Free Tibet (Vacations)
Free Tibet (Vacations)
Forget Israel, baby. China really knows how to occupy:
China unveils an engineering marvel this weekend — a railway to Tibet that features high-tech systems to stabilize tracks over permafrost and cabins enriched with oxygen to help riders cope with high altitudes.
Yet, as with so much else in China’s often harsh 56-year rule over Tibet, the 710-mile-long railway to the Tibetan capital has drawn controversy even before the first train departs Saturday.
Tibetans loyal to the exiled Dalai Lama and other critics say the $4.2 billion railway is part of a campaign by Beijing to crush Tibetan culture by encouraging an influx of Han Chinese, China’s majority ethnic group.
And environmental groups worry about the railway’s impact on the Tibetan highlands.
The train “will mean more environmental destruction for Tibet, more unemployment for Tibetans and of course our culture will be devastated,” said Ngawang Woeber, a member of Gu Chu Sum, a support group for former Tibetan political prisoners based in India.
Pro-independence groups plan to wear black armbands in protest and demonstrate outside Chinese embassies Saturday, a campaign they call “Reject the Railway.”
You know, that and the bumper stickers just might do it. I realize that asking Tibetans to fight for their country is like asking Shakers to have sex: it’s just not them. But if the Chinese intend ethnically to cleanse Tibet–and I believe they do–what do the Tibetans intend to do about it? And what do they want from us? If it’s just the armband and bumper sticker approach, thanks, I’ll pass until they’re more serious.