Chinese Frogs Leap Into Tibet: Populace Flees the Hopping Hans!

China is the biggest Big Brother on the planet, no doubt about it.  Below are two views about development in Tibet and who will benefit. These reports try to walk the tightrope between reporting as the politburo wants it, and reporting facts for the real world.  First, the NY Times interpretation of this special new strategy:

China Seeks Stability in Tibet via Development
By EDWARD WONG Published: January 23, 2010
BEIJING — China’s top leaders laid out a strategy last week for bringing “leapfrog development and lasting stability” to the Tibetan regions, the state news agency reported late Friday.
President Hu Jintao and other leaders at a Tibet planning conference decided that “more efforts must be made to greatly improve living standards of the people in Tibet, as well as ethnic unity and stability,” the Xinhua news agency reported.
President Hu Jintao and other leaders at a Tibet planning conference decided that “more efforts must be made to greatly improve living standards of the people in Tibet, as well as ethnic unity and stability,” the Xinhua news agency reported.
The emphasis on economic development indicates that Chinese leaders still see the solution to the problem of Tibet as one of supplying creature comforts. If the region can develop fast enough, the reasoning goes, then Tibetans will buy into Chinese rule[...] [Anybody know anything about Tibetan Buddhism?  Like the concept of non-attachment?  Will somebody please let Hu Jintao know you can't FORCE people to be materialistic when their heritage views material success as illusion?]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/world/asia/24china.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Now here's the report as presented by the Xinhua News Agency.  Watch the painful effort to put a smiley face on everything:

China to achieve leapfrog development, lasting stability in Tibet
Editor: Mu Xuequan
BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- China has made plans to achieve leapfrog development and lasting stability in Tibet Autonomous Region in a bid to ensure China's development as a whole, according to a high-level meeting held here this week.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders attending the fifth meeting on the work of Tibet, from Jan. 18 to 20, agreed that more efforts must be made to greatly improve living standards of the people in Tibet, as well as ethnic unity and stability.
[…]  During the meeting, senior leaders also meted out plans to develop Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's policies towards Tibet in the new era were totally correct, suiting to national condition, Tibet's actual conditions and the fundamental interests of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet. [sic]  [I’m thinking this is a sneaky way of saying, “Yeah, this is great but only if the Tibetans want your so-called stability“.]
[…]  While vowing to take substantial measures to ensure "normal order of Tibetan Buddhism", Hu said the awareness of being part of the Chinese nation and being law-abiding citizens [my bold] must be constantly enhanced among cadre and the masses in Tibet.  [We all know that being “law-abiding citizens” can mean something different to people under the boot of an oppressive regime, no matter how many times they use the word “people” in their official titles & proclamations.]
[…]  He stressed Tibet's significance in ensuring China's national security, and efforts in building the region into a strategic reserve of natural resources, an agricultural production base, a land with unique culture and a world-class tourism destination.
[…]  Speaking of education, he said free education would be offered for all the children of farmers and herdsmen in primary schools and junior and senior high schools.  [Will Tibetan children now be educated in the Tibetan language or Mandarin?  I think I know the answer!]
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/world/asia/24china.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

I'm not just preoccupied with a free Tibet because it is a just cause or because I am a Buddhist.  Our economy has essentially collapsed and China owns us.  It's just a matter of time before the Han government insinuates itself into all aspects of American life, free speech and all.  But if you think the powers that be are going to leave the USA alone, letting us live our own lives the way we choose, I have a bridge to sell you.

Dhondup Wangchen: 6 Years for Reporting Life

Radio Free Asia reports that Tibetan documentary film maker Dhondup Wangchen has been sentenced to six years imprisonment (not counting the one he's already spent awaiting trial) for the crime of "splitting the motherland."  That's right, folks, China is such a fragile nation that it's handlers can't cope with being exposed in a documentary.  It might make the ruling class look bad.  Really.

China Jails Tibetan Filmmaker
2010-01-06
HONG KONG—Authorities in the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai have handed a six-year jail sentence to a Tibetan filmmaker who returned from exile to make a documentary about his homeland, Tibetan sources say.
The Xining Intermediate People's Court [my bold] handed the sentence to Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of the documentary “Leaving Fear Behind,” in a secret trial that found him guilty of “splitting the motherland,” the sources said.“Dhondup Wangchen, the producer of ‘Leaving Fear Behind,’ was sentenced six years to prison,” a Tibetan from the Amdo region identified as Thardrub said.
“We were checking around about it...later, we were able to confirm that he was sentenced secretly [my bold] by Xining Intermediate People's Court in Qinghai on Dec. 28, 2009.”
Dhondup Wangchen’s relatives were given no information about his trial or sentencing, he added.
“They were not informed about the sentencing,” Thardrub said. “The relatives argue that he is innocent and he did not commit any crime...They are planning to appeal his sentence in the higher courts.”
Jamyang Tsultrim, a relative of Dhondup Wangchen now living in Switzerland, said the sentencing of Dhondup Wangchen was a clear indication of how Tibetans were deprived of freedom of expression in China.
“His relatives made arrangements for a lawyer to represent him, but the lawyers were not allowed to represent him,” Jamyang Tsultrim said.
“He was also suffering from liver problems and was denied any kind of medical treatment,” he added.
[...]  Dhondup Wangchen’s film, “Leaving Fear Behind” (www.leavingfearbehind.com), is a 25-minute documentary including interviews with Tibetans in the Amdo region expressing their views on Tibet’s exiled leader the Dalai Lama, the Beijing Olympics, and Chinese laws.
The authorities also detained Jigme Gyatso, a monk from the Kham region, at the same time, but released him on Oct. 15. He later said he was tortured in detention.
“Leaving Fear Behind” was produced outside China after Dhondup Wangchen managed to send footage out of Tibet before the authorities caught up with him.
It was shown to foreign journalists in Beijing during the Olympic Games.[...]
Original reporting by RFA’s Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/filmmaker-01062010111100.html

