Analysis of Chinese Propaganda---History, Representations, Consequences and Concerns

This article is translated excerpt from Xu Zhiyuan's column "ENTHUSIASM IN DISORDER" and I gave this excerpt piece the name in the subject line. Original Chinese source is available at http://www.ftchinese.com/sc/story.jsp?id=001018875&pos=MID_HLB&pa1=0&pa2=1&pa3=005000117&loc=SPECIAL%20REPORT

Translation has been done by me. I am not a professional translator. But read a great deal of Mr Xu. At all points I ahve sought to be as accurate to the language and spirit of Mr Xu's original text. Please feel free to leave any comments on the translation job.

All the following words are translated from Mr Xu's article:

The reaction from Chinese government and Chinese public to the turmoils in Olympic torch relay and the related worldwide media reports really concerns me. 'Wolf with a human face and the heart of a beast' is in the description of Dalai Lama in Chinese state-owned . I felt so funny---it seems like a piece of antique is displayed on a fashionable glass table. China, which claims to achieve the emergence of world power in 21st century, seems still living in the time of war among classes as Culture Revolution, or in Qing Dynasty in the middle of 19 th century---when someone has a different opinion from us, he is not even the same kind as us, but an animal.

On CCTV and portal websites of China, the propaganda is intensively going on. Chinese government might feel bewildered facing the different voices from worldwide media, but it is such a small piece of cake to control all the domestic voices. The last time I got to know the power of the propaganda was in 1999 through the suppression for Fa Lun Gong. The suppression helped this foolish, ridiculous, fake-religion movement increase its influence and, later on, pushed its leader to achieve worldwide fame he never dreamed of. It also allowed him to somehow become the symbol of freedom of religion.

This kind of propaganda can be dated back from 1942 in Yan'an (translator's note: Yan'an was Mao's base during the civil war. It might be called "Mao's Pentagon".), and was practised over and over after 1949 in China. It climbed to the climax during the Culture Revolution. When the propaganda is based on information blocking, its power is surprising---it closes people's minds, rots people's hearts, destroys the moral principles and imprints a 'self-righteous' consciousness on those subject to it. Therefore, during the violent fighting of the Cultural Revolution, both sides claimed that they believed in Mao's theory and the other side protected the bad, old theory, which deserved to any sort of brutal treatment...

But when the information gradually opened up, people found what they used to believe was just a lie, and a cynical attitude became widespread. Today, there is a game going on between propaganda agents and the public. The former continuously slides along the the track of inertia, while the later slides along a spectrum - from one end believing everything blindly to the other end believing nothing.

But fear of tyranny keeps this game alive. The public gets used to living in this open lie and forms the habit of understanding every part of official propaganda from the opposite point of view. While it looks harmonious and peaceful on the surface, it leads to a dangerous direction---the political system and the society have been seriously rotten. The government loses the ability to understand real problems under the delusion of its own propaganda, and as the propaganda goes smoothly, the government becomes numb and less capable to percieve and grasp real problems. The reaction of the government becomes less sensitive and relies more and more on inertia other than intellectual judgement or logical, rational arguments to maintain its legitimacy. The public at the same time becomes suspicious and timid---they might know what
to oppose, but they don't know what to replace the problematic area with, and they gradually lose the moral courage to say anything of substance contrary to the government. Living with lies and suspicion for such a long time also makes people lack the strength and confidence to build a better social network or structure.

The behavior of the Chinese government in regards to the conflicts in Tibet showed the result of the disease from long-term propaganda and numbness. The official voice stems from the usual principle and it moves on along the inertia even though it doesn't believe what it said itself. For the Chinese public, although they don't believe the reports from CCTV, they really don't know anything about Tibet at all. Therefore their one dimensional thinking formed by the long time
propaganda is easily touched by the TV scene that Tibetan treated Han people brutally. (translator's note: it is exactly how my mom's comments are formed about Tibetan turmoil).

Then it entered the language environment that the Chinese power organization is familiar with. For a long time, the public emotion is a prop of the government. When the relationships between China and US or China and Japan tensed, the emotion of nationalism became a card of Beijing---large scale demonstrations, which are not normally allowed, unusually appeared. For the people in the demonstrations, rather than being motivated by a real feeling of nationalism, were released from long suppressed emotion. They long for public life, but have no way to express it when demonstrations are made illegal.

I surprisingly found this old trick is still so efficient when a young women, Jin Jing, becomes the hero of China, when the boycott to Carrefour spreads to more cities, when MSN is filled with red stars, when national flags are everywhere in college dorms, when these young people claim 'I love China very much', and when I am surrounded by rants against CNN.....

