A world without border is as fictitious as communism in the world of non-peace loving human race. Adam Smith's "invisible hand" is the theological base of the mordern day capitalism. How can you expect the Chinese not to defend their self-interest? We were bashed for trying to build an unrealistic heavenly land where people give their self up for the common good. Now we are being bashed for wanting to have a self-interest. America is the leader and the police of the world. Oh, please give us some guidance and examples of how to put other's interest in front of our own. The Chinese will look up to you.

After looking at most of the comments, I see a lot of bitterness in the way the chinese are responding. Lots of complaints about biased western people. They call everyone who disagrees with them ignorant, condesending or racist regardless of the argument. Chinese are using the tibet situation to let all these feelings out while forgetting they are showing as much racism towards westerners, non westerners and especially tibetans.

They claim tibet is an internal matter like that gives their government the right to pressure the helpless people of tibet into chinese way of life. While all these chinese people are complaining about biased, china still has not granted access to tibet and has not held up its end of the bargain of free access to journalists. This was one the conditions China had agreed to in order to be chosen as host. There are many chinese people in this world and that's why you see so many posting in favor of china and that's exactly the point.

As we all know now, just because most american people were in favor of invading Iraq at the time did not make that right. The difference is most american people speak up against the policies of the US where most of the chinese people (at least in this forum) are defending their government. Their unified reasoning seems to be improved life conditions and some unwritten contract between the chinese government and its people. Tibetan's don't seem to want to be part of that contract because they want to preserve their own way of life. Even now there is no freedom of speech or information in china but I think if the economy goes south in china, the government will show its true face again so chinese be aware and don't forget the past so quickly.

The Chinese are smarter than you gave them credit for. The future that holds for them are a lot rosier than you think. Of course, if you listens to too much CNN (or other biased reports), you might think the Tibetan-in-exile represent the voice of Tibet. Beware that you could be completely wrong.

Why would bush boycott? His policies are very similar to China's. He rules with the same violent hand.

http://www...-coop.html
The real US deficit with China – knowledge
As China returns as a world power, Americans should update their impressions.
By Xu Wu


Tempe, Arizona - Americans are out of touch with today's China. It's a knowledge deficit that carries more weight in the long-term bilateral relationships between China and the United States than the ballooning US trade deficit with China. And as China makes a comeback on the world stage, it's one that the US should address.

Chinese visitors to the US have shared the shock of witnessing a severe dichotomy between how much Americans seem to talk about China and yet how little they know about it. The US status as the world's superpower, coupled with its location, warrants people this type of benign negligence.

But what about those experts who have the power to impose their perceptions of China on others? All too often China experts in the US cannot even speak the language. How can they claim to understand a culture without knowing how its people communicate?

This knowledge deficit accounts directly for widespread and deep-rooted misperceptions about China.
There are three faulty, recurring talking points in the American media.

First, China is a rising power, and a rising power is dangerous. The first part of this argument is incomplete, and the latter part is misplaced. China is not only a rising power; it is a returning power. China, as a united continental power, has existed for more than 2,000 years.

As a returning player, China is composed, restrained, and mature, just like a former champion returning to the title game after a short lapse. Also, if history is any guide, Chinese-ruling regimes have not been considered aggressive or expansive; they were famous for building walls. This fact alone should call into question the comparison of China's current resurgence with Japan's and Germany's disastrous rising path before World War II.

Second, China is a Communist country, and Communism is evil. Repeatedly placed upon China by media commentators, most notably CNN's anchorman Lou Dobbs, this characterization is both simplistic and utterly misleading.

To today's China, Marxism is as foreign as liberal democracy. When you look back at China's past, no alien cultures have uprooted Chinese tradition; instead, they were either localized, or submerged. China can still be Chinese without the Communism title.

Likewise, today's ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could easily be renamed the Chinese Confucian Party (CCP) without changing much of its ideological belief or organizational structure, or even its acronym for that matter.

Both the "ruling by virtue" policy promoted by former President Jiang Zemin and the "harmonious society" guideline proposed by current leader Hu Jintao were derived more from the Confucian doctrine than from the Marxist ideology. Singling out "Communist" as the definer confuses the reality.

Third, Tiananmen Square in 1989 is an iconic image that lingers in the minds of the Chinese. American observers' obsession with this tragic event reflects how deep their perception gap about China runs. There is no question that what happened that summer was historic. However, it was a generation ago, and sea changes have occurred since then.

