The Wall Street Journal: “Obama’s Timidity on Tibet”
Check out Ellen Bork’s op-ed in The Wall Street Journal this week. Here’s a choice snippet from the opening:
Over the past few years, Beijing’s repressive policies have increasingly alienated Tibetans. One indication was the March 2008 uprising and riots across Tibet. Yet Beijing responded not by moderating its policies but by intensifying repression—launching a “patriotic education” campaign and targeting members of the educated elite, many of whom have long gotten along with, and even flourished within, the communist system. Among these are the writer Tragyal, long associated with the state publishing house, who awaits trial on charges of “splittism,” and Dorje Tashi, a businessman and hotel owner, who received a life sentence in June for allegedly collaborating with human-rights groups abroad.
Beijing has taken the same approach to criticism from abroad over its handling of Tibet, significantly raising the stakes by identifying Tibet as a “core interest.” Beijing has given notice that unless the world adopts a “correct understanding” of Tibet by spurning any view contrary to the Communist Party line, there will be consequences for bilateral relations and it will be difficult for China to cooperate on the global economic recovery or other issues.
Washington has bent under [this] pressure.
Read the rest here.
