warning. During the ceremony, if any of you act up or do bad things, there will be no excuses and the punishment will be severe.”

About midnight, or maybe one in the morning, we were once again called together. “Time to leave!” they said, and by two in the morning, we left the Lhasa hotel. We boarded a bus. The distance couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. This time the PLA were on both sides of the road the entire way, shoulder-to-shoulder—faceless men with helmets, face masks and big guns and shields. The Chinese were doing everything they could to make it feel like a major historical moment.

We entered the Jokhang. The main temple room was already full of witnesses saying prayers: high lamas, local representatives, important monks—I don’t know how long they had been there. The ceilings are very high inside the Jokhang and it’s very dark, even with thousands of butter lamps flickering. But as my eyes became used to the darkness, I realized that around the perimeter of the main temple there were plain-clothed police—every corner—shoulder to shoulder.

My group was escorted up to the main altar. Directly in front of the main altar, in the position of honor, sat the highest-ranking communists from Beijing. There was a big table between them and the altar. On that table sat the Golden Urn. Perpendicular to the right end of the table was another group of lesser officials. We religious leaders were ushered to the left end of the table and seated, facing the lesser officials across the way.

The nominee’s names had been typed on paper—except for the Dalai Lama’s choice of course. The altar attendants (they weren’t the regular altar monks) glued the papers to the ivory sticks, pulled tight-fitting gold silk covers down over the sticks, and replaced them into the urn. Bumi Rinpoche, who was the president of the Buddhist Association of TAR, was asked to come forward and select a stick. He did as he was told, then handed it to the head official who, after inspecting it, handed it over to the official next to him, and so on, over to the next representative from Beijing.

The event was televised. Later, when we saw the video on TV, we could easily see that the stick that was chosen was a little longer the others. Obviously, this raised everyone’s suspicions. Not that we weren’t already suspicious...

And what do you know; turns out the boy chosen by the urn just happened to be the son of two Communist Party cadres! The event soon faded from the news, except for occasional requests from the Tibetan exiles and Western human rights organizations that the Chinese free the true Panchen Lama. The Chinese-picked candidate has become known as the Panchen Zuma, or “fake Panchen,” by Tibetans. For much of the time since then he hasn’t had much to say, given that he was just a few years old during the ceremony. As he has arrived at adulthood recently, however, he has been paraded around a few times by Beijing. After the earthquake in Qinghai he was brought in for prayers, and a few weeks ago he was given a seat on the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress- the very same position from which his predecessor attempted to secure better treatment for his homeland.

With his increased visibility have come a larger number of rebuttals to his position. B. Raman from Eurasia Review puts it very well:

[The Chinese-picked Panchen Lama] does not stay in Tibet. Nor does he go to any Tibetan school. His Buddhist teachers are Beijing-based and chosen by the Party and the Government. However, once a year during the vacation in Beijing he is taken to Lhasa and nearby places by the Chinese authorities who organize religious interactions between him and selected Tibetans in order to give him a public exposure and give the impression of his playing an increasingly active role as a religious leader responsible for providing spiritual guidance to the Tibetan Buddhists and for supervising the maintenance of the religious places in Tibet.

However, the Chinese take two precautions while organizing the spiritual tours for him. Firstly, his visits are confined to the Tibet Autonomous Region. They avoid taking him to other Tibetan-inhabited areas lest by doing so they unwittingly strengthen the Dalai Lama’s claim for a Greater Tibet. The Chinese project their Panchen Lama as the religious leader of only the Tibetans of the Tibet Autonomous Region and not of all Tibetans, wherever they may be residing. Secondly, they avoid any pronouncements of a political nature during his organized tours. Since they deny any political hat for His Holiness the Dalai Lama, they do not want to create in their Panchen Lama a religious leader with a political role.

Beijing foresees an endgame in which they pull the strings of a compliant Panchen Zuma and thus get a justification to name their own Dalai Zuma. Without a universally-recognized Dalai Lama causing trouble for them, they reckon, the Tibet issue will completely disappear. Clearly there are a number of holes in that logic. The Dalai Lama himself knows what they’re doing, and has been making the argument that his successor will be born in India, or Nepal, or America, or really anywhere outside of Chinese jurisdiction. Also, continued Tibetan agitation for human rights and civil liberties will obviously continue, living Dalai Lama or not. Finally, the story of Tibetan collaborators with Beijing is one fraught with defections- indeed, even the man chosen by Beijing to tutor the young Panchen Zuma, Arjia Rinpoche, eventually denounced the government and escaped from China into exile. If Beijing wants the Panchen Zuma to become a legitimate figure in the eyes of his people they need to let him out of his cage more often, but doing so greatly increases the risk that he will choose the same path chosen by almost every other high-profile Tibetan figure since the occupation began: resistance.

This Week in Tibet

The news of an earthquake in Tibet has been bouncing around for the last two days, although it seems to have largely slipped off the front page already. The 7.1 magnitude quake occurred in a sparsely populated prefecture (current population is roughly 300,000) alternately known, confusingly enough, as Yushu, Yushul, Gyegu, Jiegu, Jyekundo, and Kyigundo. It was historically part of the Kham region of Tibet, although today it's administered by Qinghai province, just outside the border of Chinese-designated Tibet province. This has led to confused foreign media labeling it a 'Tibetan border town,' even though it's hundreds of miles from the traditional Tibetan-Chinese border.

The destruction in Gyegu has been near absolute- some estimates say that 85% of the buildings in the town collapsed. A number of these were schools, which echoes the Wenchuan earthquake from 2008. Back then Chinese reporters uncovered a number of shady contracts which led to the construction of so-called ‘tofu schools,’ which collapsed immediately and totally. Presumably a possible repeat of this discovery is why China has already barred media outlets based outside Qinghai province from doing any on-the-ground reporting.

Meanwhile, the small town airport has spent much of the last two days inoperative, meaning that would-be rescuers have to drive in from provincial capital Xining. This drive takes 18 hours under the best circumstances, and with landslides, damaged roads and collapsed bridges in the way that drive will be much harder. The local hospital was destroyed, and residents have been cautious about entering any still-standing structures thanks to aftershocks that could reach 6 on the Richter scale. This has led to people sleeping outside in below-freezing conditions, and many wounded residents haven't even been able to get cleaned up in the 48 hours since the quake. As if all this wasn't enough, a large dam 12 miles upstream has sustained heavy structural damage, and engineers have warned that it could collapse at any time. Some people are reportedly moving up into the hills, above the potential waterline but also further away from disaster relief crews and medical help.

