Three of a set of jade carvings presented to the sixth Panchen Lama by Emperor Qianlong in 1781 which sold for $1.1 million in Beijing last month
Posted on 11/08/2005 9:13:41 AM PST by SunkenCiv
Dana Rohrabacher, a conservative Republican representative in the United States Congress and a long-standing critic of China’s human rights record, has announced he will lead an investigation into what he suspects was the systematic looting of Tibetan art and objects by Chinese authorities since the 1949 Communist revolution. The inquiry has coincided with a high profile auction in Beijing of artefacts that previously belonged to Tibetan monasteries, and which seeped out into international markets sometime last century before being bought by the leading Taiwan-based collector Wang Du.
(Excerpt) Read more at theartnewspaper.com ...
Three of a set of jade carvings presented to the sixth Panchen Lama by Emperor Qianlong in 1781 which sold for $1.1 million in Beijing last month
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I don't want 1 red cent going to this. Ridiculous waste of money. Investigate the CIA leaks, Intelligence Failures, Border issues.
Chinese artifacts are not something we need to concern ourselves with.
all i can think of is it's a ploy to get some resources into China and get more information on their defense buildup. in that case, i'm for it! Just get rid of the Clinton holdovers in the CIA first, and we can move forward with intelligence matters.
I tried to mix more metaphors in my post, but just couldn't seem to fit another one in ;)
The article says that the congressman has a record of interest in China's human rights abuses in Tibeet (a subject I *am* interested in). My guess is that he has become frustrated by getting absolutely nowhere with that, and has turned to trying to "get" the Chinese on stolen art objects -- something he can actually prove with concrete evidence, that does not require witnesses (especially *live* witnesses, something in short supply in that part of the world). This is very much like convicting Al Capone on tax evasion -- not the real issue, but all you can manage.
The upside is that the Chinese government will be at least embarrassed (something that I'm always in favor of!). The downside is that our tax dollars will be spent on a mere embarrassment, since nothing of significance will really happen. The Chinese may eventually pay a few million in reparations or something of that sort, but there is no independent Tibetan government left to receive it. They will just be transferring payment from one hand to the other.
Richard Gere Alert!
What a total waste of taxpayers money. Seems as though Dana Rohrabacher is going to attempt to use this in order to get her name in the news, nothing more, nothing less.
Correction: Dana Rohrabacher, a let-our-government-fix-other-people's-problems Republican...
Quite likely (pssstt "her" is a "him").
Well said. I do hope we're working on sub killer technology, so that we can scuttle the entire Chinese fleet, y'know, as a surprise birthday present for the late Mao Tse Tung /Zedong.
The Chinese worry me, frankly. They are ruthless in a way the Russians never managed. I hope our "people" (you know the ones I mean ... they who must not be named! :) are looking ahead to a time when we may have to take them on.
The Chinese dictatorship is just as rotten as the USSR's, and has the same kind of rising tide of free markets within. Also, we can expect a bunch of overseas and over-the-border adventures from their armed forces, and perhaps the best way to deal with that is proxy warfare. For example, the Chinese are going to have to invade Taiwan if they want to possess it, so the US needs to make it so costly that it is at best a Phyrric victory.
Also, the Chinese economy is very much dependent on exports. Remember "The Japan Which Can Say No"? Heh heh...
This thread needs an inappropriate photo of the NOLA looter guy. :)
Or Sandy Berger.
Or Kofi Annan's family reunion.
Or Mark Rich.
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