Eλεύθερο Θιβέτ τώρα
Fallout from Tibet takes glow off Olympics
China's showcase event is clouded by harsh response to uprising
 Chung Sung-jun / Getty Images Activists protest China's suppression of dissent over Tibet during a rally Thursday near Beijing's embassy in Seoul, South Korea |
|
Related stories |
 | Video |
 | Tibetan monks stage media storm March 27: Tibetan monks storm a Chinese news briefing at a temple in Lhasa, Tibet, insisting that the Dalai Lama had nothing to do with recent protests. NBC's Ian Williams reports. Nightly News |
BEIJING - The riots in Tibet two weeks ago have turned into a major challenge to China's leaders, whose decision to use military force and restrict media access has cast a shadow over hopes for an unblemished Olympics this summer.
The uprising in the remote Himalayan region lasted for barely more than a day. But it generated a worldwide swell of concern. Now, the Games -- intended to be a festive coming-out party for modern China -- could become a dramatic reminder that the Communist Party still relies on Leninist police tactics and Orwellian censorship to enforce its monopoly on power.
"This is exactly what the party leaders didn't want," said Li Datong, a senior magazine editor who was fired in 2006 after an essay in his publication challenged the party's official history. "This has become a real headache for them."
Boycott calls intensify
The fallout from Tibet has not subsided. In Ancient Olympia on Monday, pro-Tibet protesters disrupted a ceremony to light the Olympic torch. On Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested there might be a boycott of the Games' opening ceremony. And on Thursday, as Chinese authorities led foreign reporters on a tour of region in an effort to demonstrate that it had been tamed, a group of monks confronted the journalists, shouting that they were being denied religious freedom.
Criticisms of China on human rights issues have long been rife among foreign activists and some governments, analysts noted, but the Tibet crisis raised their global prominence just as the Olympic Games provided a ready forum to push the message. The protesters who disrupted the torch ceremony in Greece, for instance, got attention on a level that they could not have dreamed of before the riots in Tibet on March 14.
"The leadership could be riding a real tiger with the Tibet issue, in terms of foreign opinion," said David L. Shambaugh, director of the China policy program at George Washington University and author of a new book on the Chinese Communist Party. "Various and sundry nongovernmental human rights activists smell blood, and they will all be using Tibet to press their causes as well. This will place unprecedented external pressure on the regime, at least in terms of public relations."
High stakes for Chinese leaders
As party chief, President Hu Jintao has the most to lose if the shine comes off the Olympics, along with his protege Zhang Qingli, party secretary for Tibet. But Hu's likely successor, Xi Jinping, also has been thrust into the biggest test of his career. Elevated to the Politburo's elite Standing Committee and dubbed Hu's dauphin in October, Xi was assigned last month to provide overall supervision of the Olympic preparations being run day-to-day by Liu Qi, the Beijing party secretary.
Another newcomer to the Standing Committee, Zhou Yongkang, also has encountered what amounts to a baptism of fire. Formerly the public security minister, in October he became the party's senior official in charge of security. Li Changchun, a veteran Standing Committee member, has played a key role as well, assigned to run the party's propaganda apparatus. Curiously, he left for a visit to Mauritania and other Arab countries as the public relations crisis raged.
Click for related content |
Games ‘kidnapped by the Tibet issue’
With Tibet unrest having seized the public's imagination abroad, the Chinese government already has lost its battle to keep politics out of the Olympics, said Li, the editor. He said the government should brace itself for an onslaught of protests over Tibet, Darfur, human rights and other causes before and during the Games, both in China and outside.
"It's over," he said. "The Olympic Games have already been kidnapped by the Tibet issue." The issue has become so huge, it has been mentioned in the race for the White House, he added: "Even Hillary's talking about it."
The party's security apparatus -- the Public Security Bureau, the People's Armed Police and the People's Liberation Army -- have blanketed Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited parts of China over the last two weeks. Chinese officials have voiced confidence that the vast deployment can smother what remains of Tibetan unrest in the days and weeks to come.
Given experience, there was no reason to doubt their word. But there is little they can do to apply similar pressure against protesters promising to disrupt the Olympic torch relay at its stops abroad.
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου