We know that U.S. support for Taiwan is a sore spot for China. However, a far more combustible issue is U.S. support for Tibetans, especially the Dalai Lama. This is one reason (among several ) why China opposes any further sanctions against Iran, as I’ll explain below. The Tibet issue also affects the U.S. Navy.

Tibetans are China’s Palestinians. China is moving tens of thousands of Israeli-style “settlers” into Tibet, and becomes extremely angry when anyone calls for Tibetan independence.

Remember when that Chinese submarine suddenly surfaced near a U.S. aircraft carrier? These and many other issues are connected with Tibet.

To explain why, I’ll offer a brief chronology, pieced together from numerous web sites, including other people's posts at WUFYS.

Notice the Tibet-centered pattern.

Afterward I’ll explain why I bring this up.
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1950 -- China sends troops to crush a Tibetan rebellion.

March 1959 -- China crushes another Tibetan rebellion. The Dalai Lama (aka Tenzin Gyatso, born 1935) flees to India, along with 100,000 Tibetans. Other rebels flee to Nepal, and to the semi-independent Kingdom of Mustang. The CIA brings 300 rebels to Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado for Bay-of-Pigs-type training, but abandons them when Kissinger makes diplomatic overtures to China in 1969. Source.

2002 -- Bush meets with the Dalai Lama. The Chinese, enraged, refuse to allow the U.S. the destroyer Curtis Wilbur to dock in Hong Kong.

2004 -- Bush meets with the Dalai Lama again. The Chinese respond by refusing to allow the U.S. submarine City of Corpus Christi to dock in Hong Kong. These are violations of maritime law, but China gives no explanation.

29 June 06 China opens a major rail line to the Tibetan capitol of Lhasa. The 1, 220-mile railway will move thousands of settlers from China's Han ethnic majority into Tibet, which in the past had a population almost entirely made up of ethnic Tibetans. Many Han Chinese in recent years have moved to Tibet by bus and car. The new trains are equipped with oxygen-supply systems, as some of the rail passes are at 16,640 feet above sea level – the highest in the world. The trains also have coated double-paned windows to reduce high-altitude radiation, special lightning rods, wireless telecommunications networks, and systems to compress garbage and contain sewage. (Translation: China will never let go of Tibet.)

26 Oct 2006 --a Chinese 160-ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine suddenly surfaces near the Kitty Hawk, totally surprising the U.S. Navy. The Chinese submarine slipped past a dozen U.S. submarines and warships that were supposed to protect the carrier. (On 10 November 07, a Chinese submarine did it again to the Kitty Hawk, this time near Okinawa. These were not accidents. China does things like this when the USA becomes too friendly with Taiwan, and especially with Tibet.)

January 2007 -- China conducts successful missile test, shooting down a satellite in orbit for the first time. China makes sure the USA sees this, but offers no explanation.

June 2007 -- at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, the Dalai Lama presents a detailed proposal for a peaceful resolution on Tibet. The “Strasbourg Proposal” calls for making the Tibetan plateau a demilitarized peace sanctuary. This is front-page news in Europe, but is ignored in the USA.

24 July 07 -- The Chinese arrest Catholic priests in China and put them into solitary confinement after the priests voice support for Tibetan autonomy.

August 2007 -- thousands of Tibetan exiles march through New Delhi to protest the 2008 Beijing Olympics, plus Chinese plans to have the Olympic torch run go through Tibet.

4 Aug 07 -- China responds by issuing an edict designed to end a mystical system in Tibet that dates back to the 1100 AD. China declares that Tibetan lamas (aka tulkas, aka "living Buddhas,” or influential clergy believed to undergo continuous reincarnation) cannot be reincarnated without the approval of China's atheist government.

Sep 07 -- China meets with the “P5+1” group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany) to discuss the Bush – Israeli – European demand for new sanctions against Iran. Little comes from the meeting.

10 October 07-- About 50 Tibetans barge into China's embassy in New Delhi. They spray "Free Tibet" in red paint on the embassy walls and the main gate before Indian police take them away. China accuses the Dalai Lama of being behind this. (India and China fought a small war over Tibet in 1962, but now India is placating China concerning Tibet.)

13 October 2007 -- American company 3Com announces a proposed $2.2 billion merger with China’s Huawei Technologies. U.S. intelligence agencies inform a Treasury Department-led review committee that a merger would threaten U.S. national security. The USA says Huawei Technologies is guilty of in bribery, economic espionage, and violating U.N. sanctions. (3Com manufactures computer network intrusion-prevention equipment used by the Pentagon and U.S. government agencies.)

16 October 07 -- Bush privately receives the Dalai Lama (now aged 72) at the White House and gives him a Congressional Gold Medal, which is Congress’ highest civilian award. It has been given to people like Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, and others.

Chinese officials had been working to prevent this meeting. They are enraged. Bush offers to placate them by visiting the Beijing Olympics in summer 2008 – but it does no good, since China is also angry about Washington's decision to sell weapons to Taiwan, including a $948-million upgrade to the Patriot anti-missile defense system.

Tibet's Communist Party leader Zhang Qingli says he is "furious” that Bush met again with the Dalai Lama. He calls it an attempt to "split the (Tibetan) motherland."

China’s foreign minister Yang Jiechi, says, "We demand that the US cancel these extremely wrong arrangements. They violate the norm of international relations, they wound the feelings of the Chinese people, and they interfere with China's internal affairs. If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, then there is no justice or good people in the world."

The Dalai Lama has visited the White House eleven times, including three previous meetings with Bush. This time, on the same day Bush met with the Dalai Lama, China announces it will not attend the next “P5+1” meeting against Iran, scheduled for Monday, 19 Nov 07. Therefore the meeting is called off.

