Just of the Press from Japan on China and Tibet: At the recent DAVOS Economic Forum, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a powerful oration telling the western powers that they should make clear whose side they are on; Communist China, or Asia’s democratic states, Japan and India chief among them. India is one of the few nations left standing that can mount a moral and strategic defense against China’s rise. While western nations can appease Communist China, India must contend with increasing Chinese military incursions into Indian territory, from occupied Tibet. India has given sanctuary to thousands of Tibetan refugees, notably Tibetan Buddhists who are persecuted by the Chinese state for practicing their ancient faith. Thus the pro-China stance of the Tibetan exile prime minister based in Dharamshala, Lobsang Sangay, is all the more disturbing. In his May 2013 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Sangay stated that henceforth the Tibetan movement would abandon democracy as a goal, accept communist rule in Tibet in its present structure, and accede to China’s full “discretion” in militarizing the Tibetan plateau. This took many by surprise, but Sangay’s pro-China drift has been some time in coming. While studying at Harvard Law School, Mr. Sangay made a very public alliance with Ms. Hu Xiaojiang, whom intelligence sources identify as a Chinese Ministry of State Security co-optee. Hu is so trusted by the Chinese government that it allowed her access to the ultra-sensitive government archives in Lhasa to research her 2003 Ph.D. thesis on Chinese migration into Tibet. (Hu makes special note of Sangay in her acknowledgements). In a defensive speech before the Tibetan exile parliament in Dharamshala on March 22, 2014, Sangay tried to evade questions over his use of “Overseas Chinese National” travel papers on an academic junket to Beijing and Shanghai in 2005. Sangay had long denied that he made this trip on “Overseas Chinese National” papers until he was confronted with irrefutable evidence in 2011( a clip of this exchange can be seen on You Tube). The issue of concern is his willingness to declare himself a Chinese citizen while continuing to hold a Tibetan refugee identity card issued by the Indian government.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 05:33:15 +0000
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