Tibet Tibet!

Posting an article that I wrote for the local Asian weekly. The Dalai Lama visited Seattle recently and the city is in furor. The debate's been narrowed down the dichotomy of "Free Tibet" activists and staunch Chinese nationalists who shout "Tibet has always been part of China!" Both have their own chauvinisms that make the liberation of the Tibetan people, simply an objectified fetish in a racist, imperialist game.
There is straight up colonialism going on in Tibet and Xinjiang, no doubt, but the (racist) loopholes of the Free Tibet camp, consisting mainly of liberal Buddhist wannabes, is contributing to the "white-washing" of the Tibetan struggle. A couple things. Most of these Free Tibet activists are hella racists -- the signs "Free Tibet Fuck China" are bad strategy at best, and racist at worst. How are you going to say "Fuck" to 1.2 billion Chinese WORKERS, MOST of whom do not benefit from the Chinese government's expansion into Tibet? No question that many of these migrant Chinese workers are used as settlement population in Tibet and Xinjiang, intended to overwhelm the areas with high Han ethnic population to wipe out, or erase the culture of the indigenous people there. There is no question again, that this is colonialism, and whether willing or not, Han migrant workers have allowed themselves to be props to Han supremacy.
Right now, the responses of the Free Tibet people are simply to say that Han people are colonizers. That is racist. What is happening in Tibet, as far as I know, is not the settler violence targetted at Palestinians, or the Native Americans. The ONLY means of armed violence is coming from the Chinese state. It needs to simultaneously squash Tibetan liberation movements as well as a strong class resentment against the state. Everywhere in China, quiet as it is kept, are riots and rebellions. Migrant workers arent happy w being exploited. The fact that Free Tibet people have no analysis, or no sense of having to interject a class analysis, a collaboration between the predominantly agricultural Tibetans and the working-class Han workers, is both a strategic error and a racist loophole. For Free Tibet campers, the idea of liberation is based solely on Tibet vs. Han racial lines, with no class analysis.
It is not surprising however, that there is this racist loophole among Free Tibet campers. The reality is that many of these Free Tibeters are liberal racists -- they are in the fad of saving Tibet cos its a beautiful and pretty Buddhist country (for which they can get free tourist passes in the future to visit), run by the jolly happy Dalai Lama -- who speaks with no pronouns just like any cute adorable smiling Asian...Truth be told. Buddhism is a Model Minority religion for white people, the Dalai Lama has become its representative and so has Tibet! These Free Tibeters will pander to the dumbass US state, the silly ol Congress (the same one btw that is rounding up undocumented immigrants IN THIS COUNTRY, that gave out diseased smallpox blankets to the indigenous people OF THIS COUNTRY, and killing MORE BABIES in Iraq...so much for anti-colonialism?!?!) All these feel-good Buddhists who see campaigning for Tibet as an extension of their eating a carrot a day to maintain their vegan lifestyles have NO IDEA of how Asian people CAN come together, how Asian people can FIGHT white supremacy AND Han Supremacy WITHOUT the missionary ethos of white liberal RACISTS.
I could go on and on about how mad I am at these liberal racist Free TIbet folks. They just made Buddhism into another white caricature, another fad that you can jerk off of... and yes. I am a Buddhist and I am mad cos everywhere I go to try to find a Buddhist community I come across these people who will only accept Buddhism as their vegan lifestyle but not respect the strong tradition of justice, that have been manipulated unjustly, and justly, that Buddhism has within it.

As for the staunch Chinese nationalists... I just pray for the day that the Chinese state is overthrown and these people have to learn to live side by side with other non-Han ethncities without the Chinese state covering their ass. Whether Tibetans, Uyghurs and Han people will be able to live side by side depend on the actions of working class Chinese people. They have to say no to Han imperialism because it does not serve their interests too. The same guns that are wielded against African workers in Chinese corporations, or Tibetans and Uyghurs, are the same guns that are targetted at Chinese workers rebelling on exploitative factory floors.

JOMO

China loves Tibet?
Northwest Asian Weekly

“China loves Tibet,” Zhang, a Chinese graduate student read aloud from the multitude of signs. He continued, “But the question is, does Tibet love China?”

At the lively protest of up to 400 Chinese students and workers, according to UW Police Chief Ray Wittmier, held at the University of Washington convocation of the Dalai Lama, no easy answers were found.

In response to the violent protests that have taken place in Tibet over the recent weeks, chants of “No More Violence,” “No to Riots” and “We Want Peace” resounded from the long row of Chinese protesters who began their march from Red Square on the UW campus.

“I am here today because the U.S. media likes to sensationalize what is happening in Tibet,” said Xia Songtao, a Chinese national working at Microsoft. “It wants to portray China as irrational, as against peace in the world.”

“The U.S. media simplifies what is happening,” said Xia, speaking in Chinese, referring to the conflict between ethnic Tibetans and ethnic Han, who make up the majority of China’s population.

“For historical reasons, the Cultural Revolution did contribute to the destruction of Tibetan culture, but it is not the only reason for the Tibetan-Han tensions,” he said. “This tension is based partly on uneven economic development. Some people are upset that they cannot benefit economically from the improvements in technology and transportation. This discontent gets read in religious terms.”

Citing the example of ethnic Tibetans who live in the bordering regions of Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, Xia continued, “The Han ethnics have higher educational qualifications than many of the local Tibetans and so there is resentment between them.

“The media portrays Tibetans as oppressed, but in reality, life is improving for many Tibetans. There used to be only religious institutions in Tibet, but now there are close to 100 institutions of higher learning. It is an astounding number.”

Who bears the burden of destroying Tibetan culture, however, remains an open question.

With the stated purpose of clearing myths propagated by the U.S. media, a female spokesperson of the protest asked, what about the McDonalds and the Starbucks that are found in Tibet? Is globalization also cultural genocide? Is the loss of Tibetan culture in the march toward development a deliberate form of cultural genocide carried out by China?

For some, the suppression of Tibetan religion and culture is more straightforward. “The rights of Tibetan people are fully taken away,” said Jill Corey, a Seattle resident attending the Dalai Lama’s convocation. “Tibetans aren’t allowed to practice their religion. They cannot even have pictures of the Dalai Lama.

“The Dalai Lama should be reinstated and assume his religious authority in Tibet now,” she said.

Not all, however, see the return of religious authority as an expression of Tibetan freedom.

“Tibet used to have a hierarchical social structure,” claimed the female spokesperson in the protest. Slaves made up the majority of the population under the religious hierarchy, she said. “Why didn’t Dalai free his people then?”

Some saw the UW convocation of the Dalai Lama as a reflection of U.S. institutions’ interventions into China’s internal politics.

“The U.S. is using Tibet for its own political reasons to tear apart China,” said Wei, a student at the University of Washington who gave his first name only and spoke in Chinese. “The CIA used to fund the Tibetan resistance in the 1960s,” he claimed. “China, like the U.S., is a multicultural country, with its own set of race affairs and tragedies. Why does the U.S. want to intervene in China’s internal affairs?”

For some Chinese students, these perceived interventions have their loopholes. “If the U.S. is speaking out against oppression of Tibetans, why isn’t it also supporting the resistance in Muslim-dominated Xinjiang? Why is it still in Iraq?” asked Jing, speaking in Chinese. A graduate student at UW, she asked to be identified by first name only. She is from the Xinjiang region of Western China, where, as in Tibet, protests against Chinese rule have also recently taken place.

“Buddhism has become a feel-good religion for Americans. Everyone loves the Dalai Lama even when they don’t understand the politics. Islam is too political for the U.S.,” she said.