Imagine living in a country where not only is it a crime to document real things happening in real places, but a so-called "people's court" can keep you imprisoned, run a secret trial with a secret decision, and disappear you for SIX YEARS!  Your family and friends can't file an appeal because they haven't been notified of anything--not the alleged "crimes" and certainly not the supposed "justice" of having to live in a Chinese prison for almost a decade.
The day will come when the Chinese people and all the minority ethnic groups within China will recognize their enslavement to this nebulous government of the people.  They  will rise up and say, "Whose justice are you talking about?"  Let's hope true justice comes about through peaceful means.  It can happen if each and every individual bureaucrat wakes up to the crimes they commit in the name of "The People."  It will grow as they decide to stand up for justice, not Just Us.

Learn more from the web site for Leaving Fear Behind:  http://www.leavingfearbehind.com/
The NY Times covered this story in October, with more personal info about Dhondup Wangchen:
China Is Trying a Tibetan Filmmaker for Subversion
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: October 30, 2009
CHONGQING, China — A self-taught filmmaker who spent five months interviewing Tibetans about their hopes and frustrations living under Chinese rule is facing charges of state subversion after the footage was smuggled abroad and distributed on the Internet and at film festivals around the world.
The filmmaker, Dhondup Wangchen, who has been detained since March 2008, just weeks after deadly rioting broke out in Tibet, managed to sneak a letter out of jail last month saying that his trial had begun.
“There is no good news I can share with you,” he wrote in the letter, which was provided by a cousin in Switzerland. “It is unclear what the sentence will be.”
[...]  Until now, the case of Mr. Wangchen, 35, has received little attention abroad. Uneducated and plainspoken, he was an itinerant businessman until October 2007, when he bought a small video camera and began traveling the Tibetan plateau interviewing monks, yak herders and students about their lives.
Tsetring Gyaljong, a cousin who helped him make the documentary, said that Mr. Wangchen’s political awareness was sharpened nearly a decade ago, when he witnessed a demonstration in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, that was quickly broken up by public security officers.
“He saw how it was dissolved in two or three minutes and how everyone was taken away,” said Mr. Gyaljong, speaking from Switzerland, where he has lived in exile since escaping from Tibet. “There were no pictures, no testimonies, and he felt like the world should know that Tibetans, despite the Chinese portrayals, are not a happy people.”
[...]  In an interview from Dharamsala, where she works as a baker, Mr. Wangchen’s wife, Lhamo Tso, said she feared she might not see him again for many, many years.
“As a wife, I’m very sad to be without the person I love so much,” she said. “But if I can separate out that sadness, I feel proud because he made a courageous decision to give a voice to people who don’t have one.” [...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/world/asia/31tibet.html?_r=2

Long live the Tibetan people, wherever they are!

China Rapes Tibet's Natural Resources, Canada Assists

People wonder why China is so adament in refusing any cooperation with Tibet. There are many reasons, including the very basic human mental disorder called greed. As the US plunders Iraq for oil, Canada hopes to gain favor with China with business deals which will destroy Tibet's ecology. Canadian friends, please spread the word!

Continental Minerals awaiting China's OK on Tibet mine

Reuters, 13/11/08

By Lucy Hornby

BEIJING, Continental Minerals (Profile) is awaiting central government approval for a planned $520 million copper and gold mine in Tibet, which will utilize a new railway to ship ores to a smelter in inland China.

Financing from underwriters Standard Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, or ICBC, is still in the works despite a sharp global decrease in lending due to the financial crisis, said chief executive David Copeland.

The company has submitted final paperwork, including a reclamation plan, for the complex Xietongmen mine. The mine requires a series of tailing dams and water diversion engineering to prevent mining waste from contaminating the Yaluzangbu River, [my bold] in arid western Tibet, said Dickson Hall, vice president of business development.

"This project has all the elements. It will go ahead," Hall said on the sidelines of the China Mining conference.

Xietongmen is one of several new mining projects in Tibet made possible by the railroad to Lhasa, which began operations in July 2006. It will rely on a spur under construction to the town of Shigatze, due to be completed in 2010.

The railroad, denounced by pro-Tibetan activists as a means for Han Chinese migrants to flood into Tibet, has enabled the large-scale mining projects that China needs to feed its rapid economic growth.

"There's a lot of interest in Tibet from miners.[my bold] It's one of the few virgin territories left in China," said Xu Weiqin, who runs a clearing house for buying and selling mining stakes in Lhasa.

Chinese aluminium and copper giant Aluminum Corp of China, or Chinalco, in September set up a unit to explore in Tibet.

It joined fellow Chinese miners Western Mining Co (Profile) and Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd (Profile), which plan to begin production this month from Southeastern Tibet's Yulong copper deposit, which is the largest in China.

Ore from the Xietongmen mine will be transported thousands of miles to be processed by smelters owned by state-owned nickel and copper producer Jinchuan Group, which bought a 14 percent equity stake in Continental last year.

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=23209&article=Continental+Minerals+awaiting+China%27s+OK+on+Tibet+mine

And the Oil Contract Goes to…China!

