The protests in Tibet continue against Chinese rule . Scores are dead. China has blocked YouTube in an attempt to stop videos emerging from its brutality. Australia’s Prime Minister has been urged to use his “influence” with Beijing. Bloggers are transmitting news. The Dalai Lama is caught in the middle. The August Olympic Games could be affected.
China only has itself to blame. Authoritarianism is always bound to fail. I salute the bravery of the Tibetans standing up to Chinese aggression.
A moving letter was published in today’s Australian newspaper:
The current uprisings in Tibet are a reaction to the repressive treatment of ethnic Tibetans handed down to them by their Han rulers, ever since mainland China took more direct control there in 1959. There is no way that Tibetans’ human rights can reasonably be said to have been respected since that time. The harsh repression of the protests now going on there proves that.
However, China gave a solemn undertaking to the world community, represented by the International Olympic Committee, that it would respect human rights, as a pre-requisite for being allowed to hold the Olympics on its soil. The IOC must have been pretty gullible to swallow that whopper.
The whole world can now see more clearly that the totalitarian regime there has no intention of respecting human rights, now or at any other time—not even the rights of its own Chinese citizens.
Having reneged on that empty promise of respecting human rights, China’s Games should be cancelled.
The IOC needs to get that right.
If it doesn’t, then athletes from all freedom-loving countries should boycott.
Mary Pang
Hong Kong
The Dalai Lama says Beijing should host the Games.