That's a very balanced set of options, Reiner. I think the issue has been wrapped by the amount of inward investment the uk and others have over there, the unregulated flow of cheap goods to the west, and the bulldozing of old Bejiing, running down of rural investment driving youngsters to the new cities. That's the 'dialogue' ,as about as good as it gets, and the reason  the politicians keep schtum. There was an article in the Grauniad about manufactured state pop, and how environmental references in lyrics are censored while idiot hedonists are let off the leash- there's yer new proto-ideology.

Some interesting comments on environmental concerns too. The whole speech (or his 'points to make' cards anyway) is here. http://www.pm.gov.au/media/Speech/2008/speech_0176.cfm  It's obviously cast in Visiting Prime Minister Diplomatic Speak but worth a read for what is implied if not said.

 

If I was in a position to make some kind of a stand against Chinese bullying of Tibet, I would. As it is, it's hard to find anything in America that doesn't have "Made in China" stamped on it. If it weren't for the geographic size and distance of the nation I wonder if it might not be the next candidate for "persuasion" Chinese-style.

There is much pseudo-liberal breast beating going on about Tibet and its history. At least the torture an slavery inflicted upon its serfs under the pre-1951 regime has now gone. As Michael Parenti  reminds us:

"Whatever wrongs and new oppressions introduced by the Chinese after 1959, they did abolish slavery and the Tibetan serfdom system of unpaid labor. They eliminated the many crushing taxes, started work projects, and greatly reduced unemployment and beggary. They established secular schools, thereby breaking the educational monopoly of the monasteries. And they constructed running water and electrical systems in Lhasa."

I see that Parenti article more in the tradition of Marx's writings on colonialism in India - he recognised that it did play a major part in weakening the ultra-hierarchical caste system, which could be seen as progress in a sense, whilst not in any sense glorifying British imperialism (of which he was most definitely a sharp critic). See here for more.

The Maoist atrocities upon Tibet were not committed 'in the interests of its people', but nor were the actions of the pre-invasion feudal regime.

R_T, I said very little. I offered a link and had a go at pseudo-liberalism. Note Parenti's words "Whatever wrongs and new oppressions introduced by the Chinese after 1959". Far too many are taken in by the claims of those behind the Dalai. Let's not forget that in the old system he was effective spiritual leader, but the Panchen, who was a member of the PRC's National Congress, was the political leader. I have the gravest of doubts that the Chinese PLA's 'liberation' of Tibet was carried out as an act of altruism. It was pretty clearly re-asserting China's centuries old claim over that region, but let's not be taken in by the the Dalai's propaganda machine, either. The old Tibet was no bed of roses.

Younghusband's account - as recommended by Mr Grew - does indeed make chilling reading, for its extraordinary arrogance and certainty in the "benefit" he believed he brought to Tibet with the mission on which Curzon had sent him.  His mission remains almost legendary as an example of "Forward Policy" expansionism without a thought given as to the reasons for the incursion.  Peter Hopkirk's THE GREAT GAME is, as usual, worth reading on this topic,  although it only merits a short chapter amid his extensive narrative.

"I hope I shall never again have to shoot down men walking away again"  was the message home to his parents of Younghusband's subaltern, who had directed the machine-gun fire at the monks who had come to engage Younghusband at the Jelap Pass.

It's easy to forget that it was Britain which had invaded Tibet prior to the Chinese invasion of 1951.  Of course, if one believes the dribble currently repeated by pro-Chinese sources that Tibet had "always been Chinese",  one might well ask where indeed the Chinese Army was in 1904 when Younghusband's army marched into Lhasa??

Bryn, I see what you mean about the Panchen Lama, but he was by no means a voluntary member of the National Congress...  being locked-up and tortured for 15 years in solitary confinement is hardly the way you treat a valued Congress member, surely?   Not to mention the kidnapping and abduction of his successor, whose whereabouts are now utterly unknown (if indeed he's alive at all).   I was at Gyantse in 2004,  and visited the official "Museum Of The Panchen Lama".  Mysteriously these 15 years of his life have been airbrushed from history, as though they never happened.