Some arrogant westerners always feel pathetic for Chinese - Poor Chinese, you are so brain-washed by your government that you have no idea what is happening out there. There is Darfur, there is human rights violation, and most recently, there is Tibet! How can you still support the “Genocide Olympics”? You must have been misguided by your “state-controlled media”. What? There is spontaneous anti-western media campaign? Then the state-controlled media must have stirred “nationalism” so successfully!
Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true. For Chinese, or should I say basically for all Chinese around me (including myself) to be precise, we are truly supporting Beijing Olympics deep in our heart (not in Orwellian way as someone may respond quickly), we don’t care Darfur that much, and we believe Tibet WAS, IS and SHOULD ALWAYS BE a part of China. To the contrary of some westerners would have predicted, if China were a democracy, the government would still have done exactly the same thing as what it is doing right now about Tibet, simply because any government in China can not afford the consequences of losing Tibet. You can take the late Qing Dynasty as an example.
The problem is not about democracy, the problem is about Chinese identity. Some western media accuse Chinese government deliberately fueling “nationalism” by constantly emphasizing the invasion of western countries and Japan in late 19th century and early 20th century, but that’s not the whole story. This kind of “nationalism” is widely viewed as patriotism in China. It roots in China’s long Confucius culture. This sentiment spurred after the First Opium War, in which China was defeated by Britain. (At the time, Tibet was ruled by the Qing Dynasty.) Since then, territory integrity had become one key pillar for ideas of China’s reformers and revolutionists. That’s why the Hundred Days’ Reform happened right after China’s defeat by Japan in the First Sino-Japanese War, because of which Taiwan was taken by Japan from China; that’s why one of Sun Yet-sen’s famous Three Principles of the People includes nationalism. It is not bluffing when Chinese government announced “People’s War” towards pro-Tibet-independence clique. The government indeed has the support of most Chinese.
I feel ashamed for the western media, especially the American ones, and I am so disappointed myself as I always believe in independent media. Western media disappoint me most as they trust Dalai without any proof while they defy Chinese government’s interpretation for no good reason as well. It seems they choose whom to believe just by their preference. When they quote Dalai, they quote whatever he said, but when they quote Chinese government or Han Chinese, they wrote specifically “the story couldn’t be independently corroborated”. Come on! Since Chinese government has kicked out all foreign media (presumedly independent by many western media) as western media reported, how can they “independently corroborate” what Dalai said? ! Why not emphasize this point when they quote Dalai? The only explanation I can think of is western media simply interpret “communists” as bad. That’s all! And they declare this is independent and professional journalism! Some western columnists even judge Chinese in a way as if they are superior than Chinese. How ironic! Isn’t it exactly what westerners accuse Chinese government is doing towards Tibetan?
Yes, I complain about a lot of things in China. Actually I just complained about Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee (BOCOG) as well as Bank of China, the Olympics official sponsor, in my last blog post. But I am still enthusiastic about the games myself and I still consider Tibet an indispensable part of China. Once again it is nothing else but about Chinese identity. Live with that!
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