Those who were born in 1989 are turning 19. What this new Chinese generation cares about is not the guy who blocked those tanks, but the Chinese Super Girl Singer and Yao Ming. America's unyielding interest in Tiananmen is out of touch. Is the Watergate scandal still the dominant issue facing the US today?

This lack of updated information about China becomes more problematic in a larger context. Chinese students are required to study English beginning in primary school. Students are exposed to both American culture and the Western way of thinking by college. For at least two decades, tens of thousands of the best and the brightest Chinese students attend American's top-tier graduate schools, channeling back the most updated perceptions and information about the US.

Although the number of American students studying in China witnessed a huge jump over the past few years, the accumulated knowledge deficits and language barriers are still immense.

This imbalance of knowledge, just like the imbalance of trade, is unsustainable. With the trade problem, Chinese leaders outlined a "win-win partner" scenario, and American policymakers have mapped out the "responsible stakeholder" blueprint. However, no strategy will be feasible if the two parties cannot understand each other well enough to weather the uncertainties ahead.

It is highly probable that the next generation of Americans will live in a world where China is the largest economic power. Are they prepared? When and how are they going to fix this current knowledge deficit with China?

• Xu Wu is an assistant professor in strategic media and public relations at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. He is the author of "Chinese Cyber Nationalism."

"Tibetan's don't seem to want to be part of that contract because they want to preserve their own way of life."

While the Chinese as well as the western researchers have all those numbers to show that the majority of Tibetans have gone a long way to betterment from the days of slavery since 1959, how do you know that their way of life has not been preserved? And which Tibetans are you referring to? the 20000 or the six millions? As harshly critical of Chinese government on human rights issues, even the Dalai Lama gave credit to the Chinese government for what has been done to improve Tibetan’s life, and with certain conditions, his proposal for autonomy not independence seems to want Tibetan people to have a fair share of this contract.

“As we all know now, just because most American people were in favor of invading Iraq at the time did not make that right. The difference is most American people speak up against the policies of the US where most of the Chinese people (at least in this forum) are defending their government.”

The Chinese defended their government in recent events because they felt strongly for both the Olympics and the government who represents 13 billions to try to do a good job hosting the games, which bears a profound symbolic meaning for a nation once being called “weak men of Asia,” because they felt nothing wrong for a government to crack down violent riots yet fundamentally wrong for western media to distort the facts about riots, take side with the violent action by the Free Tibet crowd interrupting the Olympic torch run-up and hurting Chinese people’s feeling.

They are not defending their government on everything. In fact many who went to street for the pro-China demonstrations have said that they are critical of government on many other issues; today the Chinese speaking out against their government on internet and in other public spheres is not the news anymore, of course with certain restrictions. Even the most vocal political dissidents, Liu Xiaopo for instance, seem to have no difficult making a living for many years now by regularly publishing articles for foreign media such as BBC (that’s probably why Liu was against boycotting Olympics).

“Their unified reasoning seems to be improved life conditions and some unwritten contract between the chinese government and its people.”

Is this “improved life condition” for one-fourth of the world’s population not substantial enough for a government to have mandate to rule and for the ordinary Chinese to have a solid reason to give their government a chance?

The American people are mostly good intentioned. But many of them are just too lazy to read and see what’s really going on in other part of world. They have such a blind faith in and rely too much and too heavily on their “objective” media. No wonder it took four years for majority Americans to see something wrong with the war on Iraq>

Your argument is clever but with all due respect my statements were picked out of context and responded to so let me set the facts straight:

I said "Their unified reasoning seems to be improved life conditions and some unwritten contract between the chinese government and its people. Tibetan's don't seem to want to be part of that contract because they want to preserve their own way of life. Even now there is no freedom of speech or information in china but I think if the economy goes south in china, the government will show its true face again so chinese be aware and don't forget the past so quickly."

The statements here are connected so you should not break them into two different arguments. Meaning I am not arguing against the government mandate or chinese giving a chance to their government. “improved life condition” for chinese people is NO reason for chinese to expect TIBETANS to want to be a part of the chinese plan. You are saying tibetans life has improved a lot since the slavery times of 1959. I say it has not improved enough. You are asking me which tibetans am I referring to the 20000 or the 6 mil? My answer is how do you know how the 6 million feel, have YOU talked to every single one of them? Has china allowed them to vote to determine their own faith? Since China does not allow free voting by tibetan people then we need to go by the samples (protests inside and outside and talking to family members of the tibetans) available to us and every indication shows they want to live their lives free of china. So let’s give them a fair chance to voice their desire and see the outcome. Are you Chinese people in this forum against giving the tibetans a chance to vote to determine their own faith? Let’s talk about that.

