Dalai Lama wants US help with Tibet

AFP, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, AND BEIJING
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008, Page 1
　

The Dalai Lama asked Washington for help on Monday in improving the situation in Tibet, in the highest level meeting with the US administration since Beijing’s crackdown in his homeland.

“At this moment we need your help,” he told the US special envoy on Tibet, Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, as they met in Michigan, adding that the issue of Tibet was “very significant.”

Dobriansky reiterated a US appeal for dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama, saying the Bush administration “has expressed concern and has urged restraint” in the Himalayan region.

“[US] President [George W.] Bush steadfastly supports the need for dialogue and today’s meeting offers an opportunity to discuss Tibet with His Holiness,” she told reporters.

It was Dobriansky’s 12th meeting with the Dalai Lama aimed at finding a way to resolve the Tibet issue amicably, the State Department said.

“We want to hear from him about his ideas and what he believes might be the next appropriate steps in this,” department spokesman Tom Casey said.

“We are certainly going to, of course, also continue to have discussions with the government of China about this,” he said.

Meanwhile, China yesterday condemned both Dobriansky’s meeting and a decision by Paris city councilors on Monday to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen of the French capital, saying the move had hurt relations.

“China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the honor, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) said in a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site.

“This interferes rudely with China’s internal affairs and seriously harms the Sino-French relationship, and in particular the existing friendly ties between Paris and Beijing,” she said. “The fact that this moment the Paris city council decides to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen can only be seen as a serious challenge to 1.3 billion Chinese including Tibetans.”

“China requires that France immediately take effective steps to remove the severely negative impact of its erroneous action,” she said.

The Paris councilors voted to award honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama and Hu Jia (胡嘉), the human-rights activist who was jailed in China earlier this month on charges of attempted subversion.

Jiang also told reporters in Beijing yesterday that China did not agree with “individual radical actions,” referring to unruly scenes that evolved during anti-Western protests targeting the stores of French retailer Carrefour last weekend.

Greenpeace activists target Taiwanese fishing boats

AFP, SYDNEY
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008, Page 4
　

Ship-borne activists said yesterday they had targeted fishing boats from South Korea, Taiwan and the US in high-seas protests against the “plundering” of tuna in the Pacific.

In the latest confrontation, crew from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza boarded a Taiwanese boat, the Nian Sheng 3, to inspect the catch and then escorted the boat out of international waters, a spokesman said.

The captain of the tuna boat, which also contained hundreds of frozen shark fins and tails, allowed the activists to board, Greenpeace campaign leader Lagi Toribau said by telephone from the Esperanza.

“Greenpeace are not a violent campaigning organization,” he said, while adding that the activists were prepared to “interfere with their physical fishing activities in order for us to save the last tuna stocks.”

On Sunday, Esperanza crew members set out to a small boat to paint the side of a US vessel, Cape Finisterre, with the words “Tuna Overkill” and asked it to leave international waters, Greenpeace said in a statement.

Last Thursday the group protested alongside the South Korean ship Olympus before activists “confiscated a fish aggregation device” used to attract tuna.

The latest action took place in international waters near the Solomon Islands where “legal fishers and pirates are both plundering Pacific tuna,” Greenpeace said.

Describing tuna as the world’s favorite fish, Toribau said “advances in technology mean large ships are now able to catch as much fish in two days as the fishers of the small Pacific island countries can catch in a year.”

The future of the comparatively healthy western and central Pacific tuna fishery is crucial for small Pacific states. Tuna is the only major economic resource for many, as well as one of the most important food sources.

Currently license fees provide Pacific states a small return of around 5 percent to 6 percent of the US$3 billion annual catch in the region.

Toribau said the fishing carried out by the ships “is technically not illegal but is unregulated,” and Greenpeace was campaigning for the pockets of international waters between the island nations to be declared marine reserves.

The Esperanza was heading for a stopover in the Solomon Islands before returning to international waters to continue the protests, Toribau said.