I really begin to worry. I don't worry about the criticism from outside world (and I never expect the pressure from the outside would to really make China change fundamentally). The long history of China has shown that those criticisms eventually disappear: the essence of power and of the communist government has never had to change because of the success of new policies over the past 30 years leading to economic development. Its principle interest is not the future
of the nation and its people, but the stability of its own power, and it is willing to do all kinds of actions that sacrifice the wellbeing of its citizens, environment, and traditions to maintain that power.

What I am seriously worried about is that the people of this nation, especially the youth, still have a confined mind, although they consider themselves living in a globalized world and not limited by the shortage of material and information anymore. They confuse all kinds of concepts and misuse their enthusiasm. They don't know the real world and they don't have the interests to either. They are moved by the flow of intense emotions that were aroused suddenly, but they lack the ability to think critically and automatically believe what they were been told, which makes their ranting anger insane, flat and without meaning.

Sometimes, what has been happening lately indeed reminds me of some unhappy moments in history, where enthusiasm of the people was manipulated and eventually led to series of disasters.

But, were all the current reactions only caused by the events after March 14th? Don't they reveal some far deeper problems and emotions? The understanding of those problems and emotions must be dated back from a long long history. Inside of the heart of this nation, there are all kinds of inextricable knots. For quite a long time, people chose to forget them or force themselves to forget these knots, pretending they don't exist. When the critical moments come these knots will take fierce revenge on us.

What, indeed, is the history problem of Tibet? What is the political characteristic of China? And the relationship between historical memory and reality? Can economic development substitute the long time shortage of real ideology?......I found this research would be an endless hole. It is difficult to understand the current problem in Tibet without the knowledge of Tibet turmoil in 1959 or the spiritual characteristic of Dalai Lama and the belief crisis worldwide. It is also hard to understand why the Olympics are so important to China without the understanding of the legitimate foundation of politics. It would be impossible to understand the thinking pattern and language usage of Chinese people without the study of Mao's time; It would be also impossible to understand the emotion of Chinese youth without the knowledge of how Chinese youth elite awoke Chinese nationalism in the early 20 th century......

Those studies and discussions might not solve any particular problems, but at least they can provide us with standards regarding the expression of emotions. In many occasions, what gives me greatest unease is not the language or action of criticism, attack, arguments, or debate are based upon, but that their level is too low.

Some Thoughts about the Quake

It is really painful to see the reports about this quake in Sichuan, especially the pictures. I heard a Chinese friend said she cried all the way while she looked through pictures online. I simply don't dare to do so. My tears rolled down when I just read the title of a report . My heart aches even when I read the plain words reports about the great sadness from the parents and some probably no hope waiting...Use the quote from Trent, 'More than anything, I wish for the best possible response from local, national and international sources to help make this disaster the smallest it could be and the recovery the fastest possible. '

From the limited sources I have (too busy with paper recently), such as NPR, Good morning America news, USA today, The New York Times, CCTV website, FTchinese website, I have some thoughts and want to them with you. I'd like to update them when I get more information later.

1. Trent commented that this quake was well-timed for Chinese government to escape from the criticism worldwide from the past. I agree. Facing such a tragedy, everyone will have sympathy first no matter what happened in the past. And with all my sorrow about the earthquake, I also think it is just fine, the big understanding gap can temporarily go away and that might do good for at least the Olympics.

2. Some said that Chinese government has a surprisingly openness and is highly responsive in this earthquake case, because the government can not survive another media pressure right before the Olympic and because it learned some lessons from the Tibet.
Personally I don't agree neither of the two. In my opinion, the first primary purpose, or the only reason for the existence of a government is to take care of its people, both in the long term and in the short term---at least this is true for the good government. (By the way here I need to express my huge confusion about Burma's government. ) Therefore, a good government will do what Chinese government do, or if possible, will do better, no matter what the other countries will say.

3. Trent said it might mean 'China is indeed maturing and entering into the global sphere and, therefore, wants to relate and communicate with other nations. ' I hope it with my whole heart but I have to say I highly doubt that. This is natural disaster and the interests and strategies are fairly obvious no matter from what point of view. But for other far more complex issues, it is hard to get to the common understanding this easily and I also consider the understanding of 'mature' might mean differently dependent on the standpoint.

4. Further research and follow up needed for this point: The qualities of the school building in quake area. In my sense, the 7.8 earthquake will tear down every building but from what the journalists reported or saw, there are some buildings taller than the school buildings didn't collapse. And as some low quality construction tragedies happened in China before, there are some questions about whether the school buildings are another example of corrupt local government. I will certainly pay attention to this and hopefully would provide more info later. My heart would certainly break if this is true.

