Why Would Tibet Want Independence From A Great Country Like China ?

I had the opportunity to travel to China twice in the last three years for business which I feel qualifies me to write about the current state of affairs going on there. The protests in Tibet are what really have caused me to write about this issue. No matter what you hear and how many times the Chinese ambassador to the United States comes on the nightly news telling us that China is our friend, keep in mind that China is a communist country that is ruled with an iron fist, worse, a military that strikes fear into each and every citizen and secret police and propaganda organizations that rival the KGB in old Russia. That the Chinese government would like nothing more than to crush the United States and make us another captive nation and I believe if they stay with their current system will one day try either through economic extortion or a military confrontation. I spent about two weeks there each time, and two weeks seemed to be the absolute number that a freedom loving person like myself could stand. No matter how much those commies try to make things palatable for American businessmen it still is not a free country and is quite noticeable to one who has been raised in a democracy. The media is state controlled, that includes press, radio and television. By controlled I mean the government or some puppet office tells the outlets what they will say and how they will deliver it. They censor all outside material that comes into the country, down to words and phrases in old US produced television shows. The picture that outsiders see is one of prosperity and contentment, this couldn't be further from the truth. There is poverty and disease on a gargantuan scale, remember they have around a billion and a half people and only about one seventh of the population are employed in modern industrial jobs the rest live and work in basically an agrarian society with just above stone age technology. True, their economy is on fire from a growth standpoint but, it is far from a competitive situation in that the Chinese government carefully controls their currency and will not allow it to float with other currencies around the globe. I guess for companies having goods manufactured in China there is a huge cost incentive to being there and I hope that is their only incentive and that they never think they will have any influence over the government. I don't believe the Chinese government has any plan either near or far term for conversion to a market economy, they are communist through and through. Which brings us full circle to Tibet.

Communist countries do not relinquish control over their captive states, they can only exist by wielding absolute control, and this is accomplished through fear, intimidation and outright brutality. Aside from being an independent nation Tibet has been in the hands of the Mongols, the Chinese, the British and then annexed completely in 1951 by the Communist Chinese who by the way proceeded to destroy over two thousand six hundred Buddhist monasteries in the name of the state religion communism and it's principle deity Mao during the cultural revolution in 1966. You see, communist governments like that of China take away all personal freedom, which we in the United States take for granted, outlaw any organized religion because that can lead to individual thought, compassion for one's fellow man, equality, morality, spirituality and a level of enlightenment that may jeopardize their pitiful form of government. It doesn't matter that the religion, Buddhism in this case, preaches and practices non-violence, morality and respect of one and other, to the contrary, these are ideals that are diametrically opposed to the communist ideology. The Chinese have even tried to fake in their own replacement for the Dali Lama to pretty much no avail in an effort to placate the Tibetan people. They, the Chinese government took over the picking and educating the replacement Lamas. Their efforts are seen as the same way they allowed the Shaolin Temples to reopen, the occupants of the Shaolin Temples are by and large military and not real Shaolin Monks, created as a showcase to project some phony cultural thing to the culturally deprived in the west. The big difference in Tibet is that the Tibetan people have apparently lived with this fraud long enough and are willing to risk their lives to try to change the system. The first time the Tibetan people rioted against the Chinese in 1959, eighty seven thousand were killed and with the size and current sophistication of the Chinese army it would be easy to replicate that feat of murderous behavior. Because the Olympics are close at hand the Chinese government will most likely move quickly to quiet this uprising, cut some backroom deals with the governments of the world to buy their silence, leaving only the image of a peaceful orderly country that wants to be friends with the rest of the world. Sadly, as in the past, nothing will be done to pressure the Chinese government to allow for a free Tibet.

No human deserves to live in bondage.