Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
1

by LockJaw

Perhaps now Bill O Reilly will hate the French and the liberals a little less. All over the Western world, activists have attempted to protest and even sabotage Olympic processions, expressing their collective outrage at the recent turmoil in Tibet. Not very long ago, in a world where America was still involved in occupying just one Muslim country, millions came out to protest American plans to invade its second terrorist harbouring, nuclear weaponized, chemical weapons on sale to Bin Laden state. Bill was outraged. So was much of America and French fries were renamed to reflect a more palatable ideal. All should be forgiven now, since we now have the collective “how can you kill wee children?” aimed at the Chinese.

Leave aside that China has a territorial claim over Tibet dating back centuries. There are significant numbers of Ethnic Chinese in the region. That the numbers of people killed in the recent events would be a good day in Iraq. Citizens of a country that is currently the occupying power in a country half a planet away, and citizens of a country that has been historically the most brutally aggressive imperial power in recent times, imperialism that was never curbed until the country itself became militarily impotent, feel they have the moral high ground to lecture another country’s handling of its internal affairs. I can understand the French or the Brazilians objecting to Chinese tactics, but not the US and the UK, not the current and historically imperialist powers.

It is ofcourse not enough to try to intimidate and physically harm the Chinese running with the torch. There is talk in the opinion section of papers about boycotting Chinese made products. Hit em where it hurts, right? That magnificent triumph of an idea comes at a time when the US is going into recession, obviously with its vassal states in tow. A time when China is financing America’s debt, to suggest that any economic action against China wouldn’t bring a crushing blow to a debilitated, sterile West is probably only explainable by remembering that these people are still used to thinking that they are the masters of the world.

God help the British when they run with the Olympic torch in 2012. We all know the western world cares as much about Iraq and Afghanistan as it does about Tibet.

2

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

The US and other imperialist powers also used to own slaves, burn people at the stake and give people no human rights. Does that mean they forever forfeited their rights to protest against those who practice those things today?

3

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

had the US currently been practicing slavery then they would have no right to talk about others. You assume the UK still doesnt practice imperialism, whereas there are several territories in the world still held by the UK, places where they werent kicked from, or which they recaptured after the locals expelled them (say the Falklands)

~I want to act in FALAANI movie ka remake :P ~
4

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

ravage dont act like a chinese slave. Wrong is wrong no matter what you say.

5

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check


Yet we loved it when the Brits filled the streets protesting the Iraq war while their government was heavily involved in bombing Iraq. The people and the governments are separate entities. If we expect the people to follow lock step with their governments, even when their governments are wrong, we'd never experience postivie changes. We'll never leave Iraq. Russia will forever persecute Muslims, China will persecute Muslims and Tibetans, the Sudan will continue the massacre, etc, etc.

If you favor Chinese control, then you must also favor Israeli control over Palestine. Both were taken over about the same time. China does not have any more rights to Tibet than Israelis do over Palestine. The difference is that the international community granted the status to Israel, whereas China took Tibet by force.

6

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Ravage, is your rant about US or China?

Many (but not all) of your charges against US are true. So what?

Based on their HR record and the Tibetian action, China does not deserve to be accepted as a good host since their action runs counter to olympian spirit.

And what's so special about this to make a sticky? Anyways, china is getting a pretty big balck face on this one.

7

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

What changed? Russia, China, Sudan, US never changed their policies based on protests around the world.

What these protests do show is a disproportionate contempt for China when the US and UK are occupying a country halfway around the world, with no historical basis, while being heavily unwelcome, merely to guard strategic interests.

Sort your own houses out.

I dont favour Chinese control. I do however, see these insulting protests as disproportionate and disrespectful. Furthermore China has much more of a claim on Tibet than Israel. Present day Israel largely consists of people not ethnically linked to the land, whereas the present dynasty of Dalai Llama was installed by the Chinese 300 years ago, and historically China has always had some form of either control or near-control over tibet. No comparison to a country of mostly geographically displaced by huge distances immigrants

US and UK.

[quote]

Many (but not all) of your charges against US are true. So what?

Based on their HR record and the Tibetian action, China does not deserve to be accepted as a good host since their action runs counter to olympian spirit.

[/quote]

I dont believe so. Chinese actions are not any worse than UK actions, which is slated to be the next host. These cities lobby to have torch processions, and then cant provide the appropriate environment for it.

[quote]

And what's so special about this to make a sticky? Anyways, china is getting a pretty big balck face on this one.
[/quote]

Nothing special, it is just an opinion article, we periodically update the other thread with new articles, of which this is the latest.

Timepass
8

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Hey ravage, what's the deal man? You've responded under a diff nick but in 1st person.

Are you allowed to. Have multiple I'd's? I thought you're a mod or some such highly placed elite guppie.

9

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Since everyone was calling me ravage I figured I'd go with the flow.

But yeah, I use a different nick from my elite guppy modnick to differentiate between mod posts and opinions expressed as another poster.