This disaster has brought together unlikely partnerships. A photographer captured a number of pictures of Tibetan monks and Chinese soldiers working side by side to excavate people buried in rubble:




More monks are coming from neighboring monasteries to assist with the relief efforts. More soldiers, too- both to help out, and to keep a close eye on the region in the coming days and weeks. Yushu Prefecture is 97% Tibetan, and Beijing is fully aware that grief could quickly turn to anger if locals find that Chinese contracts led to inferior construction once more. Politics are already at play, as Huffington Post writer Josh Schrei noted:

This is a region that does not look favorably on Chinese rule. It is a region that saw widespread independence protests in 2008, including the takeover of a Chinese police station by Tibetan protesters mounted on horseback. And the last thing the Chinese government wants is to bring any international attention to this restive area or give the local people any further reason to protest.

Public gatherings are banned in this part of Tibet, and from all on the ground reports it is already clear that the Chinese soldiers that have been trucked in Jyekundo are there to serve two purposes. They are there to help remove victims from the rubble, and they are also there to make sure that Tibetans -- homeless and freezing and distraught -- do not begin to demonstrate or make political statements. Wen Jiaobao, when outlining the plan for disaster relief yesterday, made sure to mention that efforts were being made to "safeguard social stability." In other disaster areas, this would translate as preventing looting and crime. In Jyekundo, it means preventing the locals from political agitation. As of yesterday, Tibetan monks and PLA soldiers were unified in their efforts to rescue schoolchildren from the quake's rubble; but more monks are on the way from neighboring monasteries, and the more days go by in which Tibetans are forced by circumstance to live in miserable conditions under the watchful eye of the PLA soldiers whom they already despise, it is highly likely Jyekundo will turn into a powder keg.

If anyone has a dollar or two they’re willing to part with, a few good organizations which already have resources in Gyegu/Jyekundo/Yushu are collecting donations specifically for disaster relief. I would recommend Machik, or The Bridge Fund.

高智晟回来

In February 2009 Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese human rights lawyer who had constantly challenged official corruption, disappeared. His disappearance wasn't entirely out of the blue- in the last few years he had been detained and tortured repeatedly and survived what may have been an assassination attempt. In 2006 he had loudly denounced the Communist Party of China and ended his CPC membership. Clients he worked with included people evicted from their homes by government development, persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, and factory workers who were being exploited by their employers.

Early last year his family escaped the country and took up residence in America. Just weeks later Gao disappeared, leading to fears that he had been placed in a gulag or possibly killed. The only clues from the government were a cryptic statement months later saying that Gao is "where he should be."

Until yesterday, when he reappeared!

Gao Zhisheng resurfaced suddenly Sunday, saying he is now living in northern China, but it was not clear under what conditions. Since he went missing on Feb. 4, 2009, from his hometown in central China, the government has given vague explanations about Gao's whereabouts, heightening worries he had been jailed or tortured as he was previously.

Before being jailed and otherwise muzzled four years ago, Gao was the most dauntless of a new group of civil liberties lawyers.

Gao has been the subject of countless campaigns by human rights groups across the world over the last year, and I think it's safe to say that this pressure probably played some part in his reappearance. He isn't quite out of the woods yet, though:

Li Heping, a Beijing-based human rights lawyer and friend of Gao's, said he also spoke briefly with Gao on his cell phone and believed Gao was being followed by authorities.

"I believe he does not have freedom," Li said. "First, when we were speaking, he sounded like he wanted to hang up. He told me that he had friends around him. I'm sure that the people around him are limiting what he can say."

"Secondly, he would not tell me exactly where he is when I suggested visiting him," Li said. "We are very concerned about his situation."

The Freedom Now statement said: "It is assumed that he is under close surveillance, if not de facto house arrest."

If Beijing doesn't want him hanging out in China and making a mess of their one-party state then hopefully they'll allow him to rejoin his family in the States. Losing him would be a real setback for the Chinese people, but at least he isn't dead. Score one for human rights, kinda?

The Google Saga, Part 83459

The latest on China/Google, beneath the fold.

Click here to reveal the rest of this post, which was written with invisible ink directly on your monitor!

Updates: Google vs China and Glenn Beck vs The Poor

Small updates on these two stories have given me a chance to debut our new Train Truncation Tool, so click below to read on.

Read More...

Tibet Uprising Day

Today is the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising. To establish the background for that day:

-China had initially tried to negotiate a Tibetan surrender, but on October 7th, 1950 Chinese troops entered Kham, the mountainous southeastern region of Tibet. The People’s Liberation Army was far better equipped than the tiny Tibetan army, and was also composed of units which had already seen action in WWII and the Chinese Civil War. They won decisively, although sources suggest that the Tibetans killed more troops than they lost. After the fall of Chamdo, the major government center of the region, the Chinese army acted in a way that would surprise people who are familiar with the conflict today: instead of killing captured Tibetan fighters, they were given speeches about the benefits of socialism and released. Robert Ford, an Englishman present in Chamdo at the time, relays the following story:

A [survivor of the Tibetan garrison] told us... “They are strange people, these Chinese...I cut off eight of their heads with my sword, and they just let me go.”

The initial campaign left the regional garrisons of Kham and Amdo devastated, but Chinese troops were actually remarkably considerate towards the community after Tibetan units had been defeated. These policies turned out to be very short-lived, however.

-Over the next few years China switched tack and attempted to implement Maoist land redistribution in Kham and Amdo, which resulted in massive upheavals. The monasteries and nomads had controlled most of the land prior to the Chinese invasion, and this combined with increased Chinese rhetoric about the evils of religion led to outbreaks of armed resistance by 1956. The monasteries were the backbone of the resistance, which led to Chinese punitive strikes against them and against Tibetan townspeople. The cycle of violence grew to the point that the previously isolated outbreaks coalesced into one resistance group, called Chushi Gangdruk. Translated literally it means "Four Rivers, Six Ranges," a reference to the four major rivers and six mountain ranges of Kham.

-Lhasa and the entire region of Central Tibet had remained relative quiet at first. Land redistribution policies were delayed because Beijing had hoped that the young Dalai Lama could be convinced to play ball with them. He was receptive initially, even going as far as to meet Chairman Mao in Beijing. But by the late 50’s he had figured out their game, and began to move away from reaching a settlement with China. Meanwhile, a group of emissaries from Lhasa sent to try to bring order to Kham saw the effects of Chinese rule and joined Chushi Gangdruk instead. Things finally came to a head in March 1959, when a Chinese invitation to the Dalai Lama included a request that he meet them without body guards- a request seen by many Tibetans as a plot to abduct or kill him.

