Wen Jiabao Speaking Live about Tibet on Al Jazeera

This morning as I was finishing breakfast and getting ready to go to the office, Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Premier's annual news conference with foreign correspondents was broadcast live on Al Jazeera*. After a brief talk, the first question came from a CNN correspondent who asked about Tibet and Taiwan - the two taboo subjects in China. (I'll elaborate on that at the end.) Basically, here's what Premiere Wen said about Tibet, paraphrased from my handwritten notes as I listened to the translator:

Rioters caused severe damage and killed people on the streets. The Governor of the Autonomous Region of Tibet has already addressed this question. The rioters have trashed cars, torched stores, and caused widespread destruction and disrupted public order and public life, causing loss of lives and property for the people of Lhasa.

There is plenty of evidence this was organized and masterminded by the Dalai Clique. The violence and damage refute consistent claims of the Dalai clique that they pursue peace. Their claims are nothing but lies. Lies cannot cover up facts. Strictly, within the constitution and laws, and with restraint, we have moved to protect the people in Lhasa.

Claims that the Chinese Government engaged in cultural genocide are nothing but lies. We are fully capable of maintaining public order in Tibet and at the same time helping to develop the economy of Tibet while protecting the natural environment.

He then turned to the subject of Taiwan and I headed out for the office.

When I taught in Beijing, Taiwan and Tibet were the two subjects that Chinese mostly agree on (and that Japan should make amends for what it did to China in WWII.) They are both parts of China and must stay that way. There are no opposing views that my students were ever exposed to. From the Chinese perspective, the impoverished people of Tibet were virtual slaves to the religious rulers of Tibet and the Chinese liberated them from this tyranny.

Now there are exceptions. There was a Tibetan student who, over dinner after I opened the way, talked about having been sent to boarding school at age 12 and not ever again living at home in Tibet - just back for short visits. There were some Han (the 93% majority of China) Chinese students with us at dinner who had never heard this view of Tibet.

One of my students - I was going to say brighter students, but they were all brighter - said to me later. I've thought about what was said, and thought about how the minority students are treated here and to me it looks like they get treated equally to any other student. I thought about this for a moment and then responded, "Probably you are right. But, remember, they are at a Chinese speaking university, learning about China, not at a Tibetan (or Mongolian) speaking university, learning about their own cultures. The discrimination took place long before they got to the university. Their cultures have been stolen from them. Their schooling has all been in Chinese, not their own language, not from their own cultural perspectives."



*Al Jazeera was much maligned when it first came on the scene as the Arab voice of the news out of Qatar. But as I was looking for the link today, I see that Allied Media Corporation, an Arlington, Virginia public relations company has a whole Al Jazeera page on its site. On most other corporate sites such a page would suggest that Al Jazeera was a subsidiary of Allied Media Corporation. I can't find anything that confirms that and it runs counter to what I've thought was true. Does anyone reading this know the connection? AMC also touts as its clients



I wonder what the folks at Terror Television (www.stopaljazeera.org) would think about that client list and corporate links to Al Jazeera.