Last night on TV there was a very interesting debate about the Olympic games and Tibet, with the Chinese Ambassador Qu Xing, Rama Yade, secretary of state to human rights (that would be the translation from the french) Alain Duhamel, a well-known political commentator, Laurent Fabius, socialist heavyweight and former PM, the editor of Libération, a eft-leaning newspaper, and another guy whose name i've forgotten.
Qu Xing compared the incidents in Tibet to riots in Villiers-Le-Bel a few months back, where after an accident between a police car and one of those stupid mini motorbikes the two kids on the motorbike died (how they both managed to fit on the thing is behond my understanding), which started riots in which kids from the suburbs stoned, shot at, and basically attacked policemen.
Now, this comparison isn't really relevant; as I recall Villiers-Le-Bel has something like 26000 inhabitants and it was a bunch of angry kids who were doing the attacking.
I guess that's how Qu Xing saw it; citizens disobeying the law, nothing more. Thing is, those kids weren't asking for autonomy, and apart from those two poor kinds on the bike and a cop i think, no-one died.
Anyway, they went on about boycott for a while; today there's a meeting between european ministers of Foreign Affairs, and Rama Yade was lambasted because she refused to say clearly whether Bernard Kouchner, our minister, was going to propose boycott if the situation didn't sort itself out. She actually is one of the most useless people in government because she's never allowed to do anything;when Sarkozy went to China, he didn't even let her come. Probably afraid she'd create tensions, she's suposed to be outspoken and frank. Which doesn't stop her from evading questions she doesn't want to answer, like all politicians.
And it's been said that Angela Merkel, the german chancellor, won't be attending the opening ceremony of the Games.
All in all, a very interesting program.
Showing posts with label Tibet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tibet. Show all posts
Friday, March 28, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Tibet again
situation not evolving, really.
Here there is a starting to be a call for a boycott of the Games.
Apparently 53% of the french are in favour of Sarkozy boycotting the opening ceremony of the Games, not the competitions. (well, yes, it'd be a shame not to win a few medals, wouldn't it :D)
interesting position though; a token boycott, just the opening ceremony.
55% of the population does not want the athletes to boycott the games; and 71% thinks that the Olympic Committee should meddle in human rights, although its president, Jacques Rogge, has been saying that it isn't the Committee's purpose, and a number of political figures, such as george Bush, have opposed the boycott on the ground that the Games aren't political, but are just a sporting event.
Which is slightly naive, especially after the USA's call to boycott the 1980's Olympics in Moscow after the invasion of Afghanistan. Which, according to Vladimir Federovski, aide to Mikhail Gorbachev, had some slight use.
We've had to listen to Bernard-henri Levy's usual flowery indignation (french left-wing philosopher and writer); Robert Ménard, head of Reporters sans Frontières (reporters without borders) has been calling for a boycott for months to protest against China's imprisonment of journalists; well, let's say he's on overdrive at the moment.
The reelected mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, thinks that a boycott isn't the solution, but that something has to be done. Not hearing any proposals though.
From what I've heard, boycott isn't a popular solution in most of Europe; Britain is against it, but that might also be because they're hosting the Games in 2012 and fear a backlash; on the other hand, Gordon Brown should be seeing the Dalai Lama in the coming days or weeks.
Yes, populations are in favour of boycotting (like in Sweden, 70% of the population) but governements, athletes, national olympic committees are opposed to it.
The question is : would a boycott make China change it ways? Or would it drive the country into isolation and make enemies out of the chinese people who are very proud to be hosting these Games?
I don't think China will change because a bunch of jumped-up foreigners didn't come. And yet something needs to be done.
The problem is, China seems to see the West as wanting to smear China, which is practical since then anything said against China can be cast off as gratuitous.
Like Nancy Pelosi, who the Chinese accused of being muddled and habitually bad-tempered. ( a reason for her comments, which didn't agree with them of course)
Rather unfair, and terribly sexist. But that's a whole other story.
I'm betting there won't be a boycott. The Olympics are in five months; that gives China ample time to smooth things over.
Here there is a starting to be a call for a boycott of the Games.
Apparently 53% of the french are in favour of Sarkozy boycotting the opening ceremony of the Games, not the competitions. (well, yes, it'd be a shame not to win a few medals, wouldn't it :D)
interesting position though; a token boycott, just the opening ceremony.
55% of the population does not want the athletes to boycott the games; and 71% thinks that the Olympic Committee should meddle in human rights, although its president, Jacques Rogge, has been saying that it isn't the Committee's purpose, and a number of political figures, such as george Bush, have opposed the boycott on the ground that the Games aren't political, but are just a sporting event.
Which is slightly naive, especially after the USA's call to boycott the 1980's Olympics in Moscow after the invasion of Afghanistan. Which, according to Vladimir Federovski, aide to Mikhail Gorbachev, had some slight use.
We've had to listen to Bernard-henri Levy's usual flowery indignation (french left-wing philosopher and writer); Robert Ménard, head of Reporters sans Frontières (reporters without borders) has been calling for a boycott for months to protest against China's imprisonment of journalists; well, let's say he's on overdrive at the moment.
The reelected mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, thinks that a boycott isn't the solution, but that something has to be done. Not hearing any proposals though.
From what I've heard, boycott isn't a popular solution in most of Europe; Britain is against it, but that might also be because they're hosting the Games in 2012 and fear a backlash; on the other hand, Gordon Brown should be seeing the Dalai Lama in the coming days or weeks.