Here is a headline which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
China agrees $3bn Iraq oil deal
Iraq and China have agreed the terms of a $3 billion oil service contract, Iraq's oil minister says, announcing the first major oil contract with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The deal means China has taken the first opening since the US-led invasion for work on the world's third-largest reserves.
Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's oil minister, warned that time was running out for big Western oil firms, which have jostled for years for Iraqi contracts, to seal even the short-term deals that were expected to mark their return to the country.
Iraq and China's state-oil firm CNPC agreed the renegotiated terms of an old deal signed in 1997 to pump oil from the Adhab oilfield, Shahristani said.
CNPC is Asia's biggest oil and gas company.
"Finally we have reached an agreement," Shahristani said after clinching the deal.
Tough bargains
Iraq has toughened the terms, changing the contract to a set-fee service deal from the oil production sharing agreement signed under Saddam.
Iraq needs billions of dollars of investment in its energy sector after years of war and sanctions.
But with high oil prices and strong competition for access to some of the world's cheapest oil to produce, Iraq has been negotiating from a position of strength.
Under the revised contract, Adhab will produce 110,000 barrels per day (bpd), up from the previous target of 90,000 bpd, Shahristani said.
First output would come in three years, and the field should pump for 20 years, he said.
CNPC would own 75 per cent of a joint venture to be set up for the contract, while Iraq's Northern Oil Company would own 25 per cent, he added. The value of the contract would be reviewed every quarter, he said.
The deal was pending the final seal from both countries' governments.
Hydroelectric deal
China's state hydroelectricity firm also signed a deal to build a new hydroelectric power station in Tajikistan on Wednesday worth up to $300 million officials said.
"The Chinese company undertakes to carry out the design and construction of the Nurobod" power station in eastern Tajikistan, read a memorandum of understanding signed by Sinohydro and the Tajik government.
The deal was signed on the sidelines of a visit by Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, aimed at bolstering economic ties between the two neighbours.
The trade turnover between China and Tajikistan amounted to $283 million last year.
China is already a major player in Tajikistan's road infrastructure, telecoms and electricity sectors.
Iraqi demands
Iraq wanted six contracts to boost oil output by 100,000 bpd each to be signed in June and implemented within a year.
Baghdad does not want to extend the end-date for the contracts as it plans to sign long-term deals for the same fields by mid-2009.
"We only have about 10 months left," he said. "It seems more and more unlikely that these technical service contracts can be implemented now in such a short remaining time."
The firms that have been negotiating deals are Royal Dutch Shell; Shell in partnership with BHP Billiton; Exxon Mobil; Chevron with Total.
A smaller consortium of Anadarko, Vitol and Dome had negotiated for another deal but Anadarko walked away this month.
Iraq still aimed to boost output by 500,000 bpd by the mid-2009, Shahristani said.
Iraq pumped around 2.4 million bpd in July, according to a Reuters survey.
A long-delayed draft oil law to set the framework for foreign investment was unlikely to be approved in parliament in the near-future, Shahristani said.
"Different parliamentary blocs still have serious differences about the law," he said. "I have not heard anything new from the parliament to make me expect that the law will be passed any time soon."
But Iraq was going ahead with new deals anyway under existing legislation, he said.
Disputes with the regional government in Kurdistan have hobbled the progress of the law.
There had been no progress in resolving differences between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, Shahristani said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2008/08/200882813538226440.html

US, Other Embassys Roll Over for China

How more obvious can it get? Pretend it's the not too distant future, like ten (10) years from now. Venezuela is hosting the Olympics and ten (10), TEN American citizens are suddenly placed in detention for ten (10), TEN days (whew, at least that's a relief! What if they're not honest about releasing them? In the meantime, these are some of the heroes from today's Tibetan Freedom Fighters, courtesy of Students for Free Tibet and Free Tibet 2008.

Beijing: Tibetan Flag

Rangzen Fist Salute

Aug. 21, 2008

A plain clothed security official, bottom right, grabs a Tibetan flag from three pro-Tibet activists as they gesture in protest opposite the National Stadium, where the Olympic athletics competition had just finished, Beijing, early Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. Swarms of plainclothes police took away four foreign activists protesting Chinese rule over Tibet - the latest in a series of such demonstrations during the Olympics. (AP Photo)
August 22nd Update: Four Sentenced to Ten Days ‘Administrative Detention’ Breaking news– the embassies of the four Tibet activists arrested early on August 21 have told family members that they have been sentenced to 10 days “administrative detention” by Chinese police. Under Chinese law, Chinese police can subject people to the punishment of administrative detention without a trial or court hearing This follows on yesterday’s sentencing of six other Tibet supporters in Beijing to the same punishment. Little else is known at this time but Students for a Free Tibet will fight this however we can and we will post additional information as we learn more.
What You Can Do To Help
1) Create your own videos and images in support of Florian, Jeremy, John and Mandie and submit them to: http://freetibet2008.tv/submit/. We will air them on the Windhorse report and promote them on our site.
2) Demand their release today by calling the Chinese foreign ministry: +86-10-65961114
3) Send emails and letters of support to: ft08tv@studentsforafreetibet.org

4) Download the Rangzen Fist 4 badge image and post it on your blog or profile.
5) Watch and share Florian Norbu Gyanatshang’s personal video statement