-On March 10th, 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Norbulingka, the summer palace where the Dalai Lama was studying at the time. They refused to allow Chinese officers into the area, and over the next few days the situation escalated. Posters went up calling for a Chinese withdrawal, and both sides prepared to fight. Senior Tibetan advisers had been trying to convince the Dalai Lama to leave for India for years, and when the Norbulingka was shelled several days later he finally assented. Members of Chushi Gangdruk fought a delaying action behind him, while Lhasa itself was shelled by Chinese artillery for days. By the end of the fighting on March 21st tens of thousands of Tibetans had been killed.

The aftermath played out in a few different ways. The CIA trained and equipped members of Chushi Gangdruk for years, and they remained active in Kham for years until American rapprochement with China and a taped message by the Dalai Lama convinced them to step down and head for the Indian border. The Indian government gave the Dalai Lama some land, and thousands of additional Tibetan refugees have crossed the border every year since then. Today their total numbers are somewhere around 120,000. Finally, March 10th has become a potent day inside Tibet, where it was marked by enormous protests in the late 80’s and more recently in 2008.

Chinese Democracy

After the Google/China showdown went public a few weeks ago the media spent a few days solemnly debating whether or not China would allow Google to operate uncensored in China. As far as I can tell, this debate is pretty silly- censorship is vitally important to the Communist Party's grip on power, so I'm reasonably sure they won't even entertain the idea of relaxing restrictions on Google unless they think they can somehow game the system by blocking individual websites and pages after Google stops doing the dirty work for them.

Hong Kong has stayed in an unusual holding pattern since the Chinese retook control in 1997. A number of positions in Hong Kong are elected, but others are controlled by businesses, and still more are directly named by Beijing. Most accounts seem to agree that Beijing has been pretty good about sticking to the "One China, Two Systems" agreement, probably more out of a fear of accidentally ruining the massively profitable island rather than any stand on principles. China promised that Hong Kong would be allowed to fully democratize within the next decade or so, which makes this a little bit worrisome:

China has warned that a plan by pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong to use a special election as a de facto referendum on democratic reform is a threat to stability in the former British colony.

Labeling something a "threat to stability" is often a prelude to a massive crackdown in China. But Hong Kong hasn't yet been trampled on the same way most places in mainland China have been- there are annual vigils in remembrance of Tiananmen, people have the right to gather and to speak their minds, and the judiciary is still independent. It's hard to say what will happen- as democracy activists push their luck, Beijing will have to choose between messing with a system that produces piles of cash, or allowing the people to take more of the reins. I think this is going to be a far harder decision for them than the Google one.

Meanwhile, some on the mainland are making unusually detailed criticisms of government policies. Director Yu Jianrong, from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Rural Affairs, has publicly warned that:

Hardline security policies are taking the country to the brink of 'revolutionary turmoil.'

Deepening social fractures were caused by the Communist Party's obsession with preserving its monopoly on power through 'state violence' and 'ideology,' rather than justice, Professor Yu said.

Disaster could be averted only if 'interest groups' - which he did not identify - were capable of making a rational compromise to subordinate themselves to the constitution, he said.

'Interest groups' probably refers to specific groups within the Chinese leadership, most likely the Hu/Li group, whose ideology has led to the current use of harsh tactics to preserve Communist Party power at any cost from even the slightest of threats. The argument that the leaders should 'subordinate themselves to the constitution' is a similar one made by a broad spectrum of critics, from human rights activists to minority spokesmen among the Tibetans or Uyghurs. It remains to be seen if Beijing will take the message well or not.

This Week in Tibet

Next Wednesday is March 10th, which is a very significant date in Tibetan history- the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising, which had been set in motion years earlier by guerrilla resistance in the eastern region of Kham and finally erupted in Lhasa on March 10th. Obviously the uprising failed to expel the Chinese occupiers, and days later the Dalai Lama escaped to India. Next week I’ll have more about how that started and exactly what happened.

For now, the timely connection is that Beijing has launched yet another “Strike Hard” campaign in anticipation of the anniversary. For those not familiar with the term, “Strike Hard” campaigns are periods where officials and enforcement bodies are specifically encouraged to disregard the usual limits of the law and go wild. Any offense, regardless of how slight, can be used as an excuse for beatings, torture, lengthy imprisonments, or even executions. They’ve become an annual fixture around March 10th, because Beijing hopes to intimidate Tibetans who would recognize the anniversary.

For the time being, then, anything can serve as an excuse to punish Tibetans. Listening to a pop song which obliquely references the Dalai Lama within earshot of a policeman, failing to be appropriately reverent of the Chinese flag, looking at a Communist Party member less than lovingly- anything will do. Even by the usual standards, the next few weeks will be dangerous ones for Tibetans inside Tibet.

Next, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has announced their list of new members for the year. This body has little power of its own, but a seat on the CPPCC is viewed as a cushy reward for retiring government figures, or for rich businessmen. The list of new appointments surprised observers with its inclusion of Gyaincain Norbu, the fake Panchen Lama.

The real Panchen Lama, the one chosen by the Dalai Lama and a number of prominent Tibetan Buddhists, still hasn’t been heard from since 1995, when he was abducted by the Chinese government at the age of 6. The reason behind the abduction was obvious- the replacement offered by Beijing is the son of two Communist Party members, and has been used as a transparent ploy to subvert Tibetan religion to aid the occupation. The attempt has failed, though: Tibetans refer to Gyaincain Norbu as the “Panchen Zuma,” or fake Panchen. The name has stuck, and today if you type “Panchen Zuma” into Wikipedia it will automatically redirect you to the Chinese-picked candidate.

His appointment to the CPPCC is an attempt by Beijing to up the ante. Instead of reconsidering their plan, they’ve doubled down and given him a prominent political position. Their attempted smearing of the Dalai Lama as a politician in monk’s robes is even more ironic now, with their creation of a supposed high lama who is openly just a pro-Beijing politician. He was ignored by the other delegates at the 2006 World Buddhist Forum, but damned if he won’t do a great job of talking about how great China has been for Tibet!

That wasn’t the only reason Beijing abducted the real Panchen Lama, though. Traditionally the Panchen Lamas have been tasked with identifying the next Dalai Lama. The end goal of the Chinese plan is to use the fake Panchen to lend legitimacy to their choice of a fake Dalai after the current Dalai Lama passes away. More on what that will mean and what the exiled Tibetan community is doing to prepare for it some other time.

This Week in Tibet

This has been a busy week for the Tibetan movement- with the Dalai Lama visiting DC and meeting with Obama for the first time since he took office, people on all sides of the issue have been offering their opinions. From the Chinese side, the response has been predictable: complete outrage at a meeting which Obama, for better or worse, kept fairly low-key and delayed initially. Hopefully Obama learned his lesson- the Chinese would have been just as furious if Obama had let the Dalai Lama set up shop in the Oval Office for a few days.