Also contrary to what you mentioned I have not seen any chinese criticizing the government on anything lately. When you read this and some other fotums it looks like china has the best government in the world!!! You conveniently did not respond to the fact that china does not allow any one to go to tibet and freely report on the condition and the lack of freedom of speech in china. Chinese security force is still alive and kicking and controls many aspects of its citizens' lives. They are just not as visible as the old super communist days.

I'll throw one more thing in the hat for you. The type of chinese people who are commenting here are the educated ones. Even a so called out of touch person like myself knows there are hundreds of millions of people in china that live in poverty under terrible conditions with no voice in a forum like this or any say in the chinese political process. These are the chinese peasants that are being used to fuel the economic rise of china and are paying the price for it. I have not seen many chinese showing sympathy for their country man/women who are slaving away in sweatshops or factories which don't follow humane environmental and labor practices. Chinese desire to want to prove they are not “weak men of Asia,” (which they certainly are not) does not give them the right to close their eyes to all of these facts because at the end of the day as glorified as it seems the Olympics are just games.

By the way I am one of those people who does not pay attention to the media here. I knew the Iraq war was wrong before it started and I even knew Bush is going to start wars the day he became president so I call it like I see it.

"Also contrary to what you mentioned I have not seen any chinese criticizing the government on anything lately. When you read this and some other fotums it looks like china has the best government in the world!!! You conveniently did not respond to the fact that china does not allow any one to go to tibet and freely report on the condition and the lack of freedom of speech in china. Chinese security force is still alive and kicking and controls many aspects of its citizens' lives. They are just not as visible as the old super communist days."

in a funny way, I suppose it was because all the "criticizing" has been done or even overly done by your guys in the West; the Chinese who know their government to be of many things felt to be responsible to speak up and clarify certain things now. The western media is making a big deal of Chinese reaction to its biased report in recent months and calling it "demonizing," yet conveniently unaware that they have bashed and demonized China for decades.

By the way how do you know the Chinese who commented here and else where have not criticized their government on other issues or have not done things to let the voice of the downtrodden heard in China? This is a discussion forum on specific topic, not a political show where you are expected to present and be judged by a comprehensive opinions of China and its government and whatever you have done in action.

No one Chinese person in his or her clear mind would think their government is ideal and they know that China is still a developing country and crisis ridden. Without the help from China bashing industry in the West they would have never been so outspoken defending China as the world is witnessing now. My respect is due to whose who can appreciate complexity and contradictions that a nation like China has to deal with often unfortunately in harsh ways and to those ordinary Chinese who work either inside or outside the system everyday often under difficult situations to make China a more democratic country.

May 2: Today, again, listening to interview with Mary Kay Magistad, my heart sunk. How can The World rely its reporting on an individual who is completely biased and partial, who's emotion and ignorance completely shadowed her ration and objectivity. Saying the Dalai Lama is like the Pope of the Tibetans is like saying the Pope is the symbol of God for all Chirstians. I assume that you all have heard that Tibet has four branchs of Buddaism. Dalai just represent one branch. Her choice to misrepresent reveals her strong lacking of professionalism. I read through most of Magistad reports on China in PRI archive. They showed a consistant pattern of hatred and prejudice against China and its people. If our world is informed and brainwashed by people like her, our world is doomed. Attack is just going to provoke counter-attack. Hatred is just going to provoke killing and war. Reports like hers make me feel chill in my spine and fear for the lives of our children and peace in the world.

"Are you Chinese people in this forum against giving the tibetans a chance to vote to determine their own faith? Let’s talk about that."

Why didn't the American government give the right to Texans to vote for independence at the time of that crisis? Because Texas belongs to the united state of america! if a voting option is in order, let's assume, the issue of independent Texas should be voted by all US citizens not merely by the Texans.

This is 21st century and I don't see Texans protesting all over the place asking for freedom. If any of the states ever do, I support the people of that state to vote for their own independence. Stop comparing the tibet situation to America, what's going on in tibet is has no parallel in America right now. Stop fooling yourselves and support freedom.

people live in present but shaped and preconditioned by history. any view devoid of historical perspectives is a misleadingly cheap shot.

I'm a Tibetan. I don't understand why Chinese people hate Dalai Lama. He is the one who wants to make Tibet part of China, support Bejing games,and all those stuffs. and we are following him half heartedly. Have you read his open letter to " Chinese brothers and sisters." Have Chinese people ever listened to his speeches????