It's `not politics,' but mind your P's
　

By Jerome Keating
Wednesday, Apr 23, 2008, Page 8

Strangely enough, amidst all this hubbub throughout the world, there is an ironic satisfaction in Taiwan; for Taiwan under the presidency of Chen Shui-bian told China that it could stuff the Olympic torch going through Taiwan if China wanted to use it for political gains.

The selection of China for the Olympics was not “political”;0 it was just done to legitimize the claim that — despite the Tiananmen Square massacre and despite a dismal human rights record — China is on a “peaceful rise.” After all, Tiananmen Square is ages past, and China has changed, so China deserves the Olympics because China has been begging to prove it is a legitimate world player.

Evidently China wants to show it can crack heads and get away with it. But that’s not politics — that’s just “peacekeeping.”

As the Olympic torch has passed through various countries, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was told that it should give up sponsoring the torch run because China felt the IOC was not doing a proper job of looking after the torch. After all, who is in charge of the Olympics? Forget the IOC; it appears China is now. But that’s not politics — that’s just “protection.”

China has dictated that its “goons and thugs” — as CNN’s Jack Cafferty called them — should take charge of the torch relay, for China is on a “peaceful rise,” and only China can best express this to the world. The message appears to be: “Tibetans — you should be thankful that China is bringing in all those Chinese shopkeepers to run the businesses in your captive country; let the Han Chinese citizens trash Tibetan culture.”

But that’s not politics, that’s “prosperity,” right?

Nevertheless, even with its own “goons and thugs” guarding the torch, China has not been satisfied. The French did a poor job in assisting them. So Chinese are boycotting Carrefour stores and other French businesses. All other countries better shape up. This is China’s peaceful rise and anyone else better not get in its way.

Yes, the Olympic torch, the flame of freedom and hope, now continues under the protective care of China’s thugs, and has gone to Pakistan.

In Pakistan, China evidently decided that the torch run should be a private showing. Chinese delegates and selected Pakistani attendees only, please. But this is not political, it is just China’s right to “proclaim.” As for the flame of freedom and hope — that’s not for everyone. It is just for Chinese and their “prestigious” guests.

As the torch progresses towards Mount Everest, China has also got neighboring Nepal in on the act. Police and soldiers “have been given orders to stop any protest on the mountain using whatever means necessary, including use of weapons,” Nepal’s Home Ministry spokesman said. But “deadly force was authorized only as a last resort.”

So now there’s permission to shoot any people who dare to express a contrary opinion to the popularity of China rising, or China’s dominance of Tibet. This would be interfering with China’s show. It might be murder, but it is not about politics, because of course we know the Olympics are not about politics. Are they?

Strangely enough, amidst all this hubbub throughout the world, there is an ironic satisfaction in Taiwan; for Taiwan under the presidency of Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) told China that it could stuff the Olympic torch going through Taiwan if China wanted to use it for political gains.

That was under the outgoing administration of Taiwan. If the incoming administration were in charge, it might be a different story.

There is still more to come. The Chinese government has banned all factories near Beijing from belching forth pollution in July and August. China does not want to give the world the wrong impression of its peaceful rise. The factories can resume their pollution afterwards, but during the Olympics the visitors must see how clean China is. After the visitors are gone, the factories can pour forth all the filth they want; they can even work overtime to catch up, but not during the Olympics, for China is a “clean place.”

In the same vein, all foreign students are to leave for the summer months. Students can reapply and resume classes after the Olympics; but China cannot afford to have any foreigners giving the wrong impression on what is happening in China.

The Middle Kingdom of “Pollution, Poison and Propaganda” is not satisfied with being the Middle Kingdom of these things in Asia; it wants to share this “dream” with the world.

Right now, in true Cultural Revolution fashion, China is already mustering up its brainwashed little minions to wear their red shirts with “One Dream, One Nation” printed on them to spread its word around the world.

Soon China will want everyone to wear a red shirt with “One Dream, One Kingdom, One World.” Isn’t that wonderful? But this isn’t politics in the Olympics; this is politics in the world and that’s OK. Everyone should believe in China’s peaceful rise and share its pollution, poison and propaganda. The Middle Kingdom will be the Middle Kingdom once again.