The combination of this perceived snub and the apparent failure of the negotiations between the Central Tibetan Administration and Beijing don’t lend themselves to an upbeat evaluation. In a statement located here, Arjia Rinpoche argues that there is still cause for optimism. Arjia himself is a pretty cool guy- enthroned as the abbot of the massive Kumbum Monastery in the early 1950's at the age of 2, he was responsible for rebuilding Kumbum after the Cultural Revolution left it in ruins (along with almost every other temple and monastery in Tibet and China). Eventually the pressure, scrutiny, and threats from Beijing grew too great, however, and Arjia chose to exile himself from Tibet in the late 90’s.

In regards to claims that Obama disrespected the Dalai Lama, Arjia says:

“My reading is different. The White House had already sent two envoys to Dharamsala to discuss and carefully plan a visit by His Holiness to Washington. These discussions did not seem like a haphazard, spur of the moment apology for a snubbing.”

As for why he remains optimistic:

“I detected in the most recent Tibet Work Issues Meeting [a Chinese task force convened in Beijing for the purposes of addressing Tibetan issues] a softening of tone in the rhetoric. I sensed a shift in nuance. Having grown into maturity as a Tibetan monk of the “exploiting class” and then risen in status in the government religious bureaucracy in the post Mao years, I learned to listen very carefully...”

After detailing some of the changes in official rhetoric seen lately, he concludes that:

“Over the last 20 years freedom has waned; perhaps it is ready to wax once more. The present policy of repression and attempted cultural murder has never worked. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a bad enemy; he never strikes back. He won’t do what is expected of enemies. He has patience that seems endless. So I ask, how long can the government of China stand alone in the world believing that His Holiness represents incarnate evil instead of the reincarnation of Chenresig, the deity of compassion?”

Again, the entire thing is located here. Next, some bits from an interesting interview. Lobsang Tenzin is currently the Kalon Tripa, the elected head of the Tibetan Exile Government. The mere existence of that position is an irritation to Beijing, which claims that the Dalai Lama wants to personally take command of Tibet and institute serfdom because of his irrepressible malice. The fact that the 120,000 exiles are eligible for democratic elections is pretty inconvenient for them.

The Kalon Tripa was recently interviewed by Bi Yantao, a Chinese academic and writer who has managed to push for democratization without being beaten/jailed/disappeared. They discussed the main issue hindering the talks between the Tibetans and Beijing- namely, Greater Tibet. It’s easiest to illustrate this issue with a map or two. First, the status quo-



The Tibetan Autonomous Region is outlined in black. To its north lies the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, then proceeding clockwise around Tibet we have Qinghai province, Sichuan province, and Yunnan to the southeast. According to China, all discussions are limited to policies within the Tibetan Autonomous Region. But now let me fill in Tibet as it has existed for the last few centuries, prior to being divided by China-



Here we have the three traditional regions of Tibet. U-Tsang is mostly mirrored by the current Tibet Autonomous Region, but Amdo and Kham have been divided up into the entirety of Qinghai province, and parts of Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces. These areas are still ethnically and culturally Tibetan, as they have been for generations. By some counts, a majority of the world-wide Tibetan population lives outside of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Naturally, the Tibetan exiles insist that these areas be reunited with each other, and that any policy changes from the negotiations be effected on all of them. Beijing counters by saying that these regions weren’t controlled by Lhasa, which is technically true of the year when China invaded Tibet but absolutely false historically.

The interview is interesting, because the somewhat antagonistic tone of the interviewer is likely due to the troubles of getting anything sympathetic to the Tibetan cause published in China. The Kalon Tripa frames his arguments from a Marxist perspective and for the most part simply asks that China respect the laws already established in the Chinese Constitution regarding minority autonomy:

Kalon Tripa: The basic concept of national regional autonomy aims to preserve and promote the unique identities of the minority nationalities. To achieve this objective there is need to maintain administrative unity within same nationality, unless this unity is impossible due to geographical conditions. Apart from that, Article 4 of the Constitution says, "Any act which undermines the unity of the nationality or instigates division is prohibited".

It is stated in the autonomy law that national autonomous areas shall be classified into autonomous regions, prefectures and counties… There is no reason or need to deliberately divide a particular nationality by establishing many autonomous prefectures and counties.

Dividing the Tibetan nationality despite the fact that they have lived together for centuries in one contiguous area is considered as a violation of the spirit of the constitution. This is the imperialist policy of "divide and rule". If a minority nationality cannot integrate within itself, then it will become more difficult to integrate with the PRC.

The rest of the interview is here, and worth a read if you have some time and want to get a feel for the kind of nonsense the Tibetan diplomats put up with in Beijing.

This Week in Tibet

One of the cool parts about my job is that an unbelievable amount of Tibet-related information arrives in my inbox every day. Pretty much every article concerning life in Tibet, the 120,000 Tibetan exiles in India/Nepal, the Dalai Lama, a number of high-profile Tibetan political prisoners, and Chinese human rights in general gets shot my way. Time permitting I’ll probably a post a few of the most interesting things once a week.

First, a poll by CNN shows that “nearly three quarters of Americans think Tibet should be an independent country.” Whoa! The American people have actually taken a stronger stance than where I work, which instead advocates genuine Tibetan autonomy within China. The surprising thing from this poll is that “18 percent [have] an unfavorable impression” of the Dalai Lama. I can see how you might not be crazy about him, but how does someone end up with a specifically unfavorable impression of the guy? Too bad CNN didn’t give more details.

Next, a Newsweek article entitled “China Is Good for Tibet.” Uh oh, I smell colonial rhetoric ahead! Sure enough, after a dismissive reference to angry Tibetans and American activists, the author says:

“But that seems to be the only story about Tibet that is ever told. The other story is that, for China's many blunders in the mountainous region, it has erected a booming economy there. Looking at growth, standard of living, infrastructure, and GDP, one thing is clear: China has been good for Tibet.”

It must have been a challenge to pack so much bullshit into two short sentences. Let’s quickly review some of China’s ‘blunders’- the brutal initial invasion, a bloody pacification campaign which ended with the slaughter of 86,000 Tibetans in Lhasa in 1959, hundreds of thousands of Tibetan deaths caused by widespread famine due to Maoist policies during the Great Leap Forward, the near-destruction of the monastic system which was the centerpiece of Tibetan culture, education, and religious life prior to the Chinese invasion, the vicious suppression of peaceful protests in the late 80's, the abduction of the five year old 11th Panchen Lama and of thousands of dissident Tibetan scholars, monks, and writers, the relegation of Tibetans to second-class citizens within their own homeland, and the crackdown following the 2008 protests, in which an unknown number of Tibetans were killed and a much larger number were imprisoned without trial and tortured in prisons across Tibetan China. Are these the ‘blunders’ to which Newsweek refers? Ludicrously enough, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s entirely possible that the author was referring to an entirely different set of blunders. Either way you’ll have to excuse Tibetans if these ‘blunders’ have left them somewhat dissatisfied with Chinese rule.