Yes, populations are in favour of boycotting (like in Sweden, 70% of the population) but governements, athletes, national olympic committees are opposed to it.
The question is : would a boycott make China change it ways? Or would it drive the country into isolation and make enemies out of the chinese people who are very proud to be hosting these Games?
I don't think China will change because a bunch of jumped-up foreigners didn't come. And yet something needs to be done.
The problem is, China seems to see the West as wanting to smear China, which is practical since then anything said against China can be cast off as gratuitous.
Like Nancy Pelosi, who the Chinese accused of being muddled and habitually bad-tempered. ( a reason for her comments, which didn't agree with them of course)
Rather unfair, and terribly sexist. But that's a whole other story.
I'm betting there won't be a boycott. The Olympics are in five months; that gives China ample time to smooth things over.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Well
As a first post on an unknown blog, I suppose i could choose easier than the situation in Tibet.
Problem is, it is bugging me at the moment. So I shall have a short rant.
I won't presume I'm very well-informed on the subject, but as a student of chinese and China it holds a personal interest.
Shuang, my mainland chinese fwend (definitely not to be mistaken with the taiwanese students hanging around in our classes, especially since she nearly had a full-blown argument with one of them Thursday) came out with a terribly subversive stance earlier: "the situation is very grave and western media is deforming the truth". She didn't go as far as to say that it was because we all hated China; on the other hand we are in France, studying in a State university with a fair number of chinese students(and students learning chinese), so it might've been slightly paradoxal. Although, leaving aside the fact that she loves her country, she's not usually quite so nationalistic, and is a lot more perceptive.
Some things, like Tibet and Taiwan, seem there just to drive China crazy, it would be quite entertaining if people's lives weren't at stake.
So last week Shuang, I and a couple of friends had a presentation to do in our geopolitics class on the relations between China and Taiwan, which was pretty fascinating, and i think some of the conclusions we came up with can be transposed to Tibet.(is transposed actually used in English?I've lived in France too long)
The crux of the matter was this obsessive idea of China's of becoming a major power in this world; behind all this there seems to be this idea that as long as China is divided (so, missing Taiwan, or dissent in Tibet)the country isn't a major power, and so isn't safe.
Could also be behind the urge to get Hong Kong and Macau back.
On the other hand, as a french journalist was going on on TV a few nights ago, the world is afraid of China, underneath it all.
Just look at the US; China holds the largest amount of what's their names,US bonds;the US economy is shaky enough at the moment, thanks to some brilliant bankers who initiated that subprime mortgage crisis.
I can only give my own opinion here, and it would be that China is going to lose a lot out of this.
I also think the international community should agree on some kind of pressure to stop this. It's just not acceptable that the world stands by while people are dying before our very eyes. Yes, we need China, but China also needs us; and i don't think we're doing ourselves a favour by putting out that this repression is acceptable.
I can only hope the chinese government will accept the Dalai Lama's calls for peace and negotiations. How they can go on insulting him when he has always advocated peace, and then accuse the western media of trying to smear China, is beyond my understanding.
And the cat is trying to use my keyboard as a bathroom.Fitting.
Problem is, it is bugging me at the moment. So I shall have a short rant.
I won't presume I'm very well-informed on the subject, but as a student of chinese and China it holds a personal interest.
Shuang, my mainland chinese fwend (definitely not to be mistaken with the taiwanese students hanging around in our classes, especially since she nearly had a full-blown argument with one of them Thursday) came out with a terribly subversive stance earlier: "the situation is very grave and western media is deforming the truth". She didn't go as far as to say that it was because we all hated China; on the other hand we are in France, studying in a State university with a fair number of chinese students(and students learning chinese), so it might've been slightly paradoxal. Although, leaving aside the fact that she loves her country, she's not usually quite so nationalistic, and is a lot more perceptive.
Some things, like Tibet and Taiwan, seem there just to drive China crazy, it would be quite entertaining if people's lives weren't at stake.
So last week Shuang, I and a couple of friends had a presentation to do in our geopolitics class on the relations between China and Taiwan, which was pretty fascinating, and i think some of the conclusions we came up with can be transposed to Tibet.(is transposed actually used in English?I've lived in France too long)
The crux of the matter was this obsessive idea of China's of becoming a major power in this world; behind all this there seems to be this idea that as long as China is divided (so, missing Taiwan, or dissent in Tibet)the country isn't a major power, and so isn't safe.
Could also be behind the urge to get Hong Kong and Macau back.
On the other hand, as a french journalist was going on on TV a few nights ago, the world is afraid of China, underneath it all.
Just look at the US; China holds the largest amount of what's their names,US bonds;the US economy is shaky enough at the moment, thanks to some brilliant bankers who initiated that subprime mortgage crisis.
I can only give my own opinion here, and it would be that China is going to lose a lot out of this.
I also think the international community should agree on some kind of pressure to stop this. It's just not acceptable that the world stands by while people are dying before our very eyes. Yes, we need China, but China also needs us; and i don't think we're doing ourselves a favour by putting out that this repression is acceptable.
I can only hope the chinese government will accept the Dalai Lama's calls for peace and negotiations. How they can go on insulting him when he has always advocated peace, and then accuse the western media of trying to smear China, is beyond my understanding.
And the cat is trying to use my keyboard as a bathroom.Fitting.
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