Tibet. What an embarrasment.
 

On the shoulders of the international community. Are we all so afraid of ruining our relationship with the upcoming economic superpower China??? It is a sad sad load of hypocrite crap that we don´t speak up more vigorously for the people of Tibet against the red dragon.

Sorry for bad spelling. Spell Checks kaput.

China own us right now.

Plenty of more outrageous things going on the the world that get less attention than Tibet. Sure, it's wrong and unjust. But they can take their place in line behind Darfur, N. Korea, etc.

I think this is GREAT!

I really think this whole Olympic thing is going to backfire on China, big time.

China is oppressing Tibet and pushing a racist policy that encourages Han Chinese to settle there and breed native Tibetans out of existence. (Edward Longshanks anyone?)

In a few months, the international media will be gathered in China, and I'm willing to bet native Tibetans use this to their advantage.

How will China respond? Like they always do. They will crack down on domestic and international press. They will send reporters home who don't agree to have their stories re-written by Chinese authorities. They will have guided tours for reporters designed to showcase Chinese "progress" and hide the atrocities still going on.

Yeah, that will go over well...

Extremely sad. The human rights record of the Chinese is abysmal, as is their. . . Oooh! Look! A cheap plasma TV and some $4 shirts! What was I saying again?

Huh? And all this time I've been wondering where I could get my "Free Tibet".

Tibet has nothing the world wants so the world will just stand by and do nothing. Just like every atrocity that occurs in Africa.

QUOTE: "Tibet has nothing the world wants so the world will just stand by and do nothing. Just like every atrocity that occurs in Africa."
____________________________

"The world will just stand by" ...meaning ...the USA?

I have had it up to HERE with the USA being the worlds policeman. Shall we send in troops? Send them pallets of 'aid money'? Attempt to instill democracy in places that has never know it? Send in missionaries to convert the heathens?

Pfffft!

I, for one, am ready to pull back, take a breath and start letting all the SOB's (with their hands constantly out, asking for assistance from us) to find a way to take care of themselves for a while!

I think you have summed it up pretty darn well, right there! :D

I think he was suggesting diplomatic options.

And I don't think one country alone will be enough. United Nations? G7?

No oil....Like Rwanda in the nineties.

Free Tibet!
With purchase of equal or larger country!

While I certainly don't support China's actions in Tibet, they have done the exact same thing to the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, the province directly north of Tibet. In fact, Tibetans and Uighurs are minorities in their own homelands now. Han settlers outnumber them. You never hear anything about Xinjiang because they're Muslims. In fact, the only blurb about it in the new are the five or so we had in Gitmo, who were mistakenly detained, have nothing to do with al Qaeda and we still kept for years for fear of what will happen to them if they end up back home. I think Albania took them, last I heard.

I think the Dalai Lama has done an excellent job of whipping up western sympathy for Tibet, when the vast majority of those sympathizers know nothing whatsoever about the history. It's not like the Dalai Lama is some Ghandi-like character or the native Tibetans had a peaceful utopia before the PRC marched in. There is some serious history there and it's not all rosy for the Tibetans.

As stated there are more, MANY MORE things going on all over the world that make Tibet look like neverland. The world (not just the US) has to start to come together and I think it's going to take many generations, or a close encounter of the third kind to finally do it.

Everyone should check this out:

http://www.theshiftmovie.com/home.html

Agreed, but it's still better to be autonomous and have your own identity than be forcibly annexed by a reckless imperialist power like China. I guess if anyone should be happy about these developments, it's the Taiwanese. Any saber-rattling on the part of the Chinese against Taiwan would only work against them right now as most of the ROW seems to sympathize with the Tibetans and would see it as just another chapter in bullyish Chinese expansionism.

I'll take that bet.

I think the Olympics will be spectacular. The Chinese have too much pride riding on them, and they're certainly not going to make asses of themselves when the world is watching them closely.

Yup.

First Tibet then start ratcheting up the pressure on Taiwan.

