SPEAKING
FREELY Lies, damned lies, and Chinese
propaganda By Dhundup Gyalpo
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"Shocking,
outrageous and totally unacceptable": That was how
the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish
human rights organization, characterized the
Chinese media's attempt to draw an analogy between
Nobel Peace Laureate Dalai Lama and the Nazi
perpetrator of the Holocaust. The Center demanded
that China Tibet Online and the Xinhua News Agency
apologize for slandering the Dalai Lama and
denigrating holocaust victims.
Titled
"Seven questions to the 14th Dalai Lama", the
commentary, posted on China Tibet Online and
carried by the official Xinhua News Agency on
March 24, accused the Dalai Lama of advocating
policies that would result in the expulsion of Chinese
from the Tibetan
territories. "The remarks of the Dalai Lama remind
us of the cruel Nazis during the Second World
War," it stated, adding, "How similar it is to the
Holocaust committed by Hitler on the Jews!"
Taking strong exception to this piece,
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center devoted to imparting the lessons
of the Holocaust and promoting tolerance, said:
"It is shocking, outrageous, and
totally unacceptable that any Chinese official
would permit the denigrating of the victims of
the Nazi Holocaust as a tactic to slander a
spiritual leader who has earned the world's
respect over the span of decades, precisely
because he pursues his agenda through peace and
dialogue. Indeed, the Dalai Lama stands for the
values that the Nazis sought to destroy. We urge
China Tibet Online and the Xinhua News Agency to
apologize for this double slander."[1]
An apology is certainly in order -
but don't be holding your breath waiting for a
miracle. Because, for the state-run media, the
Chinese Communist Party can do no wrong. On the
contrary, they will rather have you believe that
there is no Tibet issue at all and that everything
is just hunky-dory in Tibet.
As the crisis
in Tibet shows no sign of dying down, Chinese
propagandists have been running amok, spewing out
all various outrageous accusations and
speculations, mostly targeted against the Dalai
Lama. However, it merely takes one gentle stroke
of plain, simple truth for the entire facade of
"potemkin stories" to come crashing down.
The People's Daily commentary begins from
the outset with a fundamentally flawed question,
based on skewed facts and faulty logic:
"Q1: Why [does] the Dalai Lama
deliberately incite Tibetans for
self-immolation? The Dalai Lama called on
Tibetans not to celebrate Losar [Tibetan New
Year] so as to memori[ali]ze "the fallen heroes
of Tibet" in Dharamsala India on Feb. 22. The
Dalai Lama is deliberately encouraging Tibetans
to self-immolate since he appealed to all
Tibetans not to celebrate Losar in memor[y] of
self-immolators. It's been thousands of years
for Tibetans to celebrate Tibetan New Year,
which is an important carrier of Tibetan
culture, customs and emotions. Tibetans are able
to obtain the great soul from Losar after a year
of hard work."[2]
The accusation that
"The Dalai Lama is deliberately encouraging
Tibetans to self-immolate since he appealed to all
Tibetans not to celebrate Losar" not only defies
logic, it is a patent lie. The Dalai Lama never
made such an appeal.
The truth is that it
was Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay who had appealed
to the Tibetans to refrain from celebrating the
Lunar New Year. [3] And he also said: "But do
observe traditional and spiritual rituals by going
to the monastery, making offerings and lighting
butter lamps for all those who have sacrificed and
suffered under the repressive policies of Chinese
government."
The Kalon Tripa's appeal for
not celebrating Losar does not by any stretch of
imagination amount to "actively inciting
self-immolation." On the contrary, his constant,
emphatic appeals to the Tibetan people to respect
the sanctity of life and refrain from engaging in
any drastic measures convey quite the opposite of
what the Chinese have been claiming so far. [4]
But why is China still harping on the
theme that the Dalai Lama is fomenting unrest in
Tibet? One of the most outspoken Chinese public
intellectuals, Ran Yunfei, had this to say:
"The communists really destroyed
religion. They don't understand it at all. Look
at Tibet. I told the guobao [State Security
Agents] that, "you guys have gone too far. You
don't allow them to hang pictures of the Dalai
Lama. You don't have faith so you don't
understand. So the Tibetans get very angry and
depressed. And then you go into temples and
instead hang pictures of Mao and Jiang (Zemin)
or Hu (Jintao). You've gone overboard! This
isn't right. Think about it. No wonder they set
themselves on fire." [5]
Given the
fact that the blanket media blackout in Tibet is
even worse than Pyongyang, as Reporters without
Borders noted in this report, [6] the Chinese
state media can get away with any kind of stories
on Tibet, especially those meant for the
consumption of their domestic audience. And when
things become dicey, the state media resorts to
hitting the raw nationalistic nerves of popular
sentiment, crying wolf with ominous portents like
"the Dalai Lama wants to expel Chinese from
Tibet."
This also explains why China is
not only preventing independent foreign media from
covering events inside Tibet, but is employing the
full force of its propaganda machinery in waging a
disinformation campaign, misrepresenting the
current crisis as a shrewd machination of the
Dalai Lama.
Despite the imposition of
virtual martial law across all Tibetan regions,
China has failed miserably in containing the
deepening crisis in Tibet. Thus the Chinese state
media continue to emphasize the point that the
Dalai Lama is the key to the resolution of the
Tibet issue. But if China wants the Dalai Lama's
support in containing the situation inside Tibet,
they should perhaps begin by toning down their
vitriol against him and engage in a process of
constructive dialogue.
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