Moving on, let’s talk about this ‘booming economy.’ The argument is taken straight from the old colonial-era Western playbook, which sought to justify occupations by waxing poetic about how much good was brought to colonial subjects. Now, as then, it falls apart under scrutiny. Beijing boasts about how much it invested in the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which surely is a feat of engineering. But if that railway brings yet more Chinese immigrants, and ferries in materials and weapons for the Chinese army, and was used to transport Tibetan prisoners to remote gulags en masse, is this really something that benefits the Tibetan people? If a mine opens in an ethnically Tibetan region, but the mining company is owned by Han Chinese, the workers are mostly Han, and the only effects it has on the local populace are ruined harvests and livestock killed by unchecked industrial pollution, is that really something that benefits the Tibetan people? Is a modest bump in GDP which falls in line with rises seen across Asia really worth imprisoned and tortured family members, murdered neighbors, and a life of oppression? I would say no but I guess if you’re a sociopath or something you can feel free to argue otherwise.

Newsweek continues-

Although Chinese statistics on Tibet, like Chinese statistics in general, are impossible to verify, it seems clear that material living standards among the 80 to 90 percent of the population living in rural Tibet are rising rapidly.

Oh right, I almost forgot- the statistics we’re basing this whole discussion on were generated by Beijing, which clearly has a motive to inflate growth numbers and restricts any attempt to verify them. I guess we just have to take their word for it that Tibetans are experiencing an unprecedented wave of prosperity. The author approvingly notes that:

“At the improved schools, students learn Mandarin, which gives Tibetans access to work opportunities in government offices in Tibet and in companies throughout China.”

Hold on, hold on- so you need to speak Mandarin to work in government offices in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and we’re actually supposed to give Beijing credit for marginalizing the Tibetan language inside Tibet?! How very kind of Beijing, to encourage Tibetans to abandon their mother tongue in favor of the language China has imposed on them.

“Beijing won't deal with the Dalai Lama, even though Tibetans revere him, nor will it let his monastic followers build any power or voice any nationalist sympathy. Instead, the government is offering Tibetans the same bargain it has offered the rest of the country: in exchange for an astronomical rise in living standards, the government requires citizens to relinquish the right to free worship and free speech. The Chinese government has kept its end of the deal. Even if Tibetan residents never signed the contract, they have benefited from its enforcement—a fact Obama might keep in mind when he meets the Dalai Lama.”

Slow down, Newsweek! That doesn’t make any sense. So when Newsweek says China has ‘offered’ a bargain to the Tibetans, they mean “compelled by force of arms on an unwilling populace that would declare independence in a heartbeat if it didn’t mean the death of every man, woman, and child in Tibet,” right? Because that doesn’t really sound like an ‘offer’ to me, but Newsweek authors are professionals so I’ll let it slide this time. But then we go on to the ‘astronomical rise in living standards,’ which we’ve already agreed was unverifiable, and before we can even readdress that talking point it’s stated that China has “kept its end of the deal.” Again, the deal that Tibetans didn’t want to make and which entails grievous loss of life and cultural destruction? That deal? Then it’s basically conceded that all this talk of ‘deals’ has been pretty silly because Tibetans never agreed to anything, but instead of accepting that as a refutation of the entire article we’re told that Obama should keep this all in mind when he meets the Dalai Lama.

If the author is saying that Obama should remain mindful of a nonexistent deal which includes death, imprisonment, torture, and the denial of the most basic human rights in exchange for dubious, unsubstantiated claims of development, much of the benefits of which would certainly fall to colonial occupiers instead of local Tibetans, then yes I think we are finally in agreement. Thanks a lot, Newsweek.

Finally, a lighter piece from Reuters. Tibetans listening to Radio Free Asia found out about the meeting which took place today between Obama and the Dalai Lama, and inhabitants of the town of Rebkong (Chinese: 同仁) shot off a round of fireworks to celebrate. A bunch of good quotes, and this from the end of the article:

China blamed the Dalai Lama for inspiring the unrest, and regularly condemns him for seeking Tibetan independence. He has repeatedly denied being a separatist or supporting violence.

"CCTV [China’s main state-run television network]is always saying this and that about him and about us Tibetans," said monk Tarkey. "The world will get a better idea about who he is once he meets Obama."

Think that includes the mysterious fifth of Americans who hold an unfavorable impression?

Trying Again

The Tibetan Government In Exile is giving it another go:

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen will arrive in China tomorrow for discussions with the representatives of the Chinese leadership. This is the ninth round of dialogue. The Envoys are visiting China after a gap of 15 months in the process that began in 2002.

The last talks reached a discouraging conclusion after Chinese officials dismissed a detailed proposal for Tibetan autonomy presented by Lodi Gyari in October 2008. The proposal didn't make any outrageous demands- for the most part it didn't extend beyond the laws currently on the books in China. How did the Chinese react?

"[The] Dalai Lama is seeking a legal basis for his activities of 'Tibet independence', 'semi-independence and 'independence in a disguised form'," Zhu said.

'Secondly, the Dalai Lama is scheming for a 'Greater Tibet', which has never existed," he said.

A nonexistent Greater Tibet? Which areas is he talking about?

Zhu said the so-called "Greater Tibet" included not only the whole Tibet Autonomous Region, but also a large territory of Qinghai Province, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan in Gansu Province, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze and Aba in Sichuan Province, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Deqen in Yunnan Province and some other areas.

Oh ok, he's talking about the Tibetan regions of Kham and Amdo, in which Han Chinese have never been anything but a tiny minority, if that. Areas where even today, after more than 60 years of occupation, the population is still a majority Tibetan, the main language is still Tibetan, and the people still practice Tibetan Buddhism. I visited the Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture last winter, and I can say that it's immediately evident upon arrival that the only thing Chinese about the area is the flag flying over government buildings... oh, and the People's Armed Police units patrolling the streets. How crazy is the Dalai Lama for insisting that these areas be included in the negotiations, right?!

Best of luck to the Tibetan delegation- they're going to have their work cut out for them.

More On Google Nuking China

First, a little bit of background. The Great Firewall has become even more repressive over the last year or two- measures that may have been put in place before the Olympics, but then continued long after the athletes and press corp left. Also, specific incidents have resulted in the censorship of various websites:

-Youtube was blocked last year after videos showing Chinese riot police beating Tibetan monks during the Spring 2008 Riots were posted. It remained blocked until the day I left and is still blocked, from what I've heard.