Heavens, no, not the United Nations. The US should never surrender its soverenty to some world government. Don't they have black helicopters or something? It's much better for the US to unilaterally infringe on other nations' sovernty than to involve some socialist sounding world body like the United Nations. Didn't Bush I teach us that.

Wait a minute. Do I have that backwards?

Relax. Irony is a global language. Even a durn for'ner fully enjoy it!

Right you are. Diplomacy and working in cooperation with other nations is.......wimpy. Much better to just send in a couple of aircraft carriers and a few thousand troops.

Our 7th fleet is what has prevented the same fate from befalling Taiwan as has befallen Tibet.

And look what it gets us!

Unfortunately many who say "diplomacy" really mean "giving in". Yes, I will take military force to unquestionably giving in every time.

It's someone else's turn. The US has been cleaning up these messes for years, only to get criticized for it.
Let's see how many of these outspoken countries are willing to step up to the plate.

Those are.....outsiders. Those who actually engage in diplomatic discussions or make diplomatic decisions don't think those two terms are synomyms. Sadly, they might bargain for the wrong things. Like personal gain. But those two terms are only synomyms in the minds of folks who think foreign relations is simple. Like Dubya, for instance.

Shhhhhhh.....

Taiwan has serious economic considerations...hence the 7th fleet.

I'm all for us not being the world's policemen. Does that mean we can get out of Iraq now? After all, we went there because Saddam was being a tyrant and killing his own people, right?

No, it was because he hated our freedom. Or was it the sand? We coveted his sand. Yeah, that's it. :)

It's just a pipe dream to think we can do anything about Tibet. The PRC holds all the cards here. Tibet is more remote than anything in Afghanistan and IIRC, the lowest elevation in the whole place is around 11k ft., most of it considerably higher. The PRC can do whatever the hell they want here. They own our bonds, they make everything we buy and know we won't cross a certain line. The more we whine about it, the more hypocritical we look regarding all the other tragedies in the world, where we actually could do something and don't. BTW, remember after Tiananmen Sq. happened in 1989, while Bush was publicly decrying the whole thing on tv, he had already sent Brent Scowcroft to China to quietly reassure them that they wouldn't lose MFN status. If they can get away with massacreing thousands of students in public in their capital and do it all on tv, they certainly ain't worried about silencing a much less vocal minority in their most remote area.

I think one big problem is that the Chinese actually are fully convinced their actions are completely justified and that the international community are imbecile hypocrites that ought to mind their own business. We just don´t have the same outlook and perspective on things.

Absolutely correct.

China views the whole Tibet situation as if they can't understand why the Tibetans aren't thankful to have the Han coming in to civilize the place, building roads, a railroad, boosting tourism, etc. But, as I mentioned in another thread, there are Tibetans who support China's actions. They were the former serfs in Tibet's feudal system before the PRC came in and shook things up.

"Those are.....outsiders. Those who actually engage in diplomatic discussions or make diplomatic decisions don't think those two terms are synomyms. Sadly, they might bargain for the wrong things. Like personal gain. But those two terms are only synomyms in the minds of folks who think foreign relations is simple. Like Dubya, for instance."

Jeezuz Christ what are you trying to say? Who's an outsider? What two terms? And what's a synomym? Is there one thread on here where you haven't found a way to blame, insult or just plain whine about Bush? Do you really think nations (like companies or people) don't bargain for their own personal gain? Will you be attending the Chinese Grand Prix this year?

It's hard to gauge what's really happening over there from Western media reports. The protests seemed to be timed with the Olympics, so they are probably politically inspired. You can light a firecracker in a street corner these days, and get on CNN if it's the right street corner.
The Tibet picture is not all black and white. The young people there are more sympathetic with China, because there is more opportunity for industrial development, and education and job opportunities for them.
So says the book "The Silk Road" written by a BBC journalist about his travels through the Western part of China. It may be a clash of the past vs the future.