Newsweek: “China Finally Realizes How Badly It Bungled Tibet”
by Danny Fisher
From Newsweek this week:
After the mass riots there in March 2008, Tibet faded once again into relative obscurity—the province of foreign-affairs wonks, adventure tourists, and a few well-organized protest groups who object to China’s rule there. But during that time, Beijing has come slowly to two painful realizations. First, the restive plateau it had treated for decades as a colony is central to its national plan: development and stability are “vital to ethnic unity, social stability, and national security,” President Hu Jintao recently told his Politburo. And second, a corollary realization: China’s government has been mishandling the issue of Tibet all along.
Read the whole article here.
Interesting; the contrast with the Economist’s article is quite telling.
That Newsweek one amazing article in terms of its sourcing; exactly two sources are cited (and one without revealing Robert Thurman’s connections to the Dalai Lama). The Economist’s article, on the other hand is an eyewitness report.
I believe there are factual elements of the Newsweek article, and clearly there continues to be development issues that must be addressed in Tibet. But in order for there to truly be a resolution of the Tibet issue that the Dalai Lama himself will have to come to terms with a few things. As an American, the idea that any area on earth should be the exclusive province of one single ethnic group or that hegemony in an area should be the province of one ethnic group over another regardless of numbers is, well, racist. I for one deplore such racism in Europe, in Palestine, and in Tibet whether instigated by Tibetans or Chinese.