At last, I want to mention Tibet again. The lessons from Tibet on the table now are far under its real values. The carelessness about truth, the extreme emotions, the blind angry for westerns (for Trent, I know, Japan and Korea are against China on this issue too, but like the against communist attitude here, there is against imperialism attitude, and its symbol is US, in China) and lots of other reasons, among which the propaganda system is NO.1, are far more important than how the Chinese government now fear the media pressure, which is really nonsense and misinterpretation in my opinion and I insist that China couldn't and wouldn't change from the outside force or what so ever.

Tragedy in Sichuan

I have watched with great sadness the news coming from Sichuan about the massive earthquake that hit the area. It is hard to get a sense of a 7.9 magnitude quake - hearing that it was felt in Beijing is simply unbelievable. What is truly hard to imagine is the scope of this tragedy. The numbers of dead are climbing far too fast and to hear that upwards of 1 million people will be "significantly affected" by the quake is again, hard to imagine.

Zhang Tian's bringing up the traditional Chinese belief of why earthquakes occur is quite interesting. Of course one could come up with a long list of "offenses" (Tibet might come to mind) commited by China, the government or citizens to justify the notion of karma balancing with this earthquake - but really, there is no balance in tragedy. There is no balance for the loss of your only child. There is no balance for the loss of your home. There is no balance when your whole way of life is ripped up. It really is a horrible tragedy that I feel deep sympathy for those involved.


More than anything, I wish for the best possible response from local, national and international sources to help make this disaster the smallest it could be and the recovery the fastest possible.

A few thoughts more related to the blog itself:
1. China's news media has been uncharacteristically open and transparent about this earthquake. I take that as 2 signs.
1. China is indeed maturing and entering into the global sphere and, therefore, wants to relate and communicate with other nations. I think this is a very positive sign.
2. The quake was well timed - Ok ok ok I know I know - that sounds like a horrible thing to say and do not misunderstand me - THE WENCHUAN QUAKE IS A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY I WOULD WISH UPON NO ONE. However, with Tibet protests in March, a general backdrop of negative sentiments regarding Darfur, and then the parade of controversy that was the Olympic Torch Relay, China was reeling from some of the worst international public sentiments in a long time. Many nations (not just the West as State media so likes to say) were raising their voices against a number of policies, including those regarding Tibet. With the tragedy of the quake, much of that negative sentiment has been washed away.

A clever politician from anywhere would walk to utilize international sympathy stemming from a disaster to achieve certain objectives or release pressure. It appears that some of the news coverage from the quake may be doing just that.

Frankly, though, I think it is just fine. China is now an economic partner with most of the world's nations and it is steadily becoming a partner on more than simply economic terms. Because of Tibet and a host of other issues, I foresee a

Connection between the Killer Quake and Tibet?

In the whole morning, I was concerned with the difficulties of the rescue process, such as heavily rainy weather, highly destroyed road and the debris flows in those mountain area, in the disaster area of the killer quake in China, from news sources of China and NPR.

Among the update news and the personal interviews with the local people from NPR, there was another impressive msg: The NPR journalist in the disaster area said Chinese tend to associate natural disasters with other things, like in 1976 the Tangshan earthquake was widely considered to be linked with the death of Minister Zhou Enlai and later on Chairman Mao Zedong, when the host asked how Chinese people view natural disasters compared with Americans.

And later on, my good friend Robert mentioned something similar and pushed the issue further. The following is the excerpt from his email: 'The question that I have is that the Chinese associate earthquakes with signs that the gods aren't happy. The last major earthquake happened in 1976 2 weeks before Chairman Mao died and the Gang of Four were taken out of power. Then Another big one in the 1920s was right after the Communist reformers were starting to try to recruit people. So, I heard that this quake is associated with Tibet. And the question is: are the Chinese going to take it easy with the Tibet or are we to expect mass executions of Tibetans (somebody suggested that the authorities may try to link the quakes with Dalai Lama).'

