(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-21 07:21

The "concern" some Western countries have been expressing for Tibet is making the issue more complicated. If they are not acting out of sheer ignorance, they must be having ulterior motives.

Reports and research suggest that they are selectively ignorant and have an axe to grind about China.

Even before the 3/14 riots in Lhasa and especially since then, these countries have taken the Tibet issue into their own hands, putting it on the international stage. They are trying to play a housekeeper for China.

The resolutions the US Congress and the European Parliament passed urged China to stop "repression" in Tibet, release the "non-violent" Tibetan protesters and have a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. The roadmap unveiled for the Tibet movement in the coming years exposes more foreign hands behind the anti-Chinese campaign the self-proclaimed "Tibetan government-in-exile" has been launching in Tibet and in the rest of the world.

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation, affiliated to the German Free Democratic Party, was founded to organize International Tibet Support Groups Conference in May 2007 in Brussels, where it was assigned the task of organizing worldwide protests. The plans were developed with the collaboration with the US State Department and the "Tibetan government-in-exile" and called for high-profile actions along the route of the Olympic torch relay. They planned the climax for their actions in August when Beijing hosts the Games.

The gathering ended with a concerted "plan of action", entitled Roadmap for the Tibet Movement for the Coming Years. The plan includes four areas of interest, namely "political support for negotiations", "human rights", "environment and development" and "the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing".

The Brussels conference was important because of the influential figures who were present, including Paula Dobriansky, the undersecretary of state in the US State Department and special coordinator for Tibet, and "Prime Minister" Samdong Rinpoche of the "Tibetan government-in-exile".

Obviously, the Dalai group never was - and is still not - alone in trying to make Tibet an international issue. And what those Western countries and the Dalai Lama have been working hard for is the "independence of Tibet".

For all their grandstanding, these countries are clearly hypocritical and have no hesitation in turning a blind eye to the historical facts about Tibet.

(China Daily 04/21/2008 page4)