Over the past few weeks, reporters and politicians around the globe have turned their attention to Tibet. On March 10 an annual protest by Tibetans to commemorate the 1959 failed uprising in Lhasa turned into riots that were met by a brutal crackdown by Chinese police and the Chinese military. Although tight military control is nothing new for Tibet, these protests have received widespread media attention because they come in the lead up to this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
China views hosting the Olympics as a way to demonstrate their power and prestige on the world stage and proclaim President Hu Jintao’s concept of a “harmonious society” as a global model. The recent protests are an attempt not only to draw international attention to the Tibet question, but they also seek to highlight, in a very visible way, a different side of what is taking place in China.
The Dalai Lama was forced into exile following the March 10 1959 uprising, and the Chinese government calculates that they can wait until the Dalai Lama passes away and then watch international support for Tibet disappear. It is for this reason that many Tibetans, including those arrested for protesting the Olympic Torch in London and Paris this week, call for a free, not autonomous, Tibet. A free Tibet, they argue, is the only way to ensure the survival of Tibetan culture and their people. Han migration into Tibet, a globally-dispersed Tibetan Diaspora, and waning international support—at least until the last few weeks—made it clear that, as one Tibetan activist put it, the choice for Tibetans is either independence or extinction.
The lead-up to the Beijing Olympics, then, is seen as an unprecedented chance for Tibetans to challenge the Chinese government. The Olympics are a peculiar thing. A source of pride for China, it is clear that Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee, wants to avoid any question of politics. In a press release, Rogge states that “the IOC respects NGOs and activist groups and their causes, and speaks regularly with them—but we are neither a political nor an activist organization.” But are the Olympics really apolitical?
Not according to John Hoberman, a sports historian at the University of Texas. In an interview on NPR, he cites a number of Olympic Games that carried political overtones. Hitler hosted the world in 1936 in Berlin in an effort to propagandize Nazism. Another example is the Black Power demonstrations at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, which Hoberman cites as “one of the great political moments in the history of the Olympic
movement.” Yet, he continues, it took decades for American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos to “recover their reputations and be recognized as political heroes” after raising their fists during a medal ceremony. In 1972, Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. President Carter organized a forty-country boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, and the Soviets responded in kind four years later in 1984.
Tibetans, not to mention many other groups pressuring China over this year’s Olympics, are right to challenge the stream of Olympics propaganda coming from Beijing. President Nicholas Sarkozy of France has called on China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Last week, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a personal friend of the Dalai Lama, called on President Bush to consider boycotting the Opening Ceremonies. Yesterday, Senator Hillary Clinton made the same appeal.
Despite the political posturing of many global leaders, the goal of Tibetans and Tibet support groups is to bring Chinese policy towards Tibet into sharp focus. Over the past few weeks, Beijing has reported 22 deaths as a result of the riots in Tibet (Xinhua, the official Chinese government news agency, maintains that many of these deaths were Chinese citizens who were burned or killed by Tibetan rioters). The Tibetan exile government—created by the Dalai Lama upon entering into exile in India—reports that around 130 Tibetans have been killed in the crackdown. Independent verification, however, of any of these numbers is nearly impossible due to the tight controls that the Chinese government places on foreign media.
The Chinese government recently led a press tour through Lhasa in hopes of quelling international outcry over media control. Beijing was granted the opportunity to host the Olympics in an understanding that the government would lessen restrictions on foreign media, as well as look to promote human rights in all areas of China. In fact, the Chinese government has done the opposite. Various groups have seized the Olympic Torch Relay as an opportunity to highlight the lack of progress in precisely these areas.
The torch recently began its worldwide tour on what is the most expansive route ever undertaken, as Beijing is quick to point out. Indeed, the planned relay includes an ascent of Mount Everest and a stop in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, before trekking over the Tibetan plateau to Beijing. This effort to carry the torch through Tibet is a contentious issue, to say the least, for Tibetans and their supporters. Over the past few days, protecting the torch has proven to be quite a spectacle—with the torchbearer moving in tandem with a considerable throng of Beijing and local security personnel jogging, biking, and even rollerblading alongside.
Many organizations are also planning protests for April 9 in San Francisco, when the flame makes its first and only stop in the United States. Here at Wesleyan, there will be an event at noon on April 9 in Usdan hosted by Students for a Free Tibet. Students are encouraged to dress in red and stand in solidarity with Tibetans in Tibet who cannot express their opinions without facing serious, even lethal, reprisals.
The Olympic Games today still operate as a political vehicle. Protesting against the Olympic Games is not something to be discouraged or threatened or even stopped. We should be able to understand that, in the end, these actions do not take away from the spirit of the Games. Rather, they strive to achieve the original purpose of peace and cooperation. Beijing is quick to condemn the protests, arguing the Games should not be about politics. They would do well to heed their own advice.
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