-Twitter and Facebook were blocked during the Uyghur anti-government riots last summer, out of a fear that angry Uyghurs were using the sites to communicate with each other and with Rebiya Kadeer. Kadeer has been smeared by the Chinese government as some sort of all-powerful terrorist mastermind, similar to their treatment of the Dalai Lama.

Ok, so Google has remained unblocked all this time. They arranged that by agreeing to censor results for searches related to topics like Tiananmen, human rights, Taiwan, Tibet, etc. Pathetic as that is, at least they aren't Yahoo, who managed to royally shit the bed two years ago:

"The journalist Shi Tao was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities as requested by Chinese authorities."

Great job you terrible human beings! It's also worth noting that the recent government crackdown hasn't merely been limited to recalibrating the Great Firewall- Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese human rights activist who survived the Tiananmen crackdown and more recently was one of the initial signatories of Charter 08, has been officially deemed subversive and sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Some people have been calling this a bluff, but I think this post on TechCrunch makes a good point-

Google is ready to burn bridges. This is not how negotiations are done in China, and Google has done well enough there to know that. You don’t get results by pressuring the government in a public, English-language blog post. If Google were indeed still working with the government this letter would not have been posted because it has likely slammed every door shut, as a long-time entrepreneur in China Marc van der Chijs and many others said on Twitter. This was a scorched earth move, aimed at buying Google some good will in the rest of the world; Chinese customers and staff were essentially just thrown under the bus.

I think 'thrown under the bus' is an odd phrase to use given that this Chinese attempt to steal Google code and private emails from Chinese citizens is the straw (albeit a fairly heavy straw) that broke the camels back. This has been a long time in the coming. But the rest of the point is right on: if Google wanted to negotiate, this is very obviously not the way to do it. It seems very unlikely that Beijing would do anything to allow the perception of a foreign company bossing around the government.

As an aside, it seems that Google hasn't stopped censoring its results yet- my search for Tiananmen info using Google.cn didn't uncover anything interesting. Perhaps they need time to index previously censored results, or maybe something else is happening? It is a mystery.

Another interesting thing is the reaction from Chinese netizens- they seem to be widely supporting Google. Beneath the obnoxious authors commentary on this page there are a bunch of translated Chinese message board comments on the subject. For example:

Shut it down.
The government already does whatever it wants.
Entering email boxes, deleting the account owners’ emails…
is tantamount to entering someone else’s company and kicking out the old customers.
Google can no longer do business, so of course they will want to leave.
I ding [support] you Google.
Your name will go down in history

I would still argue that Beijing is showing weakness with these actions- jailing dissidents and blocking sites and infuriating major companies to the point where they publicly tell you off and leave the country does have consequences in terms of riling up Chinese citizens. They aren't doing this simply because they can, but because they believe that Liu Xiaobo and videos of militarized police beating unarmed civilians and access to information about what really happened in '89 pose a threat to the survival of their one-party stranglehold on power.

So, the next move belongs to China.

Google Nukes China

In response to a large-scale attempt to acquire Google-protected information belonging to human rights activists working within China, Google initiated an investigation that uncovered a massive, below-board surveillance effort almost certainly instigated by the Chinese Government. In a a statement issued at 3:00 today, Google's Chief Legal Officer has indicated their intent to exercise the nuclear option in retaliation:

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

This might be the first time that a corporation declared war on a country. Whoever wins, things are about to change.

Another Proposal

Have you ever whined about the madcap excesses of those crazy environmentalists, or waxed poetic about the evils of regulations and the havoc they wreak on mild-mannered businesses? Move to China.

On paper, at least, there are plenty of protections. But the lack of enforcement and the inability to organize has left regulation and environmentalism functionally absent from most of China. There are certainly some beautiful places left in the country- here are some pictures I took this summer after teaching my last class in Wuhan (note that it was the rainy season on southwestern Yunnan where I took these pictures, so you’ll have to take my word that the clouds in the pictures are actually clouds):

But the places pictured here are a far cry from the reality that most of the Chinese population lives in- a reality that looks more like something from the Year Zero album art. It’s a country fuelled mostly by coal plants, where the electricity they produce is then sent straight to giant manufacturing centers which belch out black smoke 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Chinese photographer Lu Guang has spent decades documenting the horrors of unregulated factories doing whatever they want in the name of making a fast buck (yuan, actually, I guess). Here are some of his pictures:

The rest are here, along with explanations about the story behind each picture. More than half of the series is devoted to the people who live next to these factories or alongside these rivers and have to deal with all the consequences of this unchecked pollution- serious health problems abound. This is definitely something China is going to have to deal with at some point- the longer they put it off, the higher the toll will rise.

The Dalai Lama Wants to Dance, Obama Just Wants to Shuffle

Last week I mentioned my confusion regarding the way Obama is doing his job- he seems determined to mix in a little bit of bad news with every good item, and vice versa. His love of compromise apparently extends into compromising on issues literally no one wants to see compromised. The Dalai Lama visit seems to be a timely example.

Instead of meeting with the Dalai Lama during his visit to Washington, as the last three presidents have done, Obama has lightly snubbed him by choosing to meet in Dharamsala instead after a November trip to Beijing. The justification being given for this is that Obama doesn’t want to anger the Chinese before this November visit. If keeping the Communist Party of China happy is the name of the game, why is Obama meeting with the Dalai Lama at all? Chinese commentators and officials will bloviate just as furiously about the post-Beijing photo-op as they would have at one done today, and after that they'll get on with their lives. Indeed, the only thing we know with any certainty from history is that the Chinese government is evidently unwilling to forsake so much as one yuan of trade over a meeting with the mostly powerless Lama. Did China start a mutually-destructive trade Armageddon over his meeting with Bush, or Clinton, or the other Bush?

The Post article mentions that Gibbs provided a more detailed explanation: a happier China is, in their view, more likely to willingly discuss Tibetan issues with the US. Perhaps they’re right; but I don’t see one semi-spurned meeting overturning decades of curt, meaningless replies from Beijing on the subject. In the meantime Obama has opened himself to criticism from both the left and the right, with legitimately distressed human rights groups partnered with Republicans who know an opportunity for taking potshots when they see it.

