Mixing politics with Games is foul for both
Updated: 2008-04-23 07:27
As a native of China who has great affections for Tibetan culture, I was saddened by the violence that erupted in Tibet in March.
I learned Tibetan folk dance in Beijing years ago. I understood from the passion of my teacher and fellow classmates that Tibetan culture enjoyed the respect of China's majority Han population.
As a trainee journalist, I interviewed the Tibetan singer Caidan Drolma (in the Tibetan language her names mean "longevity" and "fairies," respectively). Her smile and golden voice in the song Emancipated Serfs to Sing the Song, which reflected her own experience, remain one of my fond memories.
Here in the United States, I always detect a whiff of politics when Tibet is mentioned. The Western media coverage on the violence has been critical of the Chinese government.
One scene that rekindled my feelings for Tibet was an interview on the privately owned television service for overseas Chinese, Sinovision, which featured an ordinary Tibetan woman who emotionally pointed out that the good life of the Tibetan people had been disrupted by violence committed by a few Tibetan mobs.
Interest groups want to utilize the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to advance their own causes. But as a Wall Street Journal reader from Hong Kong responded to a Journal op-ed article calling for a "Genocide Olympics" campaign, some people "forget that the whole point of the Olympics is its explicitly nonpolitical nature".
Some people believe it is fair to vent their grievances about China, but don't see any unfairness in depriving China and its people of their dream to host the Games. It would be equally unfair to deprive the world's athletes of their dreams and their chance to compete in the most important global athletic competition.
Using the Tibetan issue as a pawn on the chessboard of international politics is unfair both to China and to the Tibetan people.
Foreign reporters highlighted a few weeping monks at the Jokhang temple decrying Tibet's lack of freedom after an organized media trip to Tibet. Didn't the young Han Chinese man shown separately on Sinovision, whose teenage sister died in the fire lighted by a mob, deserve equal coverage?
It would be wrong to assume that the Chinese do not have free minds and that the government orchestrates everything.
This may be useful for all who genuinely care about the fate of Tibet and desire a constructive solution. As Mahatma Gandhi said, God ultimately saves him whose motive is pure.
The author is an associate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government The article first appeared in Boston Globe
(China Daily 04/23/2008 page9)
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