I have two points to make about this issue:

First, it is true that Chinese associate natural disasters or natural abnormal phenomenon with human activities. We did link 1976 Tangshan earthquake with the death of important figures and so on, but I don't know the 1920s earthquake had been considered with Communist reformers.
Those karma with natural disasters are really folk and non-governmental though. And in my opinion, Chinese this point of view probably is from two aspects:
a) from the folk stories or drama. One of the most famous ancient dramas, , is one woman, Dou Er, was sentenced to death by murder crime but she was innocent. Before her death, she made three wishes and she said if the wishes came true the Heaven and Terra would prove she is innocent. One of the wishes is it would snow soon after her death and it was mid summer (of course it depends on the location, I am sure if the drama happened in Colorado, she won't make a wish like), another one is her hometown wouldn't get any rain in the next 3 yrs. And in that drama the wishes all came true and at the end there is one good officer rechecked her case and claimed she is innocent. And almost everyone in China knows this story.
b) from lots of aphorism and proverbs that reveal the karma from all kinds of gods to bad guys. 'stand condemned by God' is the translation I found for one of those proverbs.
And in my opinion people create these kinds of karma to the bad individuals, or to the larger group of people from a deeper grievance (like in the drama I mentioned, which I don't think it is fair though) only because they can not find any realistic force to keep the righteousness for them, and people need to grab any kind of hope for justice, no matter how tiny the righteous hope is, to keep living or die with their eyes closed.
So based on my reasoning, the more people rely on the natural force, the weaker people are and the darker the society rules are. This is why that drama is considered to reflect the bad ruling class at that time and the calling from the people for the justice.

Second, I don't think any connection between the earthquake and Tibet, or Dalai Lama would be built or accepted, not mention any further changes on the plans or the actions with Tibetan people from this point of view. Two reasons:
a) as I mentioned earlier, the karma connection is quite folk and non-governmental. And people nowadays talk it much less. No official conclusions have ever been made to link any kind of karma to any natural disasters. And NO official decisions have ever been made based on karma either.
b) just for the record, many Tibetans and other minorities ethical groups are living in one area that is quite close to the center of the earthquake. Even if Dalai Lama did have something to do with the quake, why he hurt his own people? Sacrify fewer Tibetan people to hurt tons of Han people? If I were someone who can control the natural force and I were Dalai Lama, I would let the Beijing rock instead of choosing remote places of Sichuan. Sorry, I know I am too far away from the topic.

In conclusion, this post first reviewed reasons why Chinese associate natural disasters to certain karma. Second, there won't be connection between the quake with Tibet. I haven't heard any Chinese individual or media talked about the connection between the quake and Tibet, and I can not recall any karma talking in the snow disaster early this year in China either.

Action to the Earthquake & Change of the News Sources---finally something came from China government I almost feel satisfied

This article is partially translated excerpt from Gao Song's editorial "Wenchuan Earthquake: The Change of China's Image". Original Chinese source is available at http://www.ftchinese.com/sc/story.jsp?id=001019302&pos=DAILY_NEWS&pa1=mainnews&pa2=0&loc=DAILY%20EMAIL&pa5=hq@ftchinese.com

I selected some important or conclusive information from the original article and named this post. There are many aspects of the behavior or attitude of Chinese government I highly disagree or feel uncomfortable with in the past couple of mouths, but in the earthquake case, I really almost satisfied with my government.

The following is from the original text:
'The deadly earthquake that rocked Sichuan and felt all across China and beyond, has left 9,219 people dead'. 'The mobilization system inside of the central government at this time has been very different from before.' 'Lots of signs have shown that when facing the natural disasters, Chinese government is trying to change the old way of blocking news or delaying the disclosure of news in order to gain the imitative of the media.'

'Xinhua website began to release news 18 mins after the Wenchuan earthquake. Couple of hours later, Sina, Tencent and other famous Chinese websites had already put tons of updated news and safety tips for earthquake onto their front pages. Besides the news from Xinhua journalists, large amount of news were from the websites of major cities' newspaper offices.' 'In the past, these kinds of contents would only be published online after they appeared on the newspaper.'

'In China, this is a very rare occasion that the reaction of media is faster than the speed of rescue and investigation of the administration department.' 'From Beijing to the remote Guizhou province, it is shown that the whold system uses prompt, open and accurate information as the key to settle the public. TV, internet, even the text msg by cell are the channels of the official information.'

'2008 for China is not a easy year. The influence from the snow and ice disaster early this year hasn't fully recovered, and this killer quake is coming suddenly. But compared with the closed and retard reaction to the snow disaster, the reaction to this earthquake is totally different, especially the response information the public, and it is impressive to the observer.'

'Some web media have encouraged the bloggers who are in the affected region recorded what they saw and published those blog posts. This might not be surprise in western, but for China, it might be very significant. The Internet in China proved its mainstream position again, not by the level of administration, but by the massive information and the methods of dealing with news.'

'There are other negative information spreading through the Internet. For example, Sichuan media had reported abnormal signs like big scale migration of toads, but it was explained as normal phenomenon by the related origination. Another example, a research wording in the China Earthquake Bureau wrote a paper five years ago, which reminded that the condition for the next earthquake above 7 magnitude in Sichuan is approach maturity. '

'The earthquake of Tangshan in 1976 has been mentioned as comparison with this Wenchuan earthquake. The news blocking in Culture Revolution reached the peak: the journalists were not allowed to enter the affected region and the journalists who entered there were under strict rules---no pictures of people were allowed.'