While I was reading some of the reactions to the Dalai Lama’s visit this morning I found this report about the 2008 Tibetan Riots on the International Campaign for Tibet website. The report documents the initial events in Lhasa, and then details the myriad protests and fights that followed across the ethnically Tibetan regions of China. It was somewhat hard to tell where they were talking about because they use mostly Tibetan place names instead of the Chinese renditions I had seen on my trip through Amdo, the northeastern edge of Tibet. Things got weird when I saw this picture of monks, nomads, and townspeople gathering outside a religious school that was the center of one dispute between Tibetans and government forces in one small town during the riots:

I had to take a look through the pictures from my trip to make sure- I have a picture of myself taken in front of the same (now closed) school during my visit to Langmusi, a small village with two Tibetan monasteries that is easily the most remote place I’ve ever been:


Before I left Wuhan to travel through Amdo I had already seen that Labrang, a much larger monastery town I stayed in for a few days, had played a huge part in the 2008 protests. Parts of this video were shot just a few feet away from the door to my hostel, one of the relatively few which had reopened by the time I came by in December 2008. It’s actually pretty unnerving to think that even tiny Langmusi, a tranquil high-altitude place in the absolute middle of nowhere, was a witness to police brutality and midnight “disappearances.”

Maybe Obama has it right: maybe all China wants is a little respect and then they’ll begin honest negotiations with Tibetan nationalists. I have a hard time convincing myself that moving an appointment from October back to November will really placate a government that’s willing to abduct monks and spend thirty years torturing them, but maybe Hu “earned his fame by cracking down on Tibetans during his term as Party Chief of Tibet” Jintao (yes, it’s a pretty unwieldy nickname) will surprise us all. That would be… well, surprising.

... and the winner is...

The People's Liberation Army! There are almost lethal doses of irony in giving that name to your military, and then immediately sending them around to subjugate the fuck out of your neighbors in a colonial exercise that would impress even the blackened heart of the most dedicated colonial oppressor. Here some paramilitary police march pass two Uighurs after the recent riots in Xinjiang:



Don't our Uighur friends look delighted to have been thus liberated? I guess if we use the Limbaugh school of thought it's perfectly fine to do this to them, though- if they so much as voice a complaint about getting arbitrarily executed by the government they simultaneously justify future oppression.

I'm sure there are other militaries with outstandingly ironic names- anyone aware of any?

Limbaugh: Completely Indistinguishable From the Dumbest Freeper

I told myself I was going lay off Limbaugh and Free Republic for a while, but then I saw this and renounced all my vows:

“Let's see. I talked about this yesterday, the
four Uighur terrorists that were in Guantanamo
Bay, Chinese version of Al-Qaeda, we released
'em to Bermuda.”

"the four Uighur terrorists that were in Guantanamo
Bay, Chinese version of Al-Qaeda"

"terrorists, Chinese version of Al-Qaeda"

Seriously, this is some unbelievable shit from a guy who is assumed by millions of Americans to have a fucking clue. I’m used to seeing this from random freepers . I’m used to seeing it on the rest of their sites, and hearing about how other conservative voices have said the same thing. Finally hearing it from Limbaugh himself is still somehow shocking, though. People supporting their continued detainment exhibit the ultimate height of all the worst aspects of modern conservatism: a combination of willful ignorance, belligerence, and unthinking hatred. Let’s take one more look at these “Chinese al-Qaeda” types:

“The Pentagon had previously determined, reportedly
as early as 2003, that the Uyghurs should be released.
The Post reported in 2005 that these detainees, who
had been classified as “No Longer Enemy Combatants”
were not only still being incarcerated, but were still
being shackled to the floor. None of the Uyghurs were
alleged to have engaged in active hostilities. None
of the Uyghurs described seeing the United States as
an enemy. All of the Uyghurs who mentioned the Chinese
government described them as oppressive occupiers.”

"Hurf durf I’m Rush Limbaugh and I want to rant about the release of the Uighur captives because reconciling my stupid factually incorrect views with reality would be inconvenient.” Hey, if merely helping someone take up arms against the Peoples Liberation Army is all it takes to become Chinese al-Qaeda, then guess who else qualifies by Limbaugh’s own logic? The CIA. The CIA is Chinese al-Qaeda. Chushi Gangdruk (“Four Rivers, Six Ranges,” a nickname for Kham, or eastern Tibet) was a Tibetan resistance group which fought the PLA for years after the invasion. Who was their principle supporter?

“The US Central Intelligence Agency provided the group with material assistance and aid, including arms and ammunition, as well as training to members of Chushi Gangdruk and other Tibetan guerrilla groups at Camp Hale.”

So the Uyghur organizations fighting Beijing are Chinese al-Qaeda, sounds like the Tibetan groups are too. Does that make the Dalai Lama into Chinese Osama bin-Laden? He’s been advocating peaceful resistance for decades, but initially after he fled Lhasa he did acquiesce to people who wanted to start an armed rebellion- including his brother, Thubten Norbu, who helped the CIA train guerillas. This year was quiet compared to last year, but there were a few bombings and incidents near the 50 year anniversary mark. Will we hear about Limbaugh wanting to throw them into Guantanamo next?

No, of course not. That’s because the only difference here is the only one that matters to Limbaugh and other conservative mouthpieces: the Uyghur captives are Muslim, as opposed to the Tibetan Buddhists. You know I don’t expect much from Limbaugh, but most of the time the people he’s ranting about are politicians who want to stay in office, or celebrities who have put themselves in the spotlight. To go off like this about a bunch of random people who were abducted by our military and then declared innocent years ago, and to use his platform to reinforce completely inaccurate misconceptions about people who suffered for years in a Kafkaesque nightmare care of Uncle Sam, is really low (if not exactly unexpected).

*resets “Days Without Talking About Limbaugh” timer to 0*

And the lucky recipient of 17 Uighur detainees is…

Palau! Far from being an onomatopoeic word describing the sound of another Bush-era mistake finally being rectified, Palau is actually a small Pacific island nation. Today they agreed to take the last of the Chinese Uighur detainees, people mistaken for Afghani or Pakistani jihadists and held in Guantanamo Bay for the last million years. Giving them to China would have resulted in surefire executions, so figuring out where to put them became an ongoing legal drama made all the more complicated by inexplicable Bush administration efforts to keep them imprisoned forever.

So they get to live out their days in Palau, which does sound better than being hunted by Chinese army divisions or enjoying torture sessions care of Uncle Sam. Reading the story made me wonder, though- how was Free Republic taking the news? A few months ago we saw that Freepers, confronted with a decision between supporting the authoritarian ~*Communist*~ Chinese government or the Muslim rebels trying to free their province, went on and on talking about how great Beijing is for torturing and killing Uighurs and wistfully pined for an America that would happily do the same. What do they think of the Uighurs new home? A great new thread gives us definitive answers.

Phrogphlyer wastes no time:

This could work. Palau could take the terrorists,
then take the money, then issue their own version
of terrorist hunting licenses.

