Sunday, March 23, 2008


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.

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