Monday, October 22, 2007
reuters.com - Tibetan monks "clash" with police over Dalai Lama
(Below is the whole article copied from here.)
Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:03am EDT
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of Buddhist monks, celebrating a U.S. award for the Dalai Lama, clashed with police for four days in the capital of Tibet, the far-west Himalayan region of China, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Sunday.
China, which reviles the Dalai Lama as a separatist, has angrily denounced the award of the Congressional Gold Medal as a "farce" that would hurt relations between Beijing and Washington.
After the clash, about 1,100 monks and dozens of visitors were not allowed to leave the Zhaibung monastery in Lhasa which was surrounded by 3,000 armed police, the Ming Pao newspaper said.
It did not say if there had been any arrests or injuries, but there had also been clashes at a nearby monastery and police had set up checkpoints on the main roads in the area.
It gave no further details.
Tibet has been ruled by China since communist troops invaded in 1950, and the government deals harshly with Tibetans who press for greater political and religious freedom.
U.S. President George W. Bush awarded the Dalai Lama the medal on Wednesday and called on China to open talks with him.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Spitting, Littering and Clearing One's Throat Loudly in Public
> The government is hoping to use the Olympics to help its citizens get more civilized.
> To reduce queue jumping, the municipal government has set the 11th day of each month as the "queuing day", urging citizens to stand in line to get on bus, subway or buying tickets.
> During the week-long May day holiday this year, more than 50 people in Beijing have been fined up to 50 yuan (about US$6.7) for spitting.
More here.
Lekima Typhoon
Confucius Quotes at Olympics
Reporter Jailed for Hoax
Chinese "New Social Stratum"
Excerpts:
The "new social stratum" includes private entrepreneurs, technicians and managerial-level staff in private or foreign-funded companies, the self-employed and employees in intermediate organizations.
It is estimated that the "new social stratum" consists of 50 million such professionals, who possess or manage capital totaling 10 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion), according to the UFWD.
"Through the class, we inform and publicize the new policies and guidelines of the CPC to the new social stratum, learn their thinking, and discover, train and select candidates to form a talent contingent outside the CPC," Lin says.
Private entrepreneurs are trying to win elections for village committee heads, deputies of people's congresses and members of political advisory bodies.
The most outstanding representatives are Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, and Chen Zhu, Minister of Health, who were the first non-Communist cabinet appointments since the 1970s when China launched its economic reform and opening up, Zhen says.The most outstanding representatives are Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, and Chen Zhu, Minister of Health, who were the first non-Communist cabinet appointments since the 1970s when China launched its economic reform and opening up, Zhen says.
chinadaily.com - Tibet Official - cont.
An illusion called 'greater Tibet area'
A Chinese interpretation of Dalai Lama's vision and goal of "greater Tibet area" and his alleged reasons for claiming this area. The article shows misinterpretation of history, and mainly accuses Dalai Lama of an attempt to get rid of other than Tibetan ethnic groups (referred to as "ethnic cleansing") and pleasing 'foreign bosses'.
Excerpts:
The Dalai Lama, however, has been insisting on the establishment of a political entity in Tibetan-inhabited areas to build an "alliance" relationship with China, requiring all other ethnic groups to move out of the so-called "greater Tibet area" and millions of people to give up their ancestral homes.
This is not only an attempt to change the current relation between the central and the local government, but also a move to implement ethnic discrimination and ethnic cleansing. We must learn from the slaughters and bloodshed caused by ethnic conflicts and disputes the world over.
Then why does the Dalai Lama insist on this groundless and impossible concept of "greater Tibet area"? There are at least two reasons. One is that many of the Tibetan people exiled with the Dalai Lama in 1959 are from Tibetan areas outside the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Dalai Lama needs to set a common illusion of "a united, independent and free Tibet" to buy these people's support. The other reason is that the claim was designed by their foreign bosses and they, as their flunkies, dare not disobey it.
The Dalai Lama and his followers in his "government in exile" have often expressed their recognition of the Simla Conference. Therefore, the so-called "greater Tibet area" in essence is "semi-independent" or in "disguised independence", which aims to serve the open and complete "Tibet Independence" and disunite a quarter of China's territory in future.
But the Dalai Lama and his alike do not really understand that the political claims they make against historical development and reality to please their foreign bosses, no matter under what splendid banners, are only "medieval fantasies" that go against the time and the interests of Tibetan people as well as people of all ethnic groups in China. The Chinese government will not be fooled!