I know I'd be up for a Pacific vacation if they did.

Just to summarize: Phrogphlyer sides with the communists, traditional enemy of all Freepers, in wanting to kill the Uighurs- even though everyone agrees that they aren’t terrorists. Everyone except for a bunch of morons on the internet, that is. Well surely other people must be a little brighter, Phrogphlyer is probably in the minority on this o-

deserted islands.......Low tide....pier pilings.....
crabs......barnacles.....sharks....industrial
strength cop tie wraps.......works for me....

Thanks usmcobra, I too salivate over the thought of the lawless, senseless killing of innocent people. Armsted Fragg must be worried about all the noise from jet planes keeping our Uighur friends up at night:

Hopefully, they’ll put them on one of the islands
without an airport.

Very considerate! Bustinchops presents some practical solutions:

Why not just let these guys walk out the front
gates of Gitmo and leave it up to them to
figure out where they;re going to go and how to
get there if they can find a place to take them.
Otherwise they can stay in Cube (I’m sure Castro
can find a use for them, even if it’s prison
labor in their wonderful facilities and system).
Spring ‘em with a handful of change for the pay
phone, a few bucks to eat off of, some toiletries,
a decent set of clothes and shoes and tell them
adios, then slam the door behind them. They managed
to behave in a way to get them thrown into Gitmo;
let them figure out their own ticket out, too.

Do you think the average Freeper realizes that ‘behaving in such a way as to get thrown into Gitmo’ can mean pretty much anything? Given that we can’t even figure out how most of them got there (and that reasons for ones we do know include things like ‘pissing off their neighbors with a noisy party’ and ‘being Muslim near a confused American soldier’) we can only conclude that ‘behaving in such a way as to get thrown into Gitmo’ can be pretty much any kind of behavior- I think Bustinchops qualifies. Mylife is worried about the children:

NOoooo!!! dont taint Micronesia with these pigs!

Heaven forbid a bunch of random Uighur Chinese end up in Micronesia, the place will be forever spoiled! Demshategod gives us one more:

That’s not fair. I need to behead some little kids
and shoot American soldiers so I can go live in Palua.
Oh well, I guess living in Oklahoma is better than
being a murdering Muslim.

There are no words.

20

The majority of my students wouldn't recognize this picture.

Just something to think about.

Train of Thought Field Trip: Free Republic Revisits China

Real life has been taking up a lot of my time lately- in lieu of writing the next entry in the Conservative Movie series we’ll go on a quick field trip instead. A few months ago we gasped in horror at the grim spectacle of freepers talking about China (racism and general ignorance ruled the day- who would have thought?!), and now it’s time to head over there once more. A quick keyword search for “China” revealed that these guys haven’t learned much since our first visit:

First comes this thread, about how a jihadist journal has urged the Uyghur people of Xinjiang province to make war on the Chinese government. That isn’t a particularly surprising call given that Xinjiang is already pretty restless, although nationalism has traditionally been a far bigger motivator than religion over there. Who will freepers side with, the ~*Communist*~ Party of China or the (Muslim) insurgents trying to reclaim their homeland? Vladimir998 solves this conundrum immediately:

I’m no fan of the Chi-coms, but I have to admit
that they know how to deal with jihadists.
They kill them.

Are you fighting against an occupying power that persecutes you constantly and plans to use the magical power of demographics to erase your home forever? If so congratulations, you deserve death! I get the feeling HiTech RedNeck wishes we could be more like the Chinese government:

Sometimes the Chinese also torture them.

All of our problems would melt away if we could just torture like the Chinese do. Markos33 continues this wistful train of thought:

The ChiComs won’t play around with the towel
heads... they’ll send them to meet their virgins.

UGH WHY CAN’T WE JUST DITCH HUMAN RIGHTS AND KILL ANYONE WHO OPPOSES US? Mathurine somehow gets every single fact backwards:

Why would anyone do that to the lovable and
engaging mohammedan terrorists? All they want to
do is live peacefully with the people they
subjugate, whilst beheading your occasional
backslider.

Just to be clear, this guy writes in support of an authoritarian government which has subjugated an unwilling population and kills them for any reason or no reason whatsoever- and this is acceptable to him because they’re Muslim. Not content with swooning over the deaths of Muslims in just one thread, this one describes the execution of two Uyghur men found guilty of killing policemen last summer. Presumably freepers are aware that even “kangaroo court” is far too kind a term to use on Chinese courts, and the article also mentions that the government has sentenced two Tibetans to death for the riots last year. Will sham trials and dead Tibetans change the minds of our freeping friends? AM by beef doesn’t think so:

You have to give them credit for administering
swift justice, something we only give lip service
to. I also like their method. Fast, practical, no nonsense.

Ahahaha “justice,” that’s great. Niuhuru agrees:

I admire it too. Say what you will, their
government treats criminal filth like criminals.

Evidence, fair trial, jury of peers? All these things do is get in the way of summarily executing people you don’t like- a method which freepers apparently find preferable. Finally we visit this thread, where the news that China has developed an anti-aircraft carrier missile riles up the (admittedly easily-riled) posting populace. Wuli really ought to change his handle, sounds like he might be a you-know-what:

Great news, particularly coming on the day that
Gates, the defense secretary, is about to tell
us all the weapons systems programs he wants to
end or cut back, in line with the blind belief
that “asymmetric”wars like Afghanistan are all we
need worry about.

Yeah, the news that the Chinese have developed a carrier-killing missile means we should spend more money on weapons to fight symmetrical wars- like aircraft, and maybe some carriers to carry them with! Maybe the Chinese will just eventually get sick of sinking them and surrender. SunkenCiv has an easy, practical solution:

Dropping an asteroid on ‘em would pretty much
fix all these problems. Smaller ‘roids would
fix each of the 56 or 57 Muzzie states.

To be serious for a moment: people like SunkenCiv are the reason why we (as a species) can’t have nice things. WYKayaker comes out of left field at the last minute to secure the Field Trip Award For Outstanding Achievements In The Field Of Incoherent Posting, an award I’ll be giving out once per update if any posts have sufficient merit:

I don't fear the enemy in my sights! It's the
poseur in the White House, with all the ACORN
goons and Socialists Washington Pols, who are
most to be feared.
China will be just as strong next year.
I doubt we will be...

A thread over there really isn’t complete until someone finds an ACORN connection. I’m just disappointed that they didn’t manage to explicitly link the anti-carrier missile with ACORN- the existence of these two completely unrelated things can’t be a coincidence!

Will Free Republic ever throw off the shackles of racism and rampant stupidity? Maybe we’ll find out next time.