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Parallel universe - a traveller's view of China's repression of Tibet

By Lisa Menning - posted Thursday, 10 April 2008


After two days in a dusty high-altitude village about 100km from Lhasa, trapped between military and police checkpoints in lock-down after the riots of March 14, our passage is approved and we begin the tense return journey to the Tibetan capital. From there, we are to be evacuated at the request of the Chinese authorities - communicated to us via contacts in Lhasa - aboard a commercial flight to Chengdu in the Sichuan Province of southwest China.

Discussions have also taken place with the Australian embassy in Beijing to facilitate departure. The mood in the 4WD is strained: our Tibetan driver and translator are particularly worried for family and friends, and fearful of what else may happen in the coming days.

We travel among large military convoys also heading to Lhasa, and are questioned and searched at several military checkpoints. About 20km outside of Lhasa, we encounter a scene not unlike those found in old war movies, passing a small village with many burnt-out buildings, overturned blackened cars, and glass still strewn across the road. Armoured personnel carriers stand guard at either end of the village, but otherwise there are no signs of life. We doubt we will be allowed to re-enter Lhasa.

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Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities are desperately trying to convey to the outside world an impression of normalcy, suppressing as much news as possible about the crackdown. Unlike their response to anti-Chinese unrest of 1989, they have decided this time not to declare martial law, nor have they announced a curfew. It is evident, however, that one is in force.

We are in contact with friends in Lhasa who inform us that daily life is being controlled by troops. No-one can move freely from their compounds or homes, all shops are closed, and there are concerns for dwindling supplies of food and water. Large numbers of paramilitary police patrol the streets.

Most foreign residents appear to have left. Internet and mobile phone communications have been disrupted, and the most repressive measures in 20 years are in force. There is word that foreign journalists are barred from entering. Continuing our journey, we arrive at one of the main road entry-points to Lhasa and are directed to drive around the outskirts towards the airport.

We had just received word from our contacts in Lhasa that a diplomatic letter has been obtained from the Public Security Bureau, the Chinese government office that deals with policing, social order, immigration and travel affairs of foreigners. With this letter, our original flights can be rescheduled for the following day, and we may pass military checkpoints en route to the airport without the interrogating questions.

Obtaining information about the evacuation process has been very complicated and often third hand. While in Tibet as an independent traveler, I had also been affiliated as a volunteer to a healthcare non-governmental organisation who provided invaluable assistance and support with the necessary arrangements for departure. They maintain complete neutrality in their work to prevent compromise of their activities.

The night is spent at the Lhasa airport hotel, where we meet other foreigners and exchange tales of our experiences. Generally there is a shared sense of shock and fear, combined with mixed emotions of relief and sadness to be leaving. I cannot bear to think of the kind, generous, hospitable locals that I had met during my stay, but am now leaving to an uncertain future … Even today, the overall picture of what happened during those few violent days, and is possibly still happening now, remains blurred, mainly due to ongoing information and travel restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. This is hardly new: the Chinese have long relied on oppressive methods such as political manipulation, patriotic education, repression by secret police and military force.

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The unrest on March 14 began when days of peaceful, monk-led protests in Lhasa (rumour had it that many monks participating in these initial protests had been beaten, arrested and imprisoned) spiralled into a citywide riot that the government says led to the deaths of 18 civilians. They also claimed the protest was masterminded by the Dalai Lama, Tibet's 72-year old spiritual leader who remains in exile in Dharamsala, India. The Dalai Lama, who fled China in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese Communist rule, denies he is behind the unrest, which his representatives and Western media estimate has claimed some 140 lives.

"The Tibet nation is facing serious danger. Whether China's government admits or not, there is a problem," he told reporters. He accused Beijing of a "rule of terror" and called for an international investigation into whether cultural genocide was taking place in his homeland. The Dalai Lama long ago ceased demanding independence for his people: today his demands do not go much further than advocacy of cultural autonomy (designed to preserve indigenous Tibetan cultural, political, linguistic and religious systems), and he has refused to call for a boycott of the Olympics.

The Chinese Communists, meanwhile, continue to denounce him. Days after the recent riots, the Beijing-appointed Communist Party chief in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, described the Tibetan spiritual leader as "a wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face, but the heart of a beast". On the same occasion, he told officials that "we are now engaged in a fierce blood-and-fire battle with the Dalai clique, a life and death battle between us and the enemy".

The subsequent media coverage of the demonstrations and riots in Tibet and its fallout has sparked a significant backlash in China and abroad. Western media have portrayed protests as part of a Tibetan struggle for greater autonomy; after decades of waiting, many Tibetans are frustrated, resentful, and see little sign of progress. Chinese television portrays them as an angry violent mob. Chinese state media and bloggers - bloggers who are theoretically seen to be independent - continue to release increasingly sharp diatribes against Western media bias, triggered by general perception that coverage of the riots was skewed by anti-China forces in the West. Some of the more prominent sites include: China.Org.CN, Shanghai Daily, China View, EastSouthWestNorth.

There is also a whole web site dedicated to attacking CNN for its sloppy journalism: www.anti-cnn.com. The attacks against CNN reportedly started after Chinese Internet-users discovered that CNN.com had cropped out from the original AFP/Getty photo a group of Tibetan rioters who appear to be beating someone up.

Western media executives have admitted that factual errors were made in their reporting on Tibet: “We are extremely sorry,” said a spokesman for N-TV, a German news television channel. Separately, a web site owned by another German channel, RTL, admitted that the caption of one still photograph taken in Nepal had been erroneous. RTL's website, RTLaktuell.de, said, “It's true that amid our detailed reporting on the Tibet conflict, there was one case where a picture was displayed in the wrong context. We erroneously created the impression that the scene was of the unrest in Tibet and showed Chinese security forces.”

On the other hand, some Western media outlets have been said to complain about the news blackout imposed by the Chinese government, which they claim has made such errors almost inevitable. Michael Bristow from the BBC argued at the time that: “The criticism appears part of a wider campaign by the Chinese government to make sure its version of events in Tibet and elsewhere is the dominant one.”

As one astute blogger has mentioned, the East-West miscommunication madness is here to stay - and likely to get worse - between now and the Olympics:

Watching the build up to the Olympics has been, for me, like watching the world’s biggest, slowest traffic accident … the problem is that there are two completely separate parallel worlds on these issues: the Chinese one, and the rest of us. Westerners have been exposed to rhetoric and information about Tibetan discontent … Meanwhile, Chinese mainlanders by and large have no knowledge of these events or issues. While for the rest of the world the Olympics will be largely a referendum on China’s ability to deal with what everyone else has talked about for years, for Chinese citizens it will be about China winning a beauty pageant of sorts.

Having travelled in Tibet in the lead-up to the riots of March 14, one can plainly see that Lhasa belongs to an older world, but one in which clear divisions exist. For example, some of the urban development is welcome, as it brings jobs, and tourism continues to bring income. But a result is that much of the traditional and religious atmosphere of Lhasa has almost disappeared. It is difficult to unravel the anomalies in information and perceptions, as not even the Tibetans seem to agree on clear interpretations.

Certainly, one obvious and dark irony seems evident: as the Chinese authorities try to market Tibet as a tourist destination based largely on people’s interest in traditional Tibetan Buddhism, they simultaneously go to extraordinary lengths to control and undermine Tibetan religious belief and culture.

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About the Author

Lisa Menning is an Australian recently returned from Tibet.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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