6) Read and forward Lhadon’s Blog Post on this amazing action.
At approximately 12:05 am Beijing time, Florian Norbu Gyanatshang, a Tibetan-German man and American Tibet supporters, Jeremy Wells and John Watterberg were detained by Beijing authorities for protesting near the Bird’s Nest stadium. The three had been unde r intense surveillance by up to 50 plainclothes police.
They called out “Free Tibet” and Florian Norbu unfurled the Tibetan flag. They raised their fists in a salute in the spirit of defiance and resistance displayed by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Last night’s protest took place as spectators were leaving the Bird’s Nest where the men’s 200 metre final had been held just hours before. It was on the medal podium for this same event 40 years ago that Smith and Carlos stage d their courageous protest.
A fourth Tibet activist, Mandie McKeown from Britain, who observed the protest was also detained. The four were taken away in a police vehicle and their whereabouts are unknown. Two photographers from the Associated Press who were at the scene were also briefly detained.
http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/tibetanflag/

Free the Bejing 6! Others Still Missing

Useless US bureaucrats wring their hands while who knows what is happening to our citizens!
US urges free speech after China detains
six foreigners
22 hours ago
BEIJING (AFP) — The United States called on China Thursday to allow peaceful protests, after Beijing police detained six foreigners amid a wave of demonstrations by pro-Tibet activists during the Olympics.
"We are concerned by recent reports that the Chinese have detained protesters," the embassy said in a statement.
"We call on China to respect the fundamental and universally recognised right of all persons to peacefully express their views, including Chinese citizens, and we urge the Chinese to put their best face forward during these Olympic Games."
The US statement came shortly after Beijing police said it had handed out 10-day detention terms to six foreigners believed by an overseas activist group to be pro-Tibet campaigners involved in Olympic protests this week.
In a brief faxed statement, the city police information department said "Thomas" and five other foreigners had been apprehended on Tuesday for "upsetting public order", without identifying the six people any further.
"Beijing police decided to give Thomas and the five others 10 days of administrative detention," the faxed statement said.
Administrative detention is a punishment that can be meted out by Chinese police without having to go through the courts.
A US embassy spokeswoman declined to comment on the report of the detention of the six and emphasised the statement was not in direct response to those cases.
But Students For a Free Tibet said it assumed the six were American pro-Tibet activists who police detained in Beijing on Tuesday.
"These young men were in Beijing to amplify Tibetan voices calling for freedom and human rights and the right of all people to freedom of expression," Students For a Free Tibet executive director Lhadon Tethong said.
"They are no more guilty of a crime than Tibetans or Chinese who speak out for justice.
"For the Chinese authorities to sentence them at all shows the government's paranoia and intolerance of even the most peaceful challenges to its control."
Students For a Free Tibet has orchestrated a series of protests in Beijing to coincide with the Olympics in an effort to highlight what it says is China's repressive 57-year rule of Tibet.
In comments published by French newspaper Le Monde on Thursday, exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said more than 400 people had been killed since Chinese security forces cracked down on unrest in Tibet in March.
At least eight pro-Tibet protests have taken place in Beijing since early August to coincide with the Olympics, which end on Sunday.
Most of the previous protesters were deported from the country after being held by police for a short time, with a total of 10 foreign activists currently still believed in police custody.
Aside from the six Americans picked up on Tuesday, two other Americans, a Tibetan-German and a Briton have been missing since trying to stage a protest near the Olympic venues just after midnight on Thursday.
Among the six detained on Tuesday was James Powderly, an American artist who planned to project a giant laser beam onto a Beijing building with a message in support of a free Tibet.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQq9z1M3x4oIQlFKsfPaHGx2qGvg

SFT’s Statement on the Sentencing
These individuals were in Beijing to amplify Tibetan voices calling for freedom and human rights and the right of all people to freedom of expression. They are no more guilty of a crime than Tibetans or Chinese who speak out for justice and for the Chinese authorities to sentence them at all shows the government’s paranoia and intolerance of even the most peaceful challenges to its control. (continues below…)
SFT WILL FIGHT THIS UNTIL THEY ARE HOME - MORE HERE SOON ON WHAT YOU CAN DO: Remember why they went, and keep in mind - Americans get 10 days jail, Chinese grannies get one year forced labor, and Tibetans get shot.

http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/citizenjournalists/update0821/

