Tibet and China

Campus Report ^ | July 03, 2008 | Melinda Zosh

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Tibet and China

by: Melinda Zosh, July 03, 2008

Dr. Warren Smith Jr., author of China’s Tibet?, recently said that the March 14 riots in Tibet were the largest since 1989 and the bloodiest since 1959. With the Olympic games quickly approaching, China is trying to cover up its acts of violence.

Smith, a New Age thinker, spoke at the Heritage Foundation on June 17 about Chinese-Tibetan relations, Tibet’s bloody past, and the country’s uncertain future.

“….The popular Tibetan reaction has had an air of finality, even desperation, about it, as though 2008 is the last chance Tibetans may have to preserve their national and cultural identity,” Smith wrote in an essay titled Tibet’s Last Stand?

On the March 10th anniversary of the 1959 revolt, 200 monks attempted to march into Llasa. They were stopped by Chinese security police and several were arrested for carrying the Tibetan flag, which the Chinese declared illegal.

The protests reached a climax on March 14 when 140 protestors were murdered. The damage totaled $40 million, according to Dr. Smith.

Tibetans wanted autonomy and freedom from Chinese rule. They carried their flags as symbols of national pride and risked their lives in the process, Smith said.

“Given that the last monk to carry a Tibetan flag in a demonstration back in 1989 was shot through the head, the courage of these monks was astounding,” said Smith. “The March 14 protests were acts of desperation; carrying a flag knowing that you invite a bullet in the head is an act of suicide.”

However, the Chinese did not deem these acts courageous...