About Turn
It is heartening to know, from the first ever political statement issued by our exile government that its delegation which recently went to Peking did not “sell out the nation” as was widely feared among our people. The delegation, on the countrary reiterated the Tibetan right to self-determination and reunification of what the Chinese call “Tibet autonomous region” with other parts of traditional Tibet that have been incorporated into Chinese provinces.
Another proposal put forward by the delegation, that the two countries, “on equal footing,” have special political and economic relationship, is likely to be greeted with less enthusiasism. The inexplicable faith that the Tibetan leaders seem to have on the goodwill and sincerity of their Chinese counterparts is not shared by the vast majority of the masses. The Chinese have in the past on more than one occasion spoken of treaties, special relationships and other euphemisms; and whenever the Tibetans accepted any of these, it was seen by Peking as proof positive of China’s heavenly mandate to rule Tibet. It will take considerable persuasive power to make most ordinary Tibetans agree that the current leadership in China is any different from its predecessors. And since 1959 is well in the past, our leaders cannot altogether afford to ignore the popular feeling that any relationship with China—special or otherwise—need to be viewed with unrelenting suspicion.
But since such a vigil will be difficult to maintain for a long period of time, people feel it advisable not to have any kind of relationship at all with China.
In the past, our foreign policy was to have some sort of relationship with our neighbours in the north and the south, and to more or less ignore the big bad world. The rest, as they say, is history. So one might argue that our future foreign policy—insofar as we ever have the chance to formulate a foreign policy again—should based on politely but firmly closing our doors to the Chinese, and seeing what surprises the other three-quarters of mankind has in store for us.
It is heartening to know, from the first ever political statement issued by our exile government that its delegation which recently went to Peking did not “sell out the nation” as was widely feared among our people. The delegation, on the countrary reiterated the Tibetan right to self-determination and reunification of what the Chinese call “Tibet autonomous region” with other parts of traditional Tibet that have been incorporated into Chinese provinces.
Another proposal put forward by the delegation, that the two countries, “on equal footing,” have special political and economic relationship, is likely to be greeted with less enthusiasism. The inexplicable faith that the Tibetan leaders seem to have on the goodwill and sincerity of their Chinese counterparts is not shared by the vast majority of the masses. The Chinese have in the past on more than one occasion spoken of treaties, special relationships and other euphemisms; and whenever the Tibetans accepted any of these, it was seen by Peking as proof positive of China’s heavenly mandate to rule Tibet. It will take considerable persuasive power to make most ordinary Tibetans agree that the current leadership in China is any different from its predecessors. And since 1959 is well in the past, our leaders cannot altogether afford to ignore the popular feeling that any relationship with China—special or otherwise—need to be viewed with unrelenting suspicion.
But since such a vigil will be difficult to maintain for a long period of time, people feel it advisable not to have any kind of relationship at all with China.
In the past, our foreign policy was to have some sort of relationship with our neighbours in the north and the south, and to more or less ignore the big bad world. The rest, as they say, is history. So one might argue that our future foreign policy—insofar as we ever have the chance to formulate a foreign policy again—should based on politely but firmly closing our doors to the Chinese, and seeing what surprises the other three-quarters of mankind has in store for us.
posted by editorla at
9:05 PM
<< Home