A Letter to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi





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 gdragged 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 Chinafs 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 Chinafs Reunification
In George Washington University
qianyizhao@gmail.com


Copyright(c) 2005, National Association for China's Peaceful Unification, Washington D.C., USA. All rights reserved.