'Two weeks ago, was put into practice. According to this regulation, it is the responsibility and obligation for the government to report information promptly about abrupt events. But the reality is not that ideal: some famous local media, which had impressive performance in all kinds of disaster reports before, were not allowed to send journalists to the affected region by central propaganda system. It is obvious that without the approval from the central officials, the various participation from media are still limited, and it is absolutely beneficial for the current rescue and the following charity donation mobilization from the government to remove the limits.'

Autonomy vs. Independence

I saw this article on "Merinews". (Click the title of this blog entry for it) Not really sure what kind of source that is, it says some sort of 'citizen journalism' - nice idea. The article, while it isn't the best put out an issue that just doesn't get enough attention from anyone - Autonomy vs. Independence.

China has been saying the people creating the disturbance want pure independence from China. The Dalai Lama has long sought "meaningful Autonomy". Some activist groups again talk of independence.

The pro-Tibetan side will get nowhere without a clear goal. I agree wholeheartedly with the spirit of this article - pro-Tibetans need to give up on seeking independence; it simply won't happen. But they could have meaningful autonomy - like Scotland does with the UK or, even closer to home, like Hong Kong and Taiwan do in China.

At the same time, the Chinese government makes any headway and puts fuel on the fire by inflaming the issue only talking about seperatists when it's clear that's not the case. Only those censored from Dalai Lama's speaches and actions can claim to believe he does anything but advocate for autonomy.

So, what's my wishlist?
1. More news coverage in and out of China on the issue of Autonomy vs. Independence
2. The Tibetan gov't in exile to make up it's mind and push for Autonomy.
3. The Activist world to follow suit and push for that goal as well.
4. Chinese news to report people's ideas and positions as they actually are, rather than concocting them, as has largely been the case with the Dalai Lama.

(Yes yes yes - This wishlist is far from objective or encouraging debate - I know. As I've said - I encourage debate but have my own opinion. Regardless - autonomy is the "middle path" (to borrow Buddhism's slogan) to a solution for Tibet.

Good night.

-Trent

Chinese readership and the Great Firewall

I am cognizant of the deep divide in perspectives on Tibet between Chinese people and well...most of the rest of the world. So I hope this blog can gain Chinese readership, not simply Chinese people living outside their country, but mainland citizens. Recently, a good friend of mine from the mainland asked if she could see the blog. What followed is an interesting example of how information works within China's borders.

Long story short this blog - and anything else run by Blogger is blocked by what some refer to as The Great Firewall. It is the largest censoring mechanism in world history. Yes, thousands and hundreds of years ago the Chinese government sought refuge from invading Mongolians, now they seek shelter from information. The project is officially known as the Golden Shield Project.

I was always amazed at the skill by which this Firewall worked. Type in wikipedia, blogger, or until recently bbc and you would simply get a note saying that website was down - YOU DON'T REALIZE YOU'RE BEING CENSORED.

There are, however, ways around this Firewall. Sites exist that disguise one's IP address and make it look like the user is not in China. I used anonymouse.org when I was in China to check an old blog (check it out - Twelve Percent) or to read world news. Most Chinese, however, either don't know they are being censored, don't care, or even more interesting - are happy as they are confident in the proper actions of the government.

Back to my friend - I hope we have found a way for her to read this blog. And I hope a Chinese interest in this blog grows. This blog is a testament to my steadfast personal belief in the freedom of information and debate. I hope she is able to read it, have her own thoughts, and perhaps turn on other friends in China to engage in the discussion.

-Trent

For more thoughts on the Firewall, l read the following article in The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall

Curious if your favorite site is censored in China? Check:
http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org/

Wikipedia's Golden Shield Project article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project

What are the issues?

What are the issues?

It has been both interesting and disheartening to see the massive divide emerge between China and other nations following the March protests. Chinese media, in particular, has taken a defensive stance in regards to Tibet’s heritage and an offensive one in terms of defining what the issues are regarding Tibet today. Media from other developed nations (I am American so I primarily follow English language news – BBC, NY Times, Washington Post) has presented a different set of issues or, at least, presented the events in a very different light.

