Comments on: Tibet Protests Widen in Scope

By: ali

ali — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:29:03 +0000

I wonder how political the protests are. Certainly, they are linked to the 10th March anniversary of the Tibetan uprising but at the same time there are reports of looting and mob rule (another correspondent on the spot). Every police force would have to react in such circumstances (on the other hand it does look like the Chinese are using excessive force). It all seems very confusing and the tight control the Chinese hold over the information that gets out does not help.I do have the impression that the news we read here in the West are biased by a romantic image of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama and Tibet.I fully agree that the Chinese must be surprised by the extend of the violence and that they are scared of the publicity disaster in connection with the Olympics.P.S.: For the German speakers and to foster the exchange between scienceblogs.com and scienceblogs.de, I would like to mention my post on the same topic at scienceblogs.de (zoon politikon).

By: Stephen D Moore

Stephen D Moore — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:23:00 +0000

My thoughts about the lure of lucre relate only to the Olympics in itself. There is potentially trillions of dollars at stake in general access to the Chinese market. Nations that do boycott will no doubt be looked upon unfavourably and most likely have there access to the Chinese market restricted in favour to those nations that do attend the Games.

By: Stephen D Moore

Stephen D Moore — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:14:26 +0000

I too am wondering about the effect this will have on the Games and if there will be boycotts. If this action by China continues I do hope there will be a boycott, but I’m rather doubtful there will be. Some individual athletes may decide to boycott, but I think there’s too much money involved in the Games for official boycotts.Governments and sporting bodies may mumble a thing or two about the need to respect human rights, and how the Olympics offers an opportunity to focus attention on such issues, but they will also say a boycott would be counter-productive and against the Olympic Spirit. There’s masses of dollars at stake (100s of millions? 1000s even?), and the lure of lucre will win out.

By: Tony P

Tony P — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:04:27 +0000

The Chinese Communists are very slow learners when it comes to government.I hope more news of this gets out and people do boycott the Olympics there. They don’t deserve to have them there anyhow.

By: Mike Haubrich, FCD

Mike Haubrich, FCD — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:57:36 +0000

It’s pretty scary. The official Chinese newscast is only showing scenes of Tibetans causing problems, so that they can look to the rest of China as though they are merely dealing with troublemaking elements. They are controlling who can leave, so that the real stories don’t get out.You know the part about how the conservatives crow that they defeated communism? For all of their embracing of market-based economics, the Chinese government still has yet to learn the part about freedom and self-rule of other countries. (Maybe they have learned all too well from the United States.)

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:30:49 +0000

Boy, you don’t want to piss off a buddhist monk if you know what’s good for you. This is going to very awkward for China because they want to look good in the run up to the Olympics. If they crack down too hard there might even been an international boycott of the games.