Dear Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi,

It is a great pleasure to write this letter to you.

We support your position that the current unrest in Tibet should be resolved through peaceful dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities. Such a dialogue is in fact taking place between the representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authority (see www.bbsland.com, April 14, 2008). Although we respect your personal (often critical) views about China, we, however, strongly question the wisdom and appropriateness of letting them sidetrack U.S. relations with a great Asian nation. We especially oppose the passage of the House Resolution 1077, which calls on the Chinese government to end its crackdown in Tibet. We believe that as a sovereign nation, the Chinese government has the right to deal with its own domestic violence and that a crackdown on terrorist acts to maintain peace and order is absolutely not a violation of human rights.  We are also troubled by your campaign to urge President Bush to boycott the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony on August 8, as a show of support for the rioters in Tibet.

We would like to draw your attention to Foster Stockwell's article, "Tibet - Myth and Reality" (see A New Chapter Blog, April 8, 2008). He writes: "The CIA is everywhere - Tibet, Afghanistan, Iraq, S America, etc, etc. Half the time, they create the problems for others..." and the following:

The idea that most Tibetans are unhappy about what has happened in Tibet and want independence from China is a product manufactured in the West and promoted by the dispossessed landlords who fled to India. Indeed, to believe it is true stretches logic to its breaking point. Who really can believe that a million former serfs - more than 90% of the population - are unhappy about having the shackles of serfdom removed? They now care for their own herds and farmland, marry whomever they wish without first getting their landlord's permission, aren't punished for disrespecting these same landlords, own their own homes, attend school, and have relatively modern hospitals, paved roads, airports and modern industries.

An objective measure of this progress is found in the population statistics. The Tibetan population has doubled since 1950, and the average Tibetan's life span has risen from 36 years at that time to 65 years at present.

Of course some Tibetans are unhappy with their lot, but a little investigation soon shows that they are, for the most part, people from families who lost their landlord privileges. There is plenty of evidence that the former serfs tell a quite different story.

You will find some Tibetans who hate the Hans (the majority nationality of China) and some Hans who hate the Tibetans, a matter of ordinary ethnic prejudice - something any American should be able to understand. But, this doesn't represent a desire for an independent Tibet any more than black- white hostilities in Washington, D.C., Detroit, or Boston represent a desire on the part of most African-Americans to form a separate nation.

Tibetan Culture Today

The final part of the Tibetan myth has to do with Tibetan culture, which the Dalai Lama's supporters say has been crushed by "the Chinese takeover of Tibet." Culture is an area that requires great care because it is fraught with biases and self-fulfilling judgments. The growth of television in America, for example, is cited as killing American culture by some and as enhancing it by others...

In deference to your strong intellect and rigor demonstrated in your able leadership in Congress, we sincerely urge that you make a few fine distinctions:

First is the distinction between the initial media misrepresentations due to incomplete information and the true facts that are only beginning to surface. General impressions to the contrary notwithstanding, the acts of violence by the  rioters were tantamount to acts of terrorism, as can be judged by the facts reported in The New York Times "As Tibet Erupted, China Wavered" (March 24, 2008). 

Citing a foreign tourist who exited from Lhasa with photos to illustrate what he had witnessed, the Times reported the following scene, after horror erupted on March 14: "Tibetans rampaged through the city's old quarter, waving steel scabbards and burning or looting Chinese shops."  It added: "Clothes, souvenirs and other tourist trinkets were dumped outside and set afire as thick gray smoke darkened the midday sky." Contrary to claims of bloody suppressions fed to Western press by Tibetans in nearby India, the same witness told of a different experience, i.e., the "missing police" on the day the violence erupted. This point was corroborated by James Miles, the Economist's correspondent based in Beijing, who was in Lhasa at the time. He also saw no police, while the rioters were smashing Chinese shops and setting them on fire, attacking Chinese on bicycles, and throwing rocks at taxis driven by Chinese. They even sacked the branch office of the Bank of China and burned it to a blackened husk. 

Perhaps the most egregious distortion based on news fed by the Tibetans was the caption for a photo published in a German newspaper that depicted a 14‑year old Tibetan being "dragged out by police" in a bloody scene. The true fact is, as the 14‑year old, a Han Chinese named Luo Jie, later spoke out in person, he was being rescued by two guards from a Tibetan mob lynching him (see report in Qiao Bao, a Chinese‑language newspaper in New York, April 1, 2008).

Second, a distinction between the unfounded claims by the Tibetans that Tibet was an independent country, but forcibly "occupied by China since the 1950s" on the one hand, and the true legal status of Tibet, on the other.   Not only was Tibet never recognized by any foreign state as an independent nation, but a treaty signed by Britain and Russia in 1907 explicitly recognized that Tibet was part of China.

Errik Granqvist, a Finnish expert in Shanghai, said that he was mad with the biased report of the Tibetan incident. He said that the Chinese government liberated slaves during the Dalai Lama's "theocratic dictatorship."  During the Dalai Lama's rule, he said "about 5% of the population owned everything and the rest literally nothing.  About 40% of the Tibetans were monks and nuns living as parasites on the rest of the population that had to feed them."  "Now Lhasa has a modern airport and a railway, China has invested a lot in Tibet.  The standard of living has been raised a lot," he added. (see Wenxuecity.com, April 2, 2008).

Third is a distinction between violence and peaceful protest.  Violent protests were planned and carried out as a calculated distortion before the Olympics to demand China to talk to the Dalai Lama.  There is no justification of unprovoked killing, beating, smashing, looting and arson in the broad daylight in Tibet. 

It must be noted that talks had been conducted between the representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities in the past. No results were reached because one of the Dalai Lama's conditions to form a pan-Tibetan region including Tibet proper and areas where Tibetans reside in Xinjiang, Gansu, Sichuan, Qinghai and Yunnan provinces.  Nicholas D. Kristof suggested  in The New York Times "A Not-So-Fine Romance" (April 3, 2008) that the Dalai Lama accept that the Tibetan region encompasses only what is now labeled Tibet on the maps, not the much larger region of historic Tibet that has continued to be claimed.