The fact is that the Chinese Government realizes that Tibet's economy, education, health and human services remain far below the national average and has decided to send large numbers of engineering personnel, managerial experts, medical workers, teachers, scientists and technicians, cultural workers and their assistants to Tibet. They build hospitals, schools, power plants, electricity transmission networks, TV stations, broadcast relay stations, telephone offices, radio stations, residential buildings, waterworks, water supply and drainage networks, roads, airports, oil pipelines, gas stations, stores, restaurants, cinemas, ballrooms, libraries, museums, as well as a variety of banking, communications, transportation, R&D and maintenance facilities, for local residents, remarkably improving Tibet's economy, education, health and human services. These efforts, however, have been accused of encouraging "a large influx of Han-Chinese into Tibet, thereby undermining the political and cultural traditions of the Tibetan people." If not done this way, I believe the Chinese Government would have been criticized for discriminating against Tibetan people.

It seems that only Aladdin's Lamp, which can do the bidding of the person holding it, can help the Chinese Government. It would be able to meet Tibetan people's demand for electric lamps, telephones, movies, tap water, new homes, stores, hospitals, schools, vehicles and airplanes, by giving each of them such an enchanted lamp instead of transferring huge human resources and an untold amount of materials from other parts of the country into Tibet.

To be frank, I don't think the United States would have praised China even if the latter had fulfilled the mission impossible of realizing an advanced economy, education, health and human services by finding a Lamp. For example, the U.S. Department of State says in its 1997 Report on Tibet Human Rights, "Overall, government development policies have helped raise the economic living standards of many ethnic Tibetans." Yet, in the same document it criticizes, "China's economic development policies, fueled in Tibet by central government subsidies, are modernizing parts of Tibetan society and changing traditional Tibetan ways of life...," and "risk undermining Tibet's unique cultural, religious and linguistic heritage."

In accordance with this logic, only when Tibetans are denied a modern civilization and kept captive in a primitive society with no access to electricity and machines, can their culture be preserved. The UN Declaration on the Right to Development, however, states that "the right to development is an inalienable human right." I wonder if the United States really respects Tibetan people's human rights when it attempts to deprive these people of their right to development.

Double-talk

The Dalai Lama has also used a catch-22 to work for him. In an interview with The New York Times in 1993, he expressed worries over the population problem and proposed birth control as a solution. On the other hand, he accuses the Chinese Government of carrying out "genocide" by allowing each urban Tibetan couple to have two children. The fact is that a Han couple, living in either Tibet or other Chinese regions, is allowed to have only a single child. The Chinese Government doesn't implement family planning among Tibetan farmers and herds people and provides them with free medical services. As a result, Tibet's population of farmers and herds people has grown rapidly, with increasing demand for meat food ensuing. Since the area of Tibet's pastures do not grow, to breed more cattle and sheep on them inevitably leads to overgrazing and causes severe desertification and deterioration of the pastures. Tibetan farmers and herds people's preference of grass roots as fuel also aggravates the situation. I have seen vendors of grass roots in Lhasa. But this has become an excuse for the Dalai Lama to criticize the Chinese Government for destroying Tibet's ecosystem. If the Chinese Government had required Tibetan farmers and herds people to practice family planning, I believe the Dalai Lama would have used it to make up another story about "ethnic genocide."

The Dalai Lama has always said that the right to national self-determination is a basic human right. When asked to comment on aboriginal inhabitants' "independence" bid during a visit to Hawaii, the Dalai Lama, for fears of offending his patrons on the U.S. mainland, declined to clarify his stand, saying that he was unfamiliar with the situation.

The Tibet card

The reason why Western powers have energetically played the Tibet card is that they do not want to see a prosperous and strong China. They therefore spare no effort to break up China. This is neither an ideological nor a cultural conflict. It is a new Cold War that was launched by white Western chauvinists to restrain China's development. In order to serve the needs of the new Cold War, mainstream Western media have released a large number of distorted reports on the Tibet issue. Many white Westerners have accepted the groundless accusations against China for the same reason.

Western hegemonists have paid close attention to China's 6 million Tibetans and 6 million Uygurs. But it's a daydream that they can dust the eyes of the 12 million Tibetans and Uygurs and drive them to engage in secessionist efforts and subvert the Communist Party of China-led Chinese Government. Western media have wantonly accused the Chinese Government of instigating nationalism. During the March 14 riots in Lhasa this year, 17 innocent Han people, including a baby, were burnt to death by "Tibet independence" mobs. How would European and American people react if tragedies of this kind happened in their countries? Their support of the Dalai Lama's "Tibet independence" bid and their connivance at "Tibet independence" mobs' violent crimes of beating, smashing, looting, burning and killing have fully exposed the false nature of "freedom," "democracy" and "human rights" that they advocate.

The author is a Boston-based freelance scholar