Regarding the April 16 article "What China and the world must do now," I am surprised and disappointed that professor Tom Plate understands so little about the anti-Chinese protests sweeping the world. I and everyone else are well aware of the fact that China regards Tibet as a part of China. The problem is that, while the Chinese believe that Tibet is a part of China, the Tibetans do not. That is why they have dared stand up to the Chinese-controlled government after half a century of seeing their culture marginalized, their priests forced to attend political brainwashing sessions, and their homes and property made subject to laws created and enforced by Chinese officials specifically to benefit Han Chinese immigrants at the expense of native Tibetans.
I do not begrudge China for having won its Olympic bid. I want the Olympics to take place in China, because it gives the people of China a chance that their state-controlled media would otherwise deny them -- a chance to see how their government's policies have hurt innocent people, and how much the world despises them for it. Speaking as an American, I am fully aware of how my own country lost its honor and reputation as a consequence of invading Iraq, and I have taken comfort from the knowledge that my awareness has enabled myself an others to do something about it. I can only hope that, sooner or later, the people of China can come to the same realization and take the same necessary steps.
But that cannot happen unless the people of China are constantly reminded of what China has done. And emphatically that is impossible unless the Olympics become the subject of protest. Remember, the Chinese government has banned all foreign press from reporting inside Tibet, and has a distressing tendency to jail reporters who criticize the government inside China itself.
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