More on China & Tibet...

I felt comfortable criticizing Rice and Bush in this week's 'toon, even though Condi made statements this week that were supposedly in support of the Dalai Lama. Her urgings of "restraint" were lukewarm at best, and Dubya says only that he still plans to attend the Olympics. This is about as close as an international incident comes to an absolute wrong for me... the beating and killing of Tibetans (particularly Buddhist monks) cannot be tolerated by the international community. Anything short of a forceful condemnation from our government and a threat to boycott the Olympics is not enough for me.

Tidbits:

• Some links to check out:
  
  The Buddhist Channel, with lots of news and information.
  
  The Opposite End of China, a blog with a lot of leaked photos of the crackdown.
  
  TCHRD, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
  
  The Unseen Dharamsala, a blog with stories of Tibetan refugees.
  
  Stand With Tibet, a petition to "support the Dalai Lama."
  
  
  
• Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Somini Sengupta:
  

  Mr. Bush has long said the United States and China have “a complex relationship,” and that complexity was on full display this week. While his administration has called for an end to the violence, and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, phoned her Chinese counterpart to urge restraint, Mr. Bush himself has remained silent.
  
  

• NYT Editorial:
  

  In its annual human rights report on 190 countries, the State Department conceded that Beijing’s overall performance remained poor. But in what looked like a political payoff to a government whose help America desperately needs on difficult problems, the department dropped China from its list of 10 worst violators.

  
  
• Jeffrey Wasserstrom:
  

  Marx's suggestion that tragedy and farce are closely linked is not completely without relevance in a situation that pits Tibetan desires for independence (or at least cultural autonomy) against Beijing's determination to maintain control (and prevent what it dubs an illegitimate separatist movement).
  Tragedy gave way to farce in August 2007, when without any apparent irony, the Chinese authorities issued an injunction against unauthorized reincarnation. Concerned by various statements the Dalai Llama had made about how his succession might work, the officially atheist Beijing government laid down the law. To become a "living Buddha without governmental approval," the edict read, "is illegal and invalid.

  
  
• Edward Cody:
  

  Many Chinese, including those who had learned of the extent of the violence from foreign reports, seemed to take the censorship as a matter of course. Inured after years of such controls, most Chinese long ago lost any sense of indignation at being deprived of straight news by party censors.

  
  Sorta reminds you of the people who watch cable news over here, does it not?