At the outset of this blog I want to move the lens out of the heat of the past 2 months events and ask: what are the issues? Neither Chinese nor Western media have given any real consideration as to WHY Tibetans might be acting the way the are (regardless of whether you think they are terrorists or oppressed people’s fighting for their rights). Similarly, there is no discussion from primary Western sources as to why China might feel compelled to act as it has. In parallel, Chinese media, and as far as I can tell, it’s government and people, seem to be woefully unable to understand why “wei guo ren” (outsiders) say what they do about Tibet. Since no one is trying to get at these core issues, the divergence deepens and each side becomes less rational and more defensive. So now we find ourselves with people being beaten up at Carrefour stores and Olympic flags being taken away from a woman in a wheelchair. Those actions are just ridiculous.

So what are the issues that should be discussed and debated and RESOLVED? Here’s my list:

1. Tibet and China’s Historical Relationship – Has Tibet been Chinese for the duration of China’s 5000 year history? Was it a free country until Mao ordered troops to invade in 1951? Or has Tibet been governed largely independently with a strong political influence and guidance from China through intermittent periods of the last millennium?
2. China’s Current Policies Toward Tibet – What exactly are these policies, particularly in regards to Buddhism? Are they helping or hurting Tibet? Is economic development benefiting and liberating normal Tibetans? Has China created a set of policies that amount to “cultural genocide”? I strongly believe that very few people know or understand the reality and complexity of these policies.
3. Human rights vs. Intervention – China has contended that this issue is an internal one an should be dealt with internally. Other nations, particularly in Europe, state China is committing human rights violations and oppressing the Tibetan people and that they should intervene on behalf of those people? I think this issue is far larger than simply the scope of Tibet and goes deep within the consciousness of the Chinese psyche. Western governments, media, and citizens should seek to understand the Chinese manner of thinking in this area. (To my Chinese friends: Why do you think China has taken more effort than any nation or culture on the history of the planet to keep people out?)
4. China’s Emergence as a World Power – Many have viewed the Olympics as Chinas “coming out party”. If this is so, then the current turmoil says a great deal about how China wants to act on the international stage and how it will be received by other developed nations. What influence does China want to have? (It’s impossible for that influence to be restricted solely to economics – indeed, Marx himself told us how all life is economic.) How does the West want to work with, restrict, and accept China? On what terms?
5. Media Use and Principles – China is the largest censor on the planet. All media is state owned and run. European, North American, and many other nations have a press that is free from the direct hand of government direction. China has accused companies like CNN of manipulating the truth. At the same time, China has banned all foreign reporters from Tibet. THE MECHANISMS FOR FINDING AND REPORTING THE TRUTH ARE DEEPLY CONSTRAINED HERE. This atmosphere is dangerous – we cannot find the truth, nor spread it, so how can we have a legitimate discussion of the issues?

I suggest the following: If Chinese media is state governed and if Western media are indeed “biased”, then we cannot get a legitimate report of what is happening in Tibet. In fact, we should expect to be manipulated. To avoid this, we must examine the interests of each group doing the reporting. We must do this in our own heads and seek to be as objective as possible. This allows us to develop a certain “filter” for the news coming from each side.

6. The Desires of Tibetans – inside and out of China - What do Tibetans in Tibet want? What does the Tibetan Government In Exile want? What do other expat Tibetans want? Are these desires unified? Are they the same across ages? Are the same regardless of what job people have? It seems to me that anyone who cared, be it an outside and concerned Westerner or a Chinese person being patriotic about his or her nation helping, would focus on the expressed desires of Tibetans themselves.

IF CHINESE, AMERICANS, EUROPEANS, INDIANS, OR ANYONE ELSE DOES ANYTHING BUT PUT TIBETANS FIRST THEN THEY ARE BEING SELFISH AND ACTING FOR THEIR OWN GAIN.

Well that’s a little longer than I would like to write. As this blog grows, I invite you not only to comment on the ideas being discussed but also on how I, we might best put the idea out there.

Brief Purpose and personal history

This is an admittedly amateurish attempt at a grand project.

Recent events in Tibet have created a storm around the region. China and the West are at odds on the history, current reality, and future of Tibet. I choose the title "Tibet in Babylon" because it is clear that a common thinking or language is lacking in how Tibet is being considered. Some people are ignorant of important facts, other people manipulate reality, and still others bring their biases and outside beliefs to this complex issue. I can't stand this. I aim to create a dialogue based on generating a common productive understanding and outlook on Tibet. Objectivity is not possible but it's the goal. I have strong personal beliefs on this issue and they will be part of the blog, but I actively seek out thoughts from those who disagree with me. Tibet is truly a magnificent place. I hope this blog can allow us to work toward a more satisfying future for Tibetans.