The People's Heroes Demand The Right to Protest

When people ask why I’m so passionate about Tibet, I feel confused by the question. I don’t understand why the Tibetan struggle isn’t apparent to all liberty loving people. Their struggle is exactly the same as the desire for Sicilians to remain Sicilian in nature and practice. Sicilians are (so far) lucky to not be persecuted for practicing cultural activities or demeaned (at least in public and with government support) for cuisine, clothes, live styles, etc. Unfortunately for their cousins the Roma, Northern League fascists have signaled them out as scapegoats for all that’s wrong with Italy today. But be sure that the heat can come down on any other group that does not see exactly the same world as il imperatore Napolesconi. But in Tibet today people are afraid to display their ethnic pride. It is also not the case for the 56 “recognized” ethnic minorities that make up part of the Han dynasty, such as the Zhuang, Uyghurs, Mongols, Taiwanese, etc.
But I digress…
Two women in China are sentenced to one year at a labor camp because they asked, A S K E D permission to publicly protest the loss of their homes due to the Olympics! Are you shocked? Wait, there’s more … THEY’RE IN THEIR SEVENTIES AND ONE IS LEGALLY BLIND! Tell me more about how fabulous China is, please!
Chinese Woman, 79 with Disabilities, Sentenced to Labor Camp
As we draw nearer to the close of the Summer Olympics and the wall-to-wall coverage of the various events, stories of the toll these games have taken on the Chinese people continue to leak out, despite incredible efforts by the government of that nation to hide the reality of life in China. Now we read of two women in their late 70's and how they have been sentenced to a year in a labor camp as part of what the chinese government refers to as a re-education program. While you pause and wonder what threat two little old ladies could pose to China, know also that one of them is blind and has other disabilities.
Perhaps you caught the NBC Nightly News Report earlier this week that examined the process that China established through which citizens could petition for the right to protest at three specially appointed locations during the Olympics. It turns out that of 77 requests filed by citizens that none of them were granted. [my bold] Further, it appears that some who have made these requests have been arrested or, as in this case, sentenced to re-education programs which appear to be nothing more than a quick and convenient way to punish people without allowing the individuals any rights or chance to defend themselves.
Wu Dianyuan, 79, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77, [right on, sisters!] were notified Sunday that they were to serve a yearlong term of re-education through labour, said Wang’s son, Li Xuehui. Officials did not specify a reason and still had not acted on the order, he said.
Instead, the pair were under the observation of a neighbourhood watch group and it was unclear if they would be sent to prison, he said.
The order followed the pair’s repeated attempts to apply for permission to protest their forced eviction from their homes. China agreed to allow demonstrations in three designated areas during the games, which end Sunday. So far, there have been no protests in any of the official areas.
The re-education system, in place since 1957, allows police to sidestep the need for a criminal trial or a formal charge and send people to prison for up to four years to perform penal labour.
Beijing has pointed to the special zones — public parks far away from Olympics venues — to defend its promise to improve human rights in China that was crucial to its bid to host the games.
Obviously China never had intentions of allowing citizens or foreigners for that matter any right to voice or exhibit opposition to their way of rule, especially during the Olympic games. Unfortunately, while the world is being treated to one of the finest exhibitions of sport and athletics ever to have taken place at the summer games, many of the people of China have been moved from their homes, lost their jobs and been displaced so that we don't see their reality.
I don't expect that NBC will revisit this story and report to the average American that people wanted to protest but have been sentenced to hard labor and prison for daring to consider the possibility. The average person will only remember Michael Phelps and is incredible gold metal performances. However, at least for the next year and perhaps longer, a blind chinese woman will pay for wishing for the right to express her views while the world moves on to other issues.

http://www.disabilitynation.net/blog/chinese-woman-79-disabilities-sentenced-labor-camp

NY Times Acknowledges Freedom is Squelched in China

Now you might think a blog called DisabilityNation would be biased toward two old ladies who are blind and need a cane. So ok, for a less, er, subjective report, the New York Times makes this story sound almost cute and normal. Note the lack of the words "freedom, liberty, dissent." Note the presence of the words "demonstrate, protest, disturbing public order". Maybe the NY Times doesn't see things so differently?
Too Old and Frail to Re-educate? Not in China
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: August 20, 2008
BEIJING — In the annals of people who have struggled against Communist Party rule, Wu Dianyuan and Wang Xiuying are unlikely to merit even a footnote.
The two women, both in their late 70s, have never spoken out against China’s authoritarian government. Both walk with the help of a cane, and Ms. Wang is blind in one eye. Their grievance, receiving insufficient compensation when their homes were seized for redevelopment, [are you listening, Lower East Side?] is perhaps the most common complaint among Chinese displaced during the country’s long streak of fast economic growth.
But the Beijing police still sentenced the two women to an extrajudicial term of “re-education through labor” this week for applying [my bold] to hold a legal protest in a designated area in Beijing, where officials promised that Chinese could hold demonstrations during the Olympic Games.
They became the most recent examples of people punished for submitting applications to protest. A few would-be demonstrators have simply disappeared, [my bold] [yikes!] at least for the duration of the Games, squelching already diminished hopes that the influx of foreigners and the prestige of holding the Games would push China’s leaders to relax their tight grip on political expression.
“Can you imagine two old ladies in their 70s being re-educated through labor?” asked Li Xuehui, Ms. Wu’s son, who said the police told the two women that their sentence might remain in suspension if they stayed at home and stopped asking for permission to protest.
“I feel very sad and angry because we’re only asking for the basic right of living and it’s been six years, but nobody will do anything to help,” Mr. Li said.
[...] When the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to Beijing in 2001, ignoring critics who said China should not be rewarded for repression, its president, Jacques Rogge, offered assurances that the Games would invariably spur China toward greater openness.
But prospects dimmed even before the opening ceremony, when overseas journalists arrived to discover that China’s promise to provide uncensored Internet access [my bold] was riddled with caveats. The ensuing uproar did persuade the government to unblock some politically sensitive Web sites, but many others, including those that discuss Tibet and the banned spiritual group Falun Gong, remain inaccessible at the Olympic press center.
[...] “In order to ensure smooth traffic flow, a nice environment and good social order, we will invite these participants to hold their demonstrations in designated places,” Liu Shaowu, the security director for Beijing’s Olympic organizing committee, said at a news conference. He described the creation of three so-called protest zones and suggested that a simple application process would provide Chinese citizens an avenue for free expression, a right that has long been enshrined in China’s Constitution but in reality is rarely granted.
But with four days left before the closing ceremony, the authorities acknowledge that they have yet to allow a single protest. They claim that most of the people who filed applications had their grievances addressed, obviating the need for a public expression of discontent.
Chinese activists say they are not surprised that the promise proved illusory. Li Fangping, a lawyer who has been arrested and beaten for his dogged representation of rights advocates, said there was no way the government would allow protesters to expose some of China’s most vexing problems, among them systemic corruption, environmental degradation and the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of residents for projects related to the Olympics.
“For Chinese petitioners, if their protest applications were approved, it would lead to a chain reaction of others seeking to voice their problems as well,” Mr. Li said.
During the past two decades, China has embraced a market economy [my bold] and shed some of the more onerous restrictions that dictated where people could live, whom they could marry and whether they could leave the country. But with political dissent and religious freedom, the government has been unrelenting.
[...] In recent months, the pressure has only intensified: scores of rights lawyers and political dissenters have been detained, and even the armies of migrant workers who built the Olympic stadiums have been encouraged to leave town, lest their disheveled appearances detract from the image of a clean, modern nation. [my bold] [oh, please, I can’t S T A N D it!]
“When you have guests coming over for dinner, you clean up the house and tell the children not to argue,” Mr. Bell said.
While the demands of Ms. Wu, 79, and Ms. Wang, 77, the protest applicants, might be seen as harmless, they threatened to expose the systemic problems that bedevil the lives of millions of Chinese. Like many disenchanted citizens, the two women, former neighbors, were seeking to draw attention to a government-backed real estate deal that promised to give them apartments in the new development that replaced their homes not far from Tiananmen Square. Six years later, [9/11 First Responder Alert!] they are living in ramshackle apartments on the outskirts of the city, and their demands for compensation have gone unanswered.
On Monday, when they returned to the police station to follow up on their protest applications, the women were told they had been sentenced to one year at a labor camp for “disturbing public order.” For the moment, the women have been allowed to return to their homes, but they have been warned that they could be sent to a detention center at any moment, relatives said.
[...] At a news conference on Wednesday, Wang Wei, the vice president of Beijing’s Olympic organizing committee, was asked about the lack of protests. He said it showed the system was working. “I’m glad to hear that over 70 protest issues have been solved through consultation, dialogue,” he said. “This is a part of Chinese culture.”
But human rights advocates say that instead of pointing the way toward a more open society, the Olympics have put China’s political controls on display.
“Given this moment when the international spotlight is shining on China, when so much of the international media are in Beijing, it’s unfathomable why the authorities are intensifying social control,” said Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China. “The truth is they’re sending a clear and disturbing message, one they’re not even trying to hide, which is we’re not even interested in hearing dissenting voices.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/21protest.html?ex=1219896000&en=bbbd73a1742fcf00&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Tibetan American Reporter Denied Entrance to Bejing Olympics

