MADRAS, India — When I was at Deauville recently to cover the Asian Film Festival, I was surprised to see Tibetan protesters carrying placards urging independence for their homeland.
Hours later, my French friend in Cannes — who has adopted a sweet Tibetan girl — called to say that Europeans greatly sympathize with a people who have not only lost their home but also their culture and way of life.
China has been aggressively trying to alter the very ethnicity of Tibet by encouraging, even forcing, many Chinese to migrate there. The railway to Lhasa is one recent development that aids and abets this policy.