A little about my personal background:
I grew up in the mountains of Colorado in the United States. I have traveled fairly well through the world (nearly 30 countries), have a master's degree, speak 5 languages (to varying degrees of quality) and have lived over 10% of my life internationally. My most recent stint abroad was teaching english in the Chinese city of Qingdao for 6 months. At the close of this period I spent 14 days in Tibet. It was a brief time but the land left an indellible mark on me.

About the blog:
My Chinese is "bu hao" so this blog will be in English and I ask that comments be made in English. Sorry. (It also means I limited access to Chinese language sites.)
I will post articles as I find them and comment on them.
I hope to allow readers to post articles as well. (I considered wordpress as it looked easier to do this, but frankly don't have the time to develop the expertise - HELP)
I will post my own thoughts and INVITE THE THOUGHTS OF OTHERS -REGARDLESS OF THEIR NATURE
I will work on developing information resources on Tibet
The blog should evolve. Help me to do so.

I WILL NOT TOLERATE ANGRY ATTACKS, HATE MAIL, OR STUBBORN CLOSEDMINDEDNESS! BE CONSTRUCTIVE.

Climb high. Think clearly.

Trent

Why I Write---Never Feel They are so Close

Before I explain what the title means, a brief introduction about myself would make it easier:
I grew up in Inner Mongol, China, spent 4 yrs in Beijing for college, and now have studied in US for almost 2 yrs. My major is Engineering for both bachelor and master degree, but I always have a passion about words with insightful thoughts and the beauty of the minds amuses me.
I love reading and listening to these thoughts and sometimes I can come up with some in my writing or in conversations, but I have to say most of the time I only can repeat what I read or hear and admire those thoughts. It might be a sign that I am lack of the ability of critical thinking, and it also determines the preference of my reading sources and my writing style, which I will talk more later in the entry.

About the title:
'they' means two things: Tibet, and the problems in thinking patterns of Chinese.
1. I am very ignorant about Tibet, as most of Chinese people, at least the people around me. Since this March, Tibet has become such a hot issue that it is impossible not to think about it. I know the style of Chinese media so I doubt about them, but while I prefer the western media to find the truth I also know due to the ignorance and the bias, they can not be relied on.
It is difficult for me to build up the foundation for my own thoughts, and I have to say that deep in my heart I believe Chinese government doesn't mean to hurt Tibetan culture and people at all--the problems are the representation of the conflicts between tradition and economy. It is painful for me to have doubt about this belief and I am desperate to grab anything to prove it.

2. But later on, things became very complicated and multi-dimensional. The reaction of Chinese people to the riot in Tibet became minimal, and it is only the lowest stair for all the other reactions to misleading news from CNN, to boycott actions on Olympic, to the conflicts during Olympic torch relay and the related attitude towards certain people involved.
Those emotions and reactions are separate from the Tibet riot in my opinion, and the Tibet riot was just a blasting fuse that ignited the whole emotional package of Chinese people at this complex time, and there are certain familiar thinking patterns I have criticised for long time shown in this emotional exploration.

3. Concerned by the thinking patterns of Chinese people I am against, I am more concerned about the people around my age, which have been / will be the mainstream force for the critical period of China in the foreseeable future. Our understanding about the world will determine how the world understands China and our reaction to the world will determine how the world views China.
But first of all, I think our understanding about ourselves about a) the methods we use to judge, the foundations our judgements are based on and why we use these kinds of methods and foundations b) the reasons and causes behind our emotions and reactions c) the history of China and how we are unavoidably influenced by it.

Facing a world that is so different from China in many ways, it might be frustrating and painful to get along with it. But it is the only way to grow up. And the Tibet riot and related reactions make me feel it is such a urgent need to think through the points I just mentioned. Therefore, the title 'never feel they are so close' can be simply put as 'never feel the need to review the Chinese style thinking and reactions are so urgent'.

About my contribution to the blog:
From what I wrote above, it is obvious that I have a very different goal from Trent. I will give my thoughts about Tibet issue, serving the purpose of the blog, but since the Tibet issue is related to a far bigger picture to me, my focus will be from a Chinese perspective to analyze the reasons, state my concerns and come up with some suggestions (I wish I could) about the behavior of Chinese people and government.

About my sources and my writing style:
I will try to have the ability of critical thinking, which means I need to use many sources as the foundation for my reasoning. I believe in Trent's taste of news and I will try to cover as much as possible.
Besides my own comments and thoughts, I will translate and compile some Chinese articles, mainly from www.ftchinese.com, a branch of British . And I got the permission of my favourite columnist to translate his column!
My writing will focus more on individual concerns and feelings but I will try my best to be objective.

No pain, no gain. I expect a journey in front to be painful, confusing, embarrassing and frustrating, but I believe a strong, stable, mature and tolerant China will be unavoidable in the future, and the more Chinese people are seriously thinking, the sooner that future will be.

