(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-18 07:31

The "Tibet issue" is in fact one that involves the sovereignty of a country and its territorial integrity, says an article in People's Daily. The following is an excerpt:

When one sees the Dalai group and political figures like Nancy Pelosi in the United States pressing the Chinese government to solve the "Tibet issue", the US Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the European Parliament passing biased resolutions on Tibet, one knows that the issue has become something of a fad. People cannot help wondering what on earth the "Tibet issue" is.

Is it an issue of "human rights"? While facing riots on March 14 in Lhasa, could the government just sit back instead of taking measures to protect the human rights of innocent people? If the government's measures turned out to be a violation of "human rights", Pelosi should look into her heart and ask if the deployment of a large police force of the US government to arrest more than 10,000 rioters in the great rioting in Los Angeles 16 years ago was also a violation of "human rights".

Nor is the "Tibet issue" a "religious" one. If Tibet "lacks religious freedom", how can we explain the fact that there are numerous monasteries, large or small, in Tibet and worshippers, old and young, can burn incense and pray before the Buddha? How can we explain that tens of thousands of worshippers make their pilgrimage to Lhasa every year?

It is more ridiculous for the Dalai group to make a great commotion about the so-called "ethnic inequality". The Chinese government has allocated billions of yuan to develop Tibetan medicine and more than 700 million yuan to renovate key cultural relics, including the Potala Palace, and salvage and protect Tibetan culture.

It is clear that the "Tibet issue" is just a tool of the Dalai group to use in their quest for "Tibet independence".

The "Tibet issue" is not an issue of human rights, of religion or ethnicity at all. Clearly, it is an issue that involves the sovereignty of a country and its territorial integrity.

(China Daily 04/18/2008 page8)