Hello, State Department? Condo Sleeza, are you there? Just imagine the howls of protest if this reporter was German American or Italian American. And just look at this photo of goose-stepping Chinese cops!!! But I forgot--we can't criticise China because a) they own us, and b) CRITICISM OF THE PARTY IS NOT ALLOWED!

RFA reporter unable to enter China to cover Games
Hong Kong, August 8, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that Dhondup Gonsar, an American citizen of Tibetan ethnicity [my bold] who works for the U.S. government-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA), has not yet received press accreditation from Olympic organizers that would allow him to enter China to cover the Olympic Games, which begin Friday.
Gonsar and Radio Free Asia officials in Washington have told CPJ that RFA was informed in writing by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in July 2007 that RFA had been allocated two sets of press credentials by the IOC, but only received one, for RFA’s Mandarin-service reporter. The RFA Mandarin reporter, Jill Ku Martin, has been allowed to enter the country, RFA officials said.
They said that even though the IOC has said it has passed along Gonsar’s credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, neither have followed through on issuing the Olympic Identity and Accreditation Card that serves as both an identity card and an entry visa.
“We call upon the IOC and China to resolve this issue quickly so that Dhondup Gonsar can travel to Beijing to cover the Games,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.
Gonsar is currently in a hotel in Hong Kong, waiting for his papers to enter China. “The IOC has promised RFA that two of our reporters could cover the Games. I don’t understand why I have not gotten my IOC accreditation and am not allowed to cover the Games,” Gonsar told CPJ. “Maybe it has something to do with my ethnicity as a Tibetan.”
http://cpj.org/news/2008/asia/china07aug08na.html

Bao Tong: A Working Class Hero

While George W. Bush and his crew eat, drink and make merry on the backs of our labor and the sweat of dedicated atheletics, it's time to recognize a Chinese hero. Bao Tong's legacy will grow stronger as we relay his story. Learn more from an April interview on RFA:

Ex-Official Slams Olympics
2008-08-06
A former top Communist Party official has slammed Beijing's hosting of the Olympic Games as being built on the back of corruption and human rights abuses. "In China, we produce miscarriages of justice and trumped-up charges like a high-intensity industrial zone," writes Bao Tong, who is under house arrest at his Beijing home.
Bao Tong at his Beijing home, April 2008.
Bao Tong, former top Communist Party aide to the ousted late Chinese premier, Zhao Ziyang, has been under house arrest at his Beijing home for nearly two decades after his boss's fall from power during the 1989 pro-democracy movement. Following are edited extracts from a three-part series of his essays about the Olympic Games in Beijing, broadcast on RFA's Mandarin service beginning Aug. 4:
It is very naive to take the number of gold medals won as an indicator of the rise of China. That sort of patriotism...has nothing to do with the Olympic spirit...There are subtle differences between China and other countries when it comes to the training and selection of athletes. Other countries use athletics as a way of training the body. China uses athletics to snatch prizes.
China has sponsored a top-down professionalized system, a totally segregated approach to athletic training. Non-Chinese may not understand the term "away from production." It has its roots in the Chinese Communist Party's experience of the 1927-37 Chinese civil war, when peasants who relied on the land for their existence took up arms as their revolutionary duty to fight for a share of it. In the process, they were torn away from their families, from the rest of society, and from normal economic activities. They were said to be taken "away from production" to fulfill this task.

