228 Massacre

February 28, 1947 was the catalyst for uprisings against the corrupt Chinese government in Taiwan.  Uprisings which were later suppressed brutally and which began decades of martial law and the period known as the “White Terror”.

For more on the history, please visit this site.

In the interest of completeness, I looked up a few articles on the events this year:

1. report from India – only “foreign” report I could find, added for perspective’s sake.

2. sit-in rally – group of people made the words “do not forget 228″ in Liberty Square.

Dalai denying religious freedom?

I learned about a protest against the Dalai Lama, and of course, I had to look into it. Even though this particular organization seems to have been at this for some time, I hadn’t heard of it before.

I was intrigued about their claims because it seems to me that Dalai Lama has few powers in “repressing” or causing others to face “inhuman situations”. This group is clearly very biased and emotional, so I sought a more neutral source.

I found a wikipedia page on Dorje Shugden, as well as another page with a series of essays and articles devoted to the controversy.

A summary of what I understand so far:

More History on Tibet

Chesterfield Spud posted this link on her blog, that is much more comprehensive than the stuff I was able to dig up in the last posts.

I fully agree with the author — it would be silly to say Tibet was perfect/wonderful before China invaded. The problem really is, are they better off?

Personally, I feel that intellectual restrictions and emotional stresses are far worse than physical imprisonment, especially because it’s not readily obvious.

Just because you can’t see the gun pointed at the back of a hostage doesn’t mean it’s not there, or that the hostage is going willingly.

Take someone in prison but allowed to say what he wants, read what he wants, and write to anyone he wants without censure.

Is he really less free than someone who is allowed to wander the streets but watched constantly and is in constant fear of being dragged to jail/torture on some small charge?

More on Tibet’s history

Just found this article from the NY Times. My previous entry was based on an article during the cold war, after Mao invaded and took control of Tibet. This article goes back further to investigate the claims on both sides.

It’s an interesting analysis but for those who don’t feel like reading, here’s the author’s conclusion:

There is something less to the arguments of both sides, but the argument on the Chinese side is weaker. Tibet was not “Chinese” until Mao Zedong’s armies marched in and made it so.

I’ll try to give a quick summary here:

Tibet

I read a pro-China socialism declaration the other day (because of the Olympic torch relay in SF) which mentioned CIA funding the free Tibet movement. I admit I don’t know too much about the history of Tibet, so I looked into it a little.

I found this article from the Chicago Tribune, which describes CIA involvement in Tibet during the cold war. It’s an interesting contrast to today’s perception of Tibet.

According to the article, CIA trained Tibetans in warfare to make it costly for China and delay their progress during the cold war, and then cut funding once US renewed relations with China.

With that as background, that accusation makes more sense. Still, openly giving money to a pro-democracy group which then uses it to help Tibet is not the same thing as secretly training Tibetans.

Side note: It seems that backlash from the Chinese community regarding the free Tibet movement tends to be rooted in an mentality that everyone is against China.