CGTN
ON THE WEB, 5 June 2021
Tibet, a beautiful, mysterious place, has been a target of Western countries to stir up trouble for China.
For the past 70 years, they have been wearing rose-tinted lens when looking at this sacred land.
They relate the “Tibet issue” to human rights and religious issues to criticize China and even try to separate it from China.
Why do they do so?
First, if we see it from a historical point of view, the concept of “Tibet independence” is a continuation of imperialist politics. This concept was not originated in China, but was imported from foreign countries following their imperialist aggression against China.
The United Kingdom used its colony, India, as a base to invade Tibet twice in 1888 and 1904. It brought false concepts such as “Tibet has the right to seek independence” into the minds of some upper-class Tibetans.
Second, the West’s strategy of containing or deterring China’s peaceful rise is fundamental in playing the “Tibet card.”
Since the reform and opening-up, China has achieved rapid development, which has caught the West in a contradictory state. On the one hand, they hoped to benefit from China’s development as much as possible; on the other, they were afraid that China would break the international rules and interests they had established, so they tried to use every opportunity to contain China, and wanted to make the multi-ethnic China split like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
However, since the 1980s, especially after the Cold War, peace and development became the mainstream of the era, and violence was no longer a feasible option for great powers to deal with their relations.
Under such circumstances, Western countries chose to weaponize “human rights” to undermine the international image and soft power of non-ally emerging countries. The “Tibet issue” thus became a geopolitical tool to disrupt China’s national security and obstruct its efforts to create a friendly international environment for its economic development.
Third, from an ideological point of view, the “Tibet issue” meets the needs of Western political groups.
“Anti-communism” is a shared value for political conservatives in Western countries. As a socialist country and a leading emerging economy, China challenges not only the world’s power structure, but also the ideological structure dominated by the West. Therefore, “anti-communism” equates to “anti-China” for most Western conservatives.
Although Western countries are always playing the “Tibet card,” they cannot change the fact that Tibet is part of China, neither can they stop China’s development. They will only hurt themselves by their own doing.
Why do you publish such rant propaganda? If you think that you uphold free speech then you’ve got it all wrong.
Hi dear frds, YES, this is really offensive for all of us – also for a tibet support who lives in Finland. You Should Know CGTN is a propaganda machine funded by CCP. We expect an explanation for this absolutely incomprehensible journalistic disaster! Cheerio from Werner H. Fischer –
ps. I’m just a very simple Tibetan supporter ..!
Thank you for your support, but the bitter truth is that as the balance of power shifts eastwards we Tibetans have no alternative but to seek some way of coexistence with dignity within China. All media outlets are propaganda arms and readers are discerning enough to recognise what’s what. If BBC, NYT et al can still act like the ringmasters of global media after their hoaxes of WMDs and spurious genocides abetted the death of close to a million and utter devastation in Iraq, Syria and Libya, then CGTN is a tame parrot by comparison. I for one applaud TibetSun for taking the risk of platforming CGTN. At least it shows that we’ve an ear on what the opponent has to say, if only to disprove their claims, and also that we’re earnest in our offer of dialogue.
Please help free South Tibet. In February 1951, three and a half years after the British have left the subcontinent, India invaded and annexed Tawang, South Tibet, and occupy it to this day. Tawang is the Sixth Dalai Lama’s birthplace and home to the four hundred years old Tibetan monastery, the Tawang monastery. The Republic of China (aka Taiwan) vehemently condemned India’s land grab and vowed never to recognize South Tibet as part of India.
Today Tawang is under the draconian AFSPA (Armed Force Special Power Act). AFSPA gives the state the power to detain or kill anyone with impunity. It is a law meant to suppress dissent and intimidate the locals.