Because German Chancellor Angela Merkel also met with the Dalai Lama, China announces it will not attend the annual human rights dialogue with Germany, scheduled for Dec 07. China also requests an apology from Merkel.

30 Oct 07 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is in China for a three-day visit. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao rejects Israel’s demands for new sanctions against Iran.

19 Nov 07 --China, under intense pressure from Bush, promises to show up at the “P5+1” meeting on Iranian sanctions after all. The meeting is re-scheduled for 1 Dec 07. However China is still furious that Bush met with the Dalai Lama.

20 November 07 -- China refuses to allow two U.S. minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian to refuel in Hong King and escape an approaching storm. Navy officials say that refusing any ship safe harbor in a storm is a breach of maritime traditions.

26 Nov 07 -- France’ state-owned Areva Company signs a deal to build two nuclear reactors in China. Airbus signs a deal to build 160 jetliners in China. The combined deal is worth $30 billion. A third French company, Alcatel-Lucent, signs deals for $1 million with China's two largest mobile-telephone providers. Since China does not support a new round of sanctions against Iran, the spread of business networks will make Bush and Israel’s attacks on Iran more difficult.

27 November 07 -- China still angry about the Dalai Lama refuses to allow the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and accompanying warships to dock in Hong Kong for Thanksgiving. The Kitty Hawk plus its escorts have a combined crew of about 8,000. The vessels routinely dock in Hong Kong. The city’s Wanchai bar district has been a regular port of call for US sailors on "R & R" since the Vietnam War. The carrier had planned to stay four days.

Paul Buxton, manager of Hong Kong's Quarterdeck Club restaurant, had a contract to feed and entertain the U.S. hordes, but he had to dispose of 1,000 pounds of turkey, 1,200 pounds of coleslaw, 100,000 hamburger buns, and 3,000 pizzas. Hundreds of U.S. relatives (U.S. military families) had flown to Hong Kong at their own expense to meet U.S. sailors for Thanksgiving. All are angry at China.

The U.S. Navy is so angry that China reversed its decision, but by then the Kitty Hawk had sailed to its homeport in Japan.

27 Nov 07 -- Pope Benedict promises China he will not meet with the Dalai Lama when the Lama visit Rome next month. The Vatican has repeatedly protested China’s mistreatment of Catholic priests. Relations between China and the Vatican are strained.

28 Nov 07 -- Senior Defense official David Sedney summons General Zhao Ning, Chinese defence attaché in Washington, and gives him a formal protest.

28 Nov 07 Chinese missile destroyer Shenzhen visits Japan, the first visit by a Chinese naval ship since World War II. It plans to stay for four days. The ship has 345 crewmembers, and is much larger than most destroyers.

29 Nov 07 -- China asks permission for the captain and a dozen senior crew members from the Shenzhen to tour the Japanese Aegis-class destroyer Kirishima . The U.S. Pentagon says no, and Japan obeys. (The USA has 50,000 troops in Japan. “Aegis” is Lockheed-Martin’s integrated combat system, and is used by Japan, Australia, Norway, Spain, South Korea, and the USA. On 3 July 1988, the Aegis system on the USS Vincennes destroyer shot down an Iranian Airbus A300B2, killing all 290 civilian passengers, including 38 non-Iranians and 66 children. The Vincennes was inside Iranian territorial waters at the time.)

30 Nov 07 --Meetings between Iran and the European Union end up fruitless. Iran will not dump its nuclear program.

1 Dec 07 (today) -- China and the "P5+1" group meet in Paris to discuss Iran.

12 Dec 07 --U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will lead a delegation of five Cabinet-level U.S. officials to a new round of strategic economic talks, held every six months. They will discuss the U.S. trade deficit with China and the dying dollar.

WHAT'S YOUR POINT?

Because the Chinese rarely explain their actions, everyone seemed mystified when a Chinese submarine surfaced near a U.S. aircraft carrier (on two different occasions). Yet the pattern is clear. The message is “hands off Tibet.”

Bush thinks his meetings with the Dalai Lama are no big deal, but it’s a major deal to the Chinese. The Israeli government tries not to anger China (the future Zionist host) by giving too much support to Tibetans. China lodged a stern protest against the Israeli government when the Dalai Lama visited Jerusalem in 1999-- just a day before Li Peng, second in the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy, came to Israel. In February 2006 the Dalai Lama visited Israel again. Again the Chinese screamed.

Israel brings in groups of Tibetans from India to teach them agricultural science. The Israeli Forum for International Humanitarian Aid gives money to Tibetans.
So do the Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People. All of this is delicate ground.

Jews outside Israel (especially in Hollywood CA) support Tibet. Jewish actors like Richard Gere and Harrison Ford are pro-Tibet crusaders. When Zionists seek to excuse their atrocities against Palestinians, they often point to Chinese atrocities against Tibetans.

Again, this is delicate ground.

There are three reasons why China clings to Tibet so violently. First, the Chinese have romantic fantasies about Tibet, which they see as their mystic theme park. They regard Tibetans as “inferior” yet fascinating. Second, most foreigners sympathize with Tibetans, which greatly annoys China. Third, China does not want an independent nation between China and India.

Anyway, the next time a Chinese submarine surfaces near a U.S. aircraft carrier, or China refuses to let U.S. warships dock in a Chinese port, don’t be mystified -- just ask, “Who’s the Dalai Lama meeting with this week?”

Obviously Iran's oil is crucial to China, but international relations also hinge on sheer spite and pettiness.

For an example, look at Israel.

Posted in

• china
• Dalai Lama
• Iran sanctions
• Israel
• Tibet

Submitted by Abdul Alhazred on Sat, 2007-12-01 14:20.

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