On this seventieth anniversary of the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China, well, it is what there is. There is nothing that we can possibly expect to do about it.
Register our objections to its many, many failings. Then be on the bus, or be under it. Be on the Belt and Road, or starve. For all our apparent determination to emulate China’s nightmare surveillance state, we tolerate and even indulge the far worse human rights records of, in one notable case, the state that sets off bombs on our streets.
Register our objections to its many, many failings. Then be on the bus, or be under it. Be on the Belt and Road, or starve. For all our apparent determination to emulate China’s nightmare surveillance state, we tolerate and even indulge the far worse human rights records of, in one notable case, the state that sets off bombs on our streets.
Speaking of that, we would rightly arrest and imprison in Bradford, Birmingham or Tower Hamlets those who have been arrested and imprisoned in Xinjiang. That there are a lot of them is just because there are a lot of people in that part of the world.
Before 1959, Tibet was not an independent state ruled benignly by the Dalai Lama and given over almost entirely to the pursuit of spirituality. But Tibet was certainly ruled by the Dalai Lama, by the lamas generally, and by the feudal landlord class from which the lamas were drawn. “Dalai” is a family name; only a member of the House of Dalai can become the Dalai Lama.
Before 1959, Tibet was not an independent state ruled benignly by the Dalai Lama and given over almost entirely to the pursuit of spirituality. But Tibet was certainly ruled by the Dalai Lama, by the lamas generally, and by the feudal landlord class from which the lamas were drawn. “Dalai” is a family name; only a member of the House of Dalai can become the Dalai Lama.
Well over 90 per cent of the population was made up of serfs, the background from which the present rulers of Tibet are drawn. That system was unique in China, and existed only because successive Emperors of China had granted the Tibetan ruling clique exactly the “autonomy” for which it still campaigns from “exile”. Life expectancy in Tibet was half what it is today.
There has never been an independent state of Tibet. Likewise, there is nothing remotely new about the presence in Tibet of large numbers of Han, who are ethnic Chinese in the ordinary sense, and of other Chinese ethnic groups. The one-child policy never applied in Tibet, so the Han majority there is the ethnic Tibetans’ own fault, if they even see it as a problem.
It is totally false to describe the Dalai Lama baldly as “their spiritual leader”. Relatively few would view him as such. In particular, Google “Dorje Shugden” for, to put at its mildest, some balance to the media portrayal of the present Dalai Lama. Or read what remains the greatest hit of The Lanchester Review. Beyond that venerable journal, we never hear from Dorje Shugden practitioners. Just as we never hear from the loyally Chinese Hui Muslims; I have tried, repeatedly.
Moreover, the Dalai Lama has never condemned either the invasion of Afghanistan or the invasion of Iraq. For more on Buddhism as no more a religion of peace than Islam is (no less so, but no more), then see Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Mongolia, Japan, Thailand, and beyond. In fact, an examination of the relevant texts shows that violence in general and war in particular are fundamental to Buddhism. Tibet is particularly striking for this. A rare balanced treatment of Buddhism and violence was broadcast in August 2013. The subject is also addressed in great detail here.
That lot holed up in Taiwan do not claim jurisdiction only over China as it now exists. Rejecting the authority of the present Chinese Government to resolve territorial disputes, they lay claim to all of Mongolia, as well as to parts of Russia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bhutan and Burma. Thank goodness that they now have no Western partisans worth mentioning.
And whatever it is that the demonstrators waving the old colonial flag want in Hong Kong, then it is not the democracy that they certainly never had in those days. It is not even anything to do with the Extradition Bill, which has been withdrawn. The question is never quite asked of where those flags might have come from.
The demonstrations themselves have now been going on for so long that, as in France, they have quite clearly failed, even though they have barely been repressed, or what have you, by the standards of Hong Kong under Harold Wilson. Unlike those uprisings against poverty and its consequences in the 1960s, this supposed uprising obviously enjoyed little or no wider public support.
Next to nobody in Parliament understands any of this. Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party is now in the process of registration. After nearly 30 years of suggestion, speculation, and even a sort of preparation, I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
That lot holed up in Taiwan do not claim jurisdiction only over China as it now exists. Rejecting the authority of the present Chinese Government to resolve territorial disputes, they lay claim to all of Mongolia, as well as to parts of Russia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bhutan and Burma. Thank goodness that they now have no Western partisans worth mentioning.
And whatever it is that the demonstrators waving the old colonial flag want in Hong Kong, then it is not the democracy that they certainly never had in those days. It is not even anything to do with the Extradition Bill, which has been withdrawn. The question is never quite asked of where those flags might have come from.
The demonstrations themselves have now been going on for so long that, as in France, they have quite clearly failed, even though they have barely been repressed, or what have you, by the standards of Hong Kong under Harold Wilson. Unlike those uprisings against poverty and its consequences in the 1960s, this supposed uprising obviously enjoyed little or no wider public support.
Next to nobody in Parliament understands any of this. Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party is now in the process of registration. After nearly 30 years of suggestion, speculation, and even a sort of preparation, I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
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