I have been mostly off line for the past three weeks, and so am trying to make some sense of what is going on in China and outside.
I must be honest and reveal my cards now: I know and love China, have been there some 20 times (some 65 weeks) in the past 10 years on business, and am passionately committed to developing better relations between my nation (UK) and other nations with China. I am also very committed to justice, and I want to see the people and nation of China growing in peace, prosperity and freedom. (As a Christian my reference point for that is the Hebrew word Shalom and its kindred word in Arabic Salaam. The meaning of both is wide -- peace, prosperity, welfare, well-being, rest, wholeness, and more.)
I have looked forward to the Olympics with my Chinese friends since their announcement in July 2001, and I have seen the excitement in them as they have embraced this opportunity for China to take its part on the world stage. However I have also feared what would emerge this year as I saw Human Rights activists (and I have to say also my fellow Christians) in my nation and others talking up the opportunities this year will bring to get their various opinions and messages across. I have tried to encourage those I know to take a different approach, and still do. And I have grown increasingly despairing as I have watched this horrible situation develop in the past six weeks and it has gone beyond what I had feared. It is still only April. We have five months before the games are over.
I have been trying to condense down some of the news reports and short papers that have been appearing in the west in recent days, to follow the different threads that are emerging, and make some sense of it all. That part of this post is on the extension. But today I read a post of a Chinese blogger that said everything I want to say. So I will let him say it, for he has more right to say it than I do.
Wang Jianshou is one of China's leading bloggers. In his post today, Brief Chat with Andrew, he reports of a conversation with a Wall Street Journal reporter. He is honest about his own feelings at the political situation. We need to hear him. He speaks as a Chinese man, with experience working in International companies in China, business trips to the US etc, and and with extensive experience just assimilating the views of the many readers of his blog and interacting with them. He loves to use his blog to help visitors to China and especially his home city, Shanghai. He loves his nation, but is not blind to its .
In the last few weeks, I saw protests; I saw boycotts; I saw many news headlines in all major media; and I saw hundreds of BBS posts; but in short, I saw misunderstanding - that is the major thing I saw. Behind it, from some limited times, I saw conspiracy, but most of the time, it appears to be misunderstanding to me, more than anything else. .... Read on
I won't spoil Jianshou's simple but profound argument by condensing it here. It needs to be read. But I want to say I agree with it, Jianshou, and my many Chinese friends. Lets start talking.
A week ago in his post Not Just Identify Problems for China - Solve Them! Wang Jianshou got to the heart of what this is all about. The perception that the Chinese will be robbed of the Olympics. [the post includes two comments he made to his readers. This is in the second.]
The second reason: because it is Olympic. If it were not Olympic Games, people may not take it so personally. Olympic is a dream of Chinese people for 100 years (please note: this is long before the current Communist Party was formed). Being invaded by many countries in the 1800s, and being a backward country for even longer, people in China do want to find a change to get back to the center stage of the world. That is the dream of almost everyone. For people outside China, it may be hard to understand the importance of this Game to normal people in China. So, by definition, Olympic don't have too much to do with the government, in some sense. Unlike people in many other country who just take it as a sport event, people in China don't think it that way. So, because of this, any attack to the Olympic Game in Beijing is the attack to the people.
Just as I told delegation from the US Congress, it is like the big fat wedding ceremony of the PEOPLE, not the government. Ruin the opening ceremony of a company is not a big deal for its employees, but to ruin someone's wedding is completely another story.
Contemplating the possible results of this situation, Time magazine's China Blog wrote these very poingant words a few days ago: Sound and Fury: 'Goons,' the Carrefour Boycott, Nepal etc etc.
I just hope that we can get through to a fairly calm, successful Olympics without adding another scar to the Chinese roll call of national humiliation: the Opium wars, first burning of Summer Palace, Boxer Rebellion, invasions, second burning, Japanese invasion and various other malfeasances, this list now possibly ending with some sort of half baked boycott of the Olympics. Frankly, I think we all hoped (and wrote) that a successful staging of the Olympics would allow Chinese to get beyond that stale archetype and take a confident place on the world stage.
So much of the emotion underlying this present situation emerges from the very deep offence caused by the historical events referred to. To contemplate that instead of honour, China will be caused to loose face so badly is beyond my worst nightmare. I can only pray that something will change.
Before moving on to other media here are some more recent posts of Wang Jianshou's that show shed light on this situation from the perspective of the reasonably educated Chinese person, and the comment it brings from both Chinese in he PRC, overseas Chinese and others:
6th April Why I didn't cover about Tibet
9th April Errors in Western Media report about Tibet and More discussion on Tibet
13th April Not Just Identify Problems for China - Solve Them!
15th April Standing Cross Different Lines
16th April "Love China" Blooms on MSN Messenger
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History of China - Tibet relations, and Western presence in both.
Argument continues over Tibet's past status The IHT sets a review of perspectives on Tibetan history in the context of a museum looking at the history of Tibet to be opened in Beijing this summer.
Tibet’s history, China’s power The growth of a pan-Tibetan identity underlies the current wave of protest against Chinese rule in Tibet, says George Fitzherbert on OpenDemocracy.
Tibet, China, and the west: empires of the mind The clash over the status and future of Tibet has been transformed by the idea of sovereignty, says Dibyesh Anand on OpenDemocracy.
The argument remains open. To be honest can it ever be solved. Not when it remains the fuel of nationalism. As a westerner, and especially as a Brit, I certainly can claim no moral highground from which to argue about what happened or even less about the rights of the Tibetans.
The Chinese Protest Tibetan Independence and an Olympic Boycott.
Chinese press reports on protests in China Protests against "Tibet independence" supporters erupt in Chinese cities and on Protests by Chinese in the UK Overseas Chinese in Britain rally in protest against Western media distortion; in the New York Overseas Chinese in U.S. protest against media bias in Tibet issue coverage and in LA Overseas Chinese rally in LA against CNN's anti-Chinese remarks
Chinese students show their love for the motherland at Place de la République in Paris
Chinese Urge Anti-West Boycott Over Tibet Stance The NYT on how a popular backlash in China against Western support for Tibet has increasingly unnerved the ruling Communist Party.
China urges 'rational' protests China has urged its citizens to be calm amid further anti-Western protests in the country, focused on French supermarket chain Carrefour. The official Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily, said patriotism should be expressed rationally.
And the IHT reports the challenge to anyone who has sought to bring the sides together: Chinese student in U.S. is caught in confrontation
A Firm Call to Boycott the Beijing Olympics
Olympics of shame The refusal to participate in the Beijing Olympics in protest at China's repressive policies in Tibet is an ethical imperative, says Ramin Jahanbegloo on OpenDemocracy.
Reports on the threat of terror during the Olympics
China's Murky Olympic Terror Treat in Time and a Time Blog post with many responses Shout Out
The many Chinese comments have a point. A cynical report of a murky, rather politically driven report of terror? Haven't we had those on Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, al-Quaeda, the War on Terror, etc?
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This is just a short selection. As so often occurs this post has taken a different track to where I started and has grown. Thats OK. I may comment more another day. But in all the politics don't forget the herat cry of Wang Jianshou.
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