10

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

^ thus proving the typical mod is at best a schizo and at worst afflicted with serious personality disorders! :rotfl:

…I’m only half kidding! you mods ARE nuts to take up that job given the junk you gotta wade thru

11

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

By virtue of your argument, muslim nations have no right to complain about the US’s little ‘adventure’ in Iraq, because they turned a blind eye towards the genocide in the Sudan, Pakistan’s rape of Bangladesh, or Turkey’s treatment of the Armenians, just to name a few.

You argue that “China has a territorial claim over Tibet dating back centuries. There are significant numbers of Ethnic Chinese in the region.” Funnily enough, that is EXACTLY the argument that Zionists use to oppress and occupy the Palestinians. Israelis do consider themselves to be ethnically linked to the land - they are all descendents of the 12th tribes. China has historically been an Imperial power - ask the Koreans.

12

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

oh the kalay US & UK apologists out in full force.

13

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Whatever, No Olympics unless Free Tibet

Life1 Hall of Fame: Read/post all your funny posts here!
14

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Fair point. And a Pakistani with some perspective on what Pakistan did in Bangladesh, should not be as naively and violently protesting if India ran its Olympics torch.

The point of this article is on the self righteous, better-than-thou rage directed at the Chinese while what is happening in Tibet is fairly routine, and pales in comparison to other conflicts around the world, conflicts that some of these countries of which these protestors are citizens of, are responsible for.

I merely said China has a territorial claim over Tibet and has ethnic chinese in the region, not reasons to say “give Tibet to China” but mitigating circumstances for the presence of a foreign force inside another nation’s land. Whereas US and UK have no such claim in Iraq or Afghanistan, the US and UK rationale eventually just boils down to “strategic interests”, the new word for modern, low-footprint, imperialism.

15

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

yup i agree. Boycoytt olympics. join my orkut group for the same.

16

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

USA should reconsider its own role around the world before pointing fingers to China about its oppression.

17

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Sorry Ravage, but the whole premise behind this rant is ridiculous. If the people didn't protest because of a policy or action their country practiced in the past (or even currently) we'd never be able to protest about anything. Muslims can't protest about cartoons, Brits can't protest against war, Greenpeace can't protest about the environment, no one who lives in an industrial country or drives a car can protest against global warming, and no one can protest against human rights violations. Everyone has houses to sort out. Thank God some citizens are still standing up for whats right even thought their own government has practiced less than perfect policies.

18

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

On to China and Tibet. Tibet is an integral part of China. The actions of the Chinese in Tibet are a local matter. The basic premise of Sovereignty. Who cares what a couple of biased idiots have to say?

The Chinese are still hosting the Olympics. You are still buying Chinese products and of course US and EU companies will still outsource to China.

Nothing changes.

19

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

A different, non-mainstream media view of the rumpus over China - Tibet.
Was not aware that 1 child policy only applied to Han people and not the minorities.
Unfortunately, yet again, the western nations' double standards jump to the fore.

"The Hypocrisy and Danger of Anti-China Demonstrations
by Floyd Rudmin

We hear that Tibetans suffer “demographic aggression” and “cultural genocide”. But we do not hear those terms applied to Spanish and French policies toward the Basque minority. We do not hear those terms applied to the US annexation of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1898. And Diego Garcia? In 1973, not so long ago, the UK forcibly deported the entire native Chagossian population from the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. People were allowed one suitcase of clothing. Nothing else. Family pets were gassed, then cremated. Complete ethnic cleansing. Complete cultural destruction. Why? In order to build a big US air base. It has been used to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq, and soon maybe to bomb Iran and Pakistan. Diego Garcia, with nobody there but Brits and Americans, is also a perfect place for rendition, torture and other illegal actions.
...
And as everyone knows but few dare say, “demographic aggression” and “cultural genocide” can be applied most accurately to Israel’s settlement policies and systematic destruction of Palestinian communities. On this, the Dalai Lama seems silent. Demonstrators don’t wave flags for bulldozed homes, destroyed orchards, or dead Palestinian children.
...
Considering this context, China’s treatment of its minorities has been exemplary compared to what the Western world has done to its minorities. After thousands of years of Chinese dominance, there still are more than 50 minorities in China. After a few hundred years of European dominance in North and South America, the original minority cultures have been exterminated, damaged, or diminished.
...
In China, ethnic minorities begin their primary schooling in their own language, in a school administered by one of their own community. Chinese language instruction is not introduced until age 10 or later. This is in sharp contrast to a history of coerced linguistic assimilation in most Western nations. The Australian government recently apologized to the Aboriginal minority for taking children from their families, forcing them to speak English, beating them if they spoke their mother tongue. China has no need to make such apology to Tibetans or to other minorities.
..."

20

Re: Gupshup Opinions: Anti-China Protesters Need a Reality Check

Chinas one child policy states that a woman can only give birth once to healthy child(ren). unhealthy births and Twins - Triplets - Quadruplets - Quintuplets - Sextuplets - Septuplets - Octuplets Nonuplets - Decaplets are excluded and teh law does not apply...