Interesting table on deaths, injuries, and arrests

The Information below is from Tibet Custom - a Tibetan news blog. The most interesting piece is the table of deaths, injuries and arrests according to each various source. Sad that there can be no truth - only a table from a variety of sides.

Total number of verified Tibetan Deaths, Injuries and Arrests as of April 30, 2008

Wednesday, April 30 2008 @ 11:13 pm BST

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has compiled a confirmed list of total number of deaths, injuries and arrests or detentions of Tibetans, reported during the peaceful protests in the three traditional provinces of Tibet, from 10 March 2008 - 25 April 2008.

Sources	Chinadigitaltimes.net	TCHRD	China's State Media	Lhasa Radio	RFA/Callers from Tibet	CTA source
Deaths	61	114	23	19	237	162
Injured	59	227	917	405	126	42
Arrested/detained	4051	2476	2226	1397	23,957	2946

The above figures are based on information and news reports collected from 6 different sources, namely, Chinadigitaltimes.net, Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), China's State Media and Lhasa Radio, Radio Free Asia (RFA)/Callers from Tibet and Department of Security (CTA).

Various facts and figures given by the different sources have been meticulously examined and tallied with each other. After having done this, we confirm that the actual figure for the number of dead is 203, the number of injured is more than 1,000 and the number of those still detained is more than 5,715. These are figures for Tibetans who died, are injured and still in detention throughout Tibet as today.

Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph was an American Indian, specifically Nez Perce, who lived in what is now Oregon. He is well known in Western (Western as in the American West - not European) history. Born in 1840, he fought to maintain his life and culture amidst increasing pursecution and encroachment by "Americans". When that failed he led a group of his fellow Nez Perce on a failed attempt to escape to Canada.

When I think of Tibet, I think of the Indians.

I was traveling in a LandRover from Shigatze in Tibet when I first had this thought - that Tibet, and, really, China's West is deeply parallel to America's West. As I let that thought expand, I am filled with a great sense of sadness and shame. Let me be clear - I have no disagreement with the Dalai Lama in his statement that China is conducting "cultural genocide" in Tibet -but China has never acted with the brutality or dishonesty that America did as it expanded out into "The West".

Were I Chinese, I would want to explore the history of the American West - and from both sides. On one end you had the American sense of Manifest Destiny, opportunity, ambition, and individual liberty, ideas that are so much the core of what America was, is, and will be. On the other hand you had the Indians, incorrectly named by a white Italian explorer. Indians were really a host of different tribes with different languages, cultures, histories, and beliefs. The North American continent has always been a place of diversity. From the arrival of the Pilgrims, in the early 1600's, the fate of the Indians was in peril.

The American government, army and citizens slowly expanded out into the West. As they encroached on Indian territory some sought peaceful coexistence and this was often possible. All too often, however, the American pioneers were too violent, one-sided and stubborn to allow for any sort of rational peace between the two sides. Most never sought to understand Indian tribes - they thought them inferior. With the presence of great ignorance will soon come great tragedy. And it did.

Expansion resulted in one sided treaties that largely benefited the American pioneers. With very few exception, these treaties were not even respected. Good faith negotiations on the part of the Indians was often met with lies and manipulation by the government or army. At the same time, widespread violence took place. Indians most certainly committed heinous acts - sometimes to innocent people - but rarely was it not in the context of defense. A people pushed to the brink of extinction will fight with ferocity. I believe most Americans today associate the word "massacre" with the slaughter of Indians.

So Chief Joseph? His real name translates to "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain". His fame stemmed from his the tenacity and valour of his fight to defend his people and his dignified surrender that was only met with lies by the American army. Before he ever fought though, he sought peace numerous times, finally with American General Howard.

These are said to be his words at the moment when he surrendered - himself, his arms, and the any possibility of maintaining a real scrap of the life he and his fathers led:

"I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

My own heart aches when I read this. I simply cannot imagine a man who has been pushed from his home where his ancestors are buried, sought to maintain peace at any cost but his life, fought for the sanctity of his people, and lost - lost to a white people who lie, who do not believe in respect for the nature or the environment, who do not believe in justice. It breaks my heart.

It breaks my heart to know that the state, Colorado, that I love with my soul - was taken from another, not bought, traded or given - taken.

I know of no nation in history that has risen to greatness without crushing another culture.

America crushed the Indians.

China is crushing the Tibetans.

I hope China can learn from the mistakes and injustices of America. I hope no Chinese person ever looks at his country with the painful sadness of knowing that greatness was bought through the destruction of another culture.