Olympic Protests

The olympics has already been a real catalyst for change in China, and there was a potential for positive change to continue. It's plain to any regular visitor that China has been thinking very carefully about things the World may see and despise in China, and taking great steps to put many of them right ahead of the olympics. But it seems to me that the Tibet protests and the political grandstanding of leaders runs a very real risk of reversing it.

Of course I have sympathy for Tibetan people and every people who want their independence. China is hardly alone in such conflicts. But it's not the kind of issue to be solved in this way. Would Russia give independence to Chechnya, would Britain have given independence to Northern Ireland, would the USA get out of Iraq because of Olympics protests? Of course they would not.

What the protests *are* doing is disillusioning the Chinese government and Chinese people. Do you really want to send the message to the Chinese government that their efforts on many levels to join the community of nations will count for nothing; that vilification lies at the end of every avenue of effort? Where's the carrot?

In any case, much of the Western media coverage has been inaccurate and unfair. I've seen pictures of people in Tibetan police or Nepalese soldiers kicking the living shit out of Tibetan monks, but labelled and described as the Chinese army. I'm quite sure it's because the big news agencies parachute-in ignorant foreign correspondents who don't speak the language and don't have time to explore and discover for themselves between news broadcasts. The 'truth' they report is whatever their preconception thinks it catches on camera. But it's really the best way to make Chinese people distrust the Western media.