Wall Street Journal: A letter to Beijing
Source: Wall Street Journal
A Letter to Beijing
March 26, 2008
China's state-run media have taken great pains to portray Beijing's violent crackdown on Tibetans as a necessary action. Media show Tibetan violence against Han Chinese, but not the opposite. The propaganda is so pervasive that it has set off an ethnic-hate campaign against Tibetans in China's blogosphere. But not everyone is buying the Communist Party line.
In an extraordinary show of courage, 29 Chinese intellectuals published an open letter on the Internet Saturday, listing 12 suggestions for handling the "Tibetan situation." The letter calls for dialogue with the Dalai Lama and warns Beijing that the "one-sided propaganda of the official Chinese media" could stir up "inter-ethnic animosity" and aggravate "an already tense situation."
In China, such a missive could get its authors jailed, or worse. But the letter's signatories know what they're risking; several have previously been detained or placed under house arrest. They include Tiananmen activists Ding Zilin and Jiang Peikun; Wang Lixiong, a Tibetan historian currently under house arrest; and Liu Xiaobo, president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center.
The letter urges Beijing to ditch its "Cultural Revolution-like language," and challenges it to produce evidence to support claims that the Dalai Lama "orchestrated" the rioting. It also says that China should allow "credible" national and international media to return to Tibet "to conduct independent interviews and news reports." As for trials, they should be "open, just, and transparent."
Innocent people have been caught in the cross fire in recent weeks -- Tibetan and Han Chinese alike. The letter's authors understand that engaging China and prodding it to be more open will produce more lasting, positive results than political isolation. That's also the message U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delivered to China last week from the Dalai Lama's home-in-exile in India.
The way China treats these suggestions -- and how it deals with the open letter's authors themselves, in coming days -- will say much about how seriously Beijing takes their ideas.
A Letter to Beijing
March 26, 2008
China's state-run media have taken great pains to portray Beijing's violent crackdown on Tibetans as a necessary action. Media show Tibetan violence against Han Chinese, but not the opposite. The propaganda is so pervasive that it has set off an ethnic-hate campaign against Tibetans in China's blogosphere. But not everyone is buying the Communist Party line.
In an extraordinary show of courage, 29 Chinese intellectuals published an open letter on the Internet Saturday, listing 12 suggestions for handling the "Tibetan situation." The letter calls for dialogue with the Dalai Lama and warns Beijing that the "one-sided propaganda of the official Chinese media" could stir up "inter-ethnic animosity" and aggravate "an already tense situation."
In China, such a missive could get its authors jailed, or worse. But the letter's signatories know what they're risking; several have previously been detained or placed under house arrest. They include Tiananmen activists Ding Zilin and Jiang Peikun; Wang Lixiong, a Tibetan historian currently under house arrest; and Liu Xiaobo, president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center.
The letter urges Beijing to ditch its "Cultural Revolution-like language," and challenges it to produce evidence to support claims that the Dalai Lama "orchestrated" the rioting. It also says that China should allow "credible" national and international media to return to Tibet "to conduct independent interviews and news reports." As for trials, they should be "open, just, and transparent."
Innocent people have been caught in the cross fire in recent weeks -- Tibetan and Han Chinese alike. The letter's authors understand that engaging China and prodding it to be more open will produce more lasting, positive results than political isolation. That's also the message U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi delivered to China last week from the Dalai Lama's home-in-exile in India.
The way China treats these suggestions -- and how it deals with the open letter's authors themselves, in coming days -- will say much about how seriously Beijing takes their ideas.
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