I grew up in China. I know that we were always taught in text books that Tibet is part of China and how it became part of China in the history. (M friends from Taiwan told me that they were taught that Tibet was part of China, too.) We were also taught to love our land and to love our brothers and sisters from every ethnic groups. As a decendent of three quarter Han and a quarter Mongol, I knew and envied the preferential treatment giving to minorities. My family even tried to change our ID to Mongolian so we can enjoy extra ration of food and lower college entrance requirement. You have to know, it is the fact that the government always promoted peace and love between different ethnic groups. In every Chinese heart, China is a big family. For what reason the government did it, you can speculate. However, you can not deny that peace and love are good values to have for any human being. That's why the Chinese will not accept any attempts to divide their country, their land. Ask youself, would the American voters agree to the succession of Hawaii? What would you do if someone tries to force it upon all Americans?

If a strong majority of Hawaiian people would want a succession from the US, we should respect their wish and China should do the same if a strong majority of Tibetans want to be independent

"If a strong majority of Hawaiian people would want a succession from the US, we should respect their wish and China should do the same if a strong majority of Tibetans want to be independent"

Makes sense, but frankly, as a Westerner, I can't see US ever letting go of Hawaii or any other state. After all we've visited that question before and all know how that ended despite the fact that the Southern states "strongly" wanted to succeed.

But all this evoking of history just might be beside the point anyway...

When we tried Communism, you hated us for being Communist.
When we embrace Capitalism, you berated us for mercantilism .
When we have a billion people, you said we were destroying the planet.
When we tried limiting our numbers, you said we abused human rights.
When confederates wanted secession, you waged Civil war.
When slave owners want to rule Tibet again, you pile on money and adulation.
When we were poor, you treated us as dogs.
When we loan you cash, you blame us for your national debts.
When we make your products, you call us Polluters.
When we sell you goods, you blame us for global warming.
When we buy oil, you call it exploitation and genocide.
When you go to war for oil, you call it liberation.
When we were lost in chaos and rampage, you demanded rules of law.
When we uphold law and order against violence, you call it bloody repression.
When we were silent, you said you wanted us to have free speech.
When we are silent no more, you say we are brainwashed and angry mob.
When we stay out of spotlight, you said we are selfish.
When we express our views, you said it is organized by embassies.
When we support our country, you say it is dangerous nationalism.
When you love your country, you said you are proudly patriotic.
When Tibetans killed and burned in Lhaha, you call it peaceful demonstration.
When blacks rioted for Rodney King beating, you sent in Federal troops and National guard.
When flame attendants ran along, you call them thugs.
When the relays were violently interrupted and the handicapped attacked, you call them freedom fighters..
Enough is Enough, Enough Hypocrisy , Enough Cryptic Racial Superiority.

Enough of this "When this, You that" as well. I've heard the same rant too many times now from chinese and it looks like it's coming from the same pipeline. Find another tune because this one got old real fast. Most of it is not accurate and you act like the whole world is against Chinese and everything Chinese have done has been right which is not true and very childish to say the least.

Just one example of your inaccuracies: when people got beaten and busted during the Rodney king riots, I was there and it was bad but people did not get tortured and disappeared like it happens in tibet (and china) and we can go on and on and I can wipe out just about every one of your lines there but no time for that.

Invest in a good therapist too to get all this anger out of you, it's worth it. The world is not as bad as you paint it to be. How about what the other guy was proposing and letting tibetans vote for themselves? Let me give you a taste of your own medicine and borrow a line from your tune:

When we asked you to let tibetan people vote for themselves, You did what?!!!

Mary Kay here is what I find from http://www...outus.html TYC's official website.
TYC's first aim and objective is:
To dedicate oneself to the task of serving one’s country and people under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Spiritual and Temporal Ruler of Tibet.
In another word, TYC's terrorist and racist conduct in Lhasa bloody riots can be conceived as "under guidance of His Holiness". I find this is not very circumstantial, and quite the opposite. If you don't know anything about TYC, I question your professionalism as a journalist; if you know it, I question your motives and authenticity of your reports. And since you can't even speak Chinese and given above context, I question your interviews with "Chinese" maybe are fake ones.

Wow, so suprised and sort of happy to see lots of pro-Chinese comments here including that "poem", I am from Beijing and have interviewed by this program about only child one year ago, I've followed everyday as one of the source I get some 'western voice' since then, it helps me to understand how westerner see the same things through different prespecitive, it is nothing right and wrong that we all listen or 'obey' what our ‘beatiful government’ told us, lots of people are not well informed both westerner and eastener that the biased will be worse and worse.
We all need efficient communication, just like CCP is doing with Dalai's representative, but hopefully that is 'efficient'.