The Honorable Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
2371 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi:
It is a great pleasure to write a letter to you.
We support your position that the current unrest in Tibet should be
resolved through peaceful dialogues between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese
authorities. Such a dialogue is in fact taking place between the
representative of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authority (see
www.bbsland.com, April 14, 2008). Although we respect your personal
(often critical) views about China, we, however, strongly question the
wisdom and appropriateness of letting them sidetrack U.S. relations with
a great Asian nation. We especially oppose the passage of the House
Resolution 1077, which calls on the Chinese government to end its crackdown
in Tibet. We believe that as a sovereign nation, the Chinese government has
the right to deal with its own domestic violence and crackdown on terrorist
act to maintain peace and order is absolutely not violation of human rights.
We are also troubled by your campaign to urge President Bush to boycott
the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony on August 8, as a show of support for
the rioters in Tibet.
We would like to bring your attention to Foster Stockwell's article, "Tibet
- Myth and Reality." He writes: "The CIA is everywhere - Tibet, Afghanistan,
Iraq, S America, etc, etc. Half the time, they create the problems for
others..." and the following:
The idea that most Tibetans are unhappy about what has happened in Tibet
and want independence from China is a product manufactured in the West and
promoted by the dispossessed landlords who fled to India. Indeed, to believe
it is true stretches logic to its breaking point. Who really can believe that
a million former serfs - more than 90% of the population - are unhappy
about having the shackles of serfdom removed? They now care for their own
herds and farmland, marry whomever they wish without first getting their
landlord's permission, aren't punished for disrespecting these same landlords,
own their own homes, attend school, and have relatively modern hospitals,
paved roads, airports and modern industries.
An objective measure of this progress is found in the population statistics.
The Tibetan population has doubled since 1950, and the average Tibetan's
life span has risen from 36 years at that time to 65 years at present.
Of course some Tibetans are unhappy with their lot, but a little investigation
soon shows that they are, for the most part, people from families who lost
their landlord privileges. There is plenty of evidence that the former serfs
tell a quite different story.
You will find some Tibetans who hate the Hans (the majority nationality of
China) and some Hans who hate the Tibetans, a matter of ordinary ethnic
prejudice - something any American should be able to understand. But, this
doesn't represent a desire for an independent Tibet any more than black- white
hostilities in Washington, D.C., Detroit, or Boston represent a desire on the
part of most African-Americans to form a separate nation.
Tibetan Culture Today
The final part of the Tibetan myth has to do with Tibetan culture, which the
Dalai Lama's supporters say has been crushed by 'the Chinese takeover of
Tibet.' Culture is an area that requires great care because it is fraught with
biases and self-fulfilling judgments. The growth of television in America, for
example, is cited as killing American culture by some and as enhancing it by
others.
In deference to your strong intellect and rigor demonstrated in your able
leadership in Congress, we sincerely urge that you make a few fine distinctions:
First is the distinction between the initial media misrepresentations due to
incomplete information and the true facts that are only beginning to surface.
General impressions to the contrary notwithstanding, the acts of violence by
the rioters were tantamount to acts of terrorism, as can be judged by the
facts reported in The New York Times "As Tibet Erupted, China Wavered"
(March 24, 2008).
Citing a foreign tourist who exited from Lhasa with photos to illustrate what
he had witnessed, the Times reported the following scene, after horror erupted
on March 14: "Tibetans rampaged through the city's old quarter, waving steel
scabbards and burning or looting Chinese shops." It added: "Clothes,
souvenirs and other tourist trinkets were dumped outside and set afire as
thick gray smoke darkened the midday sky." Contrary to claims of bloody
suppressions fed to Western press by Tibetans in nearby India, the same
witness told of a different experience, i.e., the "missing police" on the
day the violence erupted. This point was corroborated by James Miles, the
Economist's correspondent based in Beijing, who was in Lhasa at the time.
He also saw no police, while the rioters were smashing Chinese shops and
setting them on fire, attacking Chinese on bicycles, and throwing rocks at
taxis driven by Chinese. They even sacked the branch office of the Bank of
China and burned it to a blackened husk.
Perhaps the most egregious distortion based on news fed by the Tibetans was
the caption for a photo published in a German newspaper that depicted a 14-year
old Tibetan being 乬dragged out by police in a bloody scene. The true fact is,
as the 14-year old, a Han Chinese named Luo Jie, later spoke out in person, he
was being rescued by two guards from a Tibetan mob lynching him (see report in
Qiao Bao, a Chinese-language newspaper in New York, April 1, 2008).
Second, a distinction between the unfounded claims by the Tibetans that Tibet
was an independent country, but forcibly "occupied by China since the 1950s on
the one hand, and the true legal status of Tibet, on the other. Not only was
Tibet never recognized by any foreign state as an independent nation, but a
treaty signed by Britain and Russia in 1907 explicitly recognized that Tibet
was part of China.
Errik Granqvist, a Finnish expert in Shanghai, said that he was mad with the
biased report of the Tibetan incident. He said that the Chinese government
liberated slaves during the Dalai Lama's "theocratic dictatorship." During
the Dalai Lama's rule, he said "about 5%of the population owned everything and
the rest literally nothing. About 40 % of the Tibetans were monks and nuns
living as parasites on the rest of the population that had to feed then."
"Now Lhasa has a modern airport and a railway, China has invested a lot in
Tibet. The standard of living has been raised a lot," he added. (see
Wenxuecity.com, April 2, 2008).
Third is a distinction between violence and peaceful protest. Violent protests
were planned and carried out as a calculated distortion before the Olympics to
demand China to talk to the Dalai Lama. It must be noted that talks had been
conducted between the representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese
authorities in the past. No results were reached because one of the Dalai Lama'
s conditions to form a pan-Tibetan region including Tibet proper and areas
where Tibetans reside in Xinjiang, Gansu, Sicchuan, Qinghai and Yunnan
provinces. Nicholas D. Kristof suggested in The New York Times "A Not-So-
Fine Romance" (April 3, 2008) that the Dalai Lama accepts the Tibetan region
encompasses only what is now labeled Tibet on the maps, not the much larger
region of historic Tibet that has continued to claim. There is no
justification of unprovoked killing, beating, smashing, looting and arson in
the broad daylight in Tibet.
In closing, as citizens we wish to mention that under the American constitution
foreign relations properly fall within the realm of Executive branch
"President is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its
sole representative with foreign nations.'" (see United States v. Curtiss -
Wright Export Corp, 299 U.S. 304 ,1936). At a difficult time such as this
country finds itself in, it behooves Congress to pay more attention to the
threat of recession, a housing crisis, health care, the environment, and the
war in Iraq, to name just a few. And, let the President make his own decision
as to his attendance at the 2008 Olympics.
Sincerely yours,
Sheng-Wei Wang, Ph.D.
President
China-US Friendship Exchange, Inc.
624 Cabrillo Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
Curra888@yahoo.com
Tze-chung Li, Ph.D.
President,
One China Committee
Chiamonline@att.net
Isolde W. Chen
Acting President
624 Cabrillo Street, San Francisco, CA 94118
Global Chinese Alliance for the Unification of China
isoldechen@yahoo.com
Huiqiu Wu, Ph.D.
Executive President
Chinese American Alliance for China's Peaceful Reunification in USA
nacpudc@nacpu.org
Yonggao Wang
President
Chicago Chinese American Alliance for
China's Peaceful Reunification
CAACPR@comcast.net
Chung Wang
President
Institute of Sino Strategy studies, San Diego
Isss@usa.com
Zhonying Zhao
President
Chinese American Tribune
zhongzhao@sbcglobal.net
Tony Zheng
President
Pennsylvania Chinese American Association for China乫s Peaceful Reunification
Sixinliang49@yahoo.com
Pius Hsu
President
The Alliance for Peaceful National Reunification of China
piushsu@yahoo.com
Chinese for Peaceful Unification in Northern California, San Francisco
Xiaohui He
Executive Vice-President
The National Association for China's Peaceful Unification
nacpu@yahoo.com
Alan Lam
President
The Association of the Promotion of China Unification in Washington DC, USA
alanllam@hotmail.com
Qianyi Zhao
President
The Association for the promotion of Peaceful China乫s Reunification
In George Washington University
qianyizhao@gmail.com
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