Before I get into the subject I wanted to write about, I should note that it has not been my intention to appear neutral for this post.

On March 29, 2008, several hundred Chinese students and Chinese patriots gathered in the Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto for a pro-China rally in support of their homeland. Unsurprisingly, regardless of how peaceful this rally was, it was depicted as a conflicting protest by some biased media. Furthermore, a day later (today), few if any major television stations even discuss it.

Yet, a few days prior, another group of several hundred Tibetans organized a “protest march”, walking around the streets of Toronto, and this protest managed to get on the air and stay there. Unsurprisingly, Western media appears to be (and is) pro-Tibetan.

Allow me to first quote a paragraph from an article titled “Over 1,000 Tibetans Hold Protest March in Toronto“:

“Toronto, Canada (AHN) – Over a thousand people, led by Buddhist monks, held a rally at Canada’s capital city (?) Monday to call for freedom for Tibet. To express their strong emotions over the killing of hundreds of their countrymen back home, the Toronto-based Tibetans laid down on the streets, waved Tibetan flags and photos of victims of violence in Lhasa and wore Free Tibet sweaters.”

Maybe the fact that these sorts of protests around the world are led by monks supports China’s claim that the Dalai Lama is orchestrating the riots.

I would then question whether the author of this article knows what the capital of Canada is.

Let me quote some (yes, these are only one side of the story) comments on the CTV web site:

“As a [C]anadian I totally support ‘peaceful’ protest in Tibet, but those violent demonstrators killed innocent people, burning the stores and looting. Those kind of demonstrators should be treated same as terrorists like 9.11 in New York City. I hope that our gover[n]ment should not send any “Tibet statement” to encourage those situation and supports the declared policy of the Chinese government to protect the lives and property of its citizens from violent demonstrators with minimum use of force. We can’t put double standard for the same violent behaviour.” -Peter Kary

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“If you ask any chinese in Canada, I think most of us will support the chinese government this time. We are coming from China, we all know what is happening in China and the west. We watch all the news reported from China, Hong Kong and the west.

“If you ask the people inside Tibet, over 90% will support one China. The West now only focus on the 10% of Tibetans who want Independence. There are 56 nations in China, Tibet is one of the 56 nations, we all want One China.

“We all sure that Dala Lama is a liar this time.

“We are Not supporting ‘China 1989′, but we ALL support ‘China 2008′.” -A group of people from Hong Kong living in Toronto

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“Surprisingly the result of ‘Tibet incidence’ is not about Tibet. It has polarized the opinion of Chinese and Westerners. The Chinese (in China and overseas) generally believes that the West is trying to tarnish China’s image. The West is trying to force its opinion on China and Chinese people.” -lianwee

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“Let’s put away our daggers for China or our reverence for the Dalai Lama and try to find out what the truth is for a moment. In an article titled ‘Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth’ by Michael Parenti, it notes that Tibet was ‘a despotic retrograde theocracy of serfdom and poverty, so damaging to the human spirit, where vast wealth was accumulated by a favored few who lived high and mighty off the blood, sweat, and tears of the many.’” -brian

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“Do any of you have any slight idea what the old Tibet looked like before 1950? Do any of you know slightly about Chinese and Tibetan history? When Tibet came part of China? … I respect Dalai Lama and I’m amazed on how he’s transformed himself from a Lama to a modern spiritual figure with a huge influence to Tibetans and the world.

I doubt he personally organized the world-wise demonstrations on March 10th followed by the riot. But they were clearly organized events. The problem was that when the riot started to broke out on March 14 in Lhasa, banks, schools and Han people owned stores were either smashed, or burned down. Some of burned properties with people inside! The victims burned to death not only have Hans, but also Tibetan shop clerks. Han people were beaten in the street; a woman’s ear was cut off by a rioter. These were no longer peaceful demonstrations. There are the crimes committed to ordinary citizens. Any country has law and order, these kind of riot have to be stopped. People committed crime will have to face the justice.” -Gordon

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“Brook, come on, when [was] Tibet a nation or was a country? Tibet was already part of China in Yuan Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, so in recent hundreds years, Tibet has been always part of China. [H]ow much do