China's athletes are chosen as young children...and taken away from their families, from their schools, and totally cut off from normal social activities. The door is closed, and they give up their entire youth and part of their childhoods for the sole aim of entering and winning competitions, an aim for which they are totally re-molded by the system.
Elitist training
China has the largest population of any country in the world, and therefore an unending supply of human resources with which to win glory and acclaim for country and Party. But it is a totally different thing from encouraging ordinary Chinese people to get fitter and healthier.A gold medal is just a gold medal. It is not of the same order as the well-being of the people, or the fate of the nation. The former Soviet Union won countless gold medals. The gold medals are still there today, but where is the Soviet Union?

China's array of medals and prizes was produced out of the sweat, tears, and lives of generations of athletes and paralympians...You can't use the achievements of our young people to cover up or to dilute the mistakes of the country's leaders.The Chinese Communist Party has used the Olympics as a way of suppressing all other political duties. It has put all its energy into this for the past decade, emptying out the last drop of strength. All political, economic, propaganda, and diplomatic effort has been channeled into the Olympics. The entire Party and nation has repeated the message about the importance of the Games time and again, an importance which is greater than that of the fight against corruption, disaster relief efforts, human rights, or the livelihood and welfare of ordinary Chinese.
Ordinary citizens pay the price
It is hard to see how the efforts of ordinary people will be repaid. Aside from the more obvious contributions of effort and money from those who have it, there are all those people who have had their land grabbed away from them, or whose homes have been forcibly demolished, or who have been forced to give up their...business. Those who have been forced to return to their hometown as part of the pre-Olympics "clean-up," or those who have been detained against their will. Those who have been forbidden to speak, forbidden to conduct interviews, forbidden to offer legal services, or forbidden from helping people stand up for their civil rights or property.

There is a fly in the ointment, and that lies in the fact that the Chinese government has refused to keep the promises it made to improve human rights and to allow greater press freedom when it applied to host the Games in the first place.

In the eight years since China applied to host the Games, with the continued suppression of human rights and continuing controls on the freedom of the press, those promises have turned into nothing but empty words. And an empty promise is very hard to keep.

Chinese people who have had their rights infringed know it. A lot of the international media know it. Communist Party and government officials know it too, in their heart of hearts. Who would have the gall to propose or second this motion, to talk the empty talk about "the best Olympic Games ever"?
Manufacturing injustice
The best at suppressing the news? Maybe. The best at trampling on people's rights? Perhaps. Even though the curtain has yet to rise on the Olympics, we can say with 100 percent certainty that we have lost all hope of being "the best."
There is one extremely good thing about a one-party system, and that is that it can achieve pretty much anything it wants to. That's why Deng Xiaoping said that China should never go the way of the West, because it was terribly troublesome, and that any attempt to get anything done petered out in argument. That's quite right. Who would have dared to argue with Deng or Mao? That's why Mao announced in 1976 that Deng was an enemy of the people, and why Deng announced in 1989 that Zhao Ziyang was the enemy.
History repeats itself, and the wheel comes full circle. Leaders at every level have to deal with dissenting opinion, and at every level they have the power to brand the other a public enemy. In China, we produce miscarriages of justice and trumped-up charges like a high-intensity industrial zone, rolling them off the conveyor belt at a rate no-one else can match.
We are so efficient at it: Why stop now? It is a task beloved of Chinese officials at every level of leadership. One thing they are particularly good at, for example, is allowing people they like to get rich first. All you need to get a bank loan in the blink of an eye is the favor of a local ranking official. In the blink of another eye, you can acquire a whole state enterprise for the token price of between three and five percent of its market value, which you can then transfer into your own private ownership.
One-party system
In the same blink of the eye, you can get access to a plot of land "approved" for your use, expel a large crowd of people who live on it and farm it, and begin a lucrative career as a property developer. Will anyone make a fuss? Well, that's easy to deal with. In the blink of an eye, anyone making a fuss will have lost their livelihood and received a warning from the authorities. Who will have the courage to publish such a negative news story? That would be revealing state and Party secrets, calling all sorts of trouble down on the heads of the journalist and even the whole newspaper.
In the case of a lawsuit being filed, the lawyer will either be warned off, obstructed at every turn, or have his license to practice taken away, or be convicted himself of a criminal offense. In the case of any mass unrest, the last resort is to send the security forces in to stamp out trouble. There is one of these "mass petitioning incidents" in China every five minutes, 80,000 a year, and they are all the inevitable by-product of a one-party system.
Under today's one-party system, we have a highly efficient system for an exponential increase in the gap between rich and poor, for corruption, state-sponsored robbery, oppression, and for the control of information. All these things fit together seamlessly. This is the human rights record and the state of press freedom against which it will be very hard to gain any improvements. This is the big, bad secret.
The efficiency of the one-party system can be applied in any number of ways. For example, to stop anything from happening that Party leaders do not like. China has been a People's Republic for 59 years now, but we haven't seen any progress in the direction of democracy in any of those years. The only reason China sent a delegate to the United Nations to sign the covenants on human rights back in October 1998 was because of the forthcoming application to host the 2008 Olympics.
Voting with their feet
As soon as the bid was successful, the thing was shoved into the shadows. The National People's Congress was never asked to ratify it. Putting on a show is indeed very efficient. Actually doing something is very inefficient. Thanks to China's one-party system, they really have been able to make a momentary difference to the air quality in Beijing. But as soon as the Games are over, who knows how many lifetimes ordinary Chinese residents will have to wait to get decent air to breathe again.
There is one clear barometer of how good a political system is. It's no good listening to what people say; mouths are very unreliable. You have to look at what the feet are doing. A good system will attract people. People in China may be living quite happily, and foreigners may make light of traveling a thousand miles to visit. But would they want to emigrate here? When they have seen the Olympics, seen the show, and had a chance to understand Chinese people a bit better, and to compare China to their own country, then what? I am certain that while they will say a lot of nice things about China, they are not going to start flooding in to live here. Whereas Chinese people would be leaving in their tens of thousands if the opportunity was there. That is my prediction. History will be the judge of whether I am right or not.
Original essay in Mandarin by Bao Tong. RFA Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/baotong-08062008132212.html

Burmese Rise Against Oppression

Arrests as Burma marks uprising
At least 20 people have been arrested in the Burmese town of Taunggok after staging a silent protest on the 20th anniversary of a major uprising.
They were detained after marching while wearing T-shirts which referred to the date of the uprising - "8/8/88".
Activists outside Burma are marking the anniversary with demonstrations.
The 1988 protests drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets, but ended with a violent clampdown and the deaths of at least 3,000 civilians.
The date 8 August 1988 was significant for the numerologically minded Burmese, and marked the start of six weeks of rallies against military rule.
[…] The BBC is banned from Burma - also known as Myanmar - but reports from opposition sources inside the country say at least 20 people were arrested in Taunggok, and that the number could be as high as 50.
[…] Three activists staging separate protests are said to have been detained in the vicinity of Rangoon.
In the city itself, opposition sources said they were concerned for the welfare of a young woman seen walking in the streets wearing a T-shirt bearing an image of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
There have been few such open signs of the significance of the date in Burma, with reports suggesting monks and laypeople met in private for secret ceremonies to remember those who died.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP news agency that the anniversary marked "an important historical turning point".
Until the 8/8/88 protests, Ms Suu Kyi was only known as the daughter of liberation hero Aung San, but her speech to the assembled protesters during the rallies propelled her to the centre of the pro-democracy movement.
Anti-China protests
Elsewhere in Asia, human rights groups and activists who fled in the aftermath of the 1988 protests held demonstrations outside Burmese and Chinese embassies.
"We are here because China is the main supporter of the military regime," Kyaw Lin Oo, a Burmese activist, told reporters outside the Chinese embassy in Bangkok.
"We want the Chinese government to understand the actual cost of their support to the people inside of Burma," he added.
Anti-junta protests also took place in Manila, Tokyo, and Delhi, and protesters joined wider demonstrations to mark the start of the Olympics in London, Brussels, Berlin and Hong Kong.
"As the world celebrates the opening of the Beijing Olympics, people should pause to remember the atrocities in Burma 20 years ago," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights

Watch.[…]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7548770.stm

Burma, 8/8/88

Connections in Strange Places

Watching John McCain being held (and held, and held--see The Daily Show's July 29 clip on this to really feel it) by the Dalai Lama reminded me of long Sundays surrounded by Sicilian aunts who just won't let go. You want to be respectful, you certainly don't want to be punished for "acting out," but you just want to go out & play!
From the Huffington Post, here's Robert Thurman's take on the subject:
The Dalai Lama/Obama/McCain Connection
Posted July 30, 2008
I just had the huge pleasure of spending three days with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado, with old friends and luminaries in the Tibet world. A sand mandala (sacred celestial mansion diagram) of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of universal compassion, was created and dissolved. Juniper incense offerings were made, Tibetan music was played, and lively discussions were conducted both about the current crisis in Tibet and about the long-term prospects for the survival of Tibetan culture and identity.
His Holiness was his usual jolly and insightful self, though at moments one could sense the deep stress he feels due to the covert "cultural revolution" still being waged by the Chinese government against the Tibetan identity, which is so deeply rooted in Tibetan Buddhist culture. Tibetans are still being beaten, arrested, tortured, and killed for having voiced their wish for freedom and unimpeded spiritual reunion with their Lama teachers.
In the midst of it all last Friday, Senator and candidate John McCain met with the Dalai Lama and expressed his sympathy for the Tibetan people and solidarity with the nonviolent and moderate offer the Dalai Lama continues to make to the Chinese government. Later in the day, a letter came from Senator Barack Obama, expressing regret that his travel schedule prevented him from meeting and honoring His Holiness and pledging his support for the Tibetan cause in terms of regaining their human rights and religious freedom.
These good will gestures are heartening to all who desire peace and justice for Tibetans. Why did both candidates want to meet with the Dalai Lama? I find myself wishing that the candidates would read my new book, Why the Dalai Lama Matters, so that they can better understand the incredibly high stakes in this Tibetan liberation struggle. The China-West (especially US, EU, Russia, India, and Japan) relationship is the most important relationship for the entire 21rst century. China is one of the most ascendant nations of the coming era. We must all welcome its rightful importance. But the world will never tolerate another conquering superpower. [right on!, er, I mean, my bold] The European and Japanese empires have declined. The Russian and American "superpower" hegemonies are demonstrating their un-viability. The UN is still crippled by the five WW II victors' wielding their vetoes. So China, India, Brazil, the Muslim world, and the main African powers will inevitably emerge. For global survival, they must not repeat the mistakes of previous empires and superpowers, but turn to a new concept of power, the power of interconnectedness, peacefulness, dialogue, a global meshing of mutual enlightened self-interests.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-thurman/the-dalai-lamaobamamccain_b_115812.html