Some Thoughts After Lobsang’s Speech

I went to NYC and Philly for the Columbus holiday and rushed all the way from Philly back to school on Tuesday afternoon for the speech given by Lobsang Sangay. This is an opportunity not to be missed as we wouldn’t ever have such chance to listen someone from the Tibetan Government in Exile in person in China. I have to say I’m a little disappointed with the speech – Lobsang didn’t really answer some of the questions and most importantly, he somewhat implied that the underlining reason for Beijing’s refusal to dialogue is racial discrimination. This might be an idea that Western audience is easy to understand and accept but if the Government in Exile really believes in it, it will be ridiculous.

I don’t discuss politics a lot – as you know, discussing politics could be rather dangerous in China especially after 1989 so my mom always advised me to “stay away from politics.” The situation is better now – if you are nobody but just complain online (which everyone does) and don’t do anything substantial (like signing Charter 08), you should probably be safe. Anyway, the only reason I went to this speech and write this blog is that I have such a strong and special feeling about Tibet. I’ve been to Tibet twice. Unlike most of the tourists as Lobsang said, we hired a Tibetan driver, lived in Tibetan inns, ate Tibetan food which I don’t appreciate at all… I stayed in Lhasa for more than one week accumulatively and went to various areas in Tibet, including the remote Ngari area. I even take a canvas map of the Ngari Circular Route with me to the U.S. as I love there so much.

Almost all the Tibetans we met are nice and friendly. Almost all the Tibetans in Lhasa can speak at least rudimentary Mandarine and those who work in the travel industry (like our driver) are surprisingly fluent in Mandarin. It might be true that schools in Tibet teach in Mandarine, but I don’t see that a culture oppression  to ask students study in the official language of the country, not to mention that most schools teach bilingual. From my point of view, studying Mandarine does good to Tibetans too.

As Lobsang said, many Tibetans live outside the Tibet Autonomous Region, such as Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, but I don’t see people there bothered simply by the fact that it is not within the Autonomous Region. Everyone call these areas where Tibetans inhabit “Tibetan Area” no matter which province it belongs administratively. Many other minorities live side by side with Tibetan in these areas, and hence it is a mission impossible to draw a clear line between Tibet and non-Tibet area and it is impractical to include every land where Tibetan stands in the scope of Tibet.

And when it comes to the “race” thing – again, I understand this is an easy argument that Westerns will buy, but I don’t and anyone who knows a little bit about China won’t. For those who are not so familiar with China minorities, here is some background information – Han is the most populated ethnic in China and constitutes the majority of “Chinese”, but there are other 55 minorities (55 is the official number, there should be more) which are also included in the broad concept of “Chinese.” Tibetan is one of them. When Lobsang said “They Chinese” and “We Tibetan”, he obviously does not mean to include Tibetan in the scope of Chinese.

The Government in Exile wants to argue that Tibet is so unfairly treated that it could have neither the “One-Country-Two-System” privilege enjoyed by Hong Kong and Macau nor the special arrangement of Taiwan because Beijing treats them Chinese while Tibetans not. Well, we’ve seen that Tibetans don’t treat themselves as Chinese. More significantly, Tibet is totally different from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are actually international problems to Beijing while Tibet is a pure domestic issue. Let’s be honest, the Party actually occupies and controls Tibet and the Government in Exile is, the government in exile. Why should the Party make any comprise to you when they don’t need to?

Lobsang even compares Tibet with Xinjiang, Guangxi and Ningxia and believes minorities in these areas have more rights than Tibet. This is sooooo simple and naive. Does any of Xinjiang, Guangxi or Ningxia have “One-Country-Two-System” privilege or special arrangement? No. Neither Beijing, Shanghai or Shenzhen. You think the Beijing government (or the Party, whatever) discriminates you as non-Chinese? Let me tell you the truth, it discriminates us, Chinese, as well. You don’t have the freedom of religion, we don’t have either. Don’t believe? Why not ask the Christians in big cities? I’m also quite sure that minorities in Xinjiang don’t think they are in any better position than Tibet. They protested several times and killed hundreds of people on the street. I wouldn’t know why if they are not truly angry about something.

In my opinion, drawing this bright line between the “Chinese” and “Tibetan” and trying to blame everything as racial discrimination does not help at all, especially when the Government in Exile appeared to be ready to respect the sovereign of Beijing and subject to the Chinese Constitution. Maybe that’s why most people I know in mainland China have different views about Dalai Lama and Liu Xiaobo. Dalai Lama never thinks Tibet is a part of China and Tibetan a component of Chinese – I can totally understand and am not judging whether it is right or wrong, it is politics in the end anyway. I’m just saying this is what I believe the fundamental reason why the conversation between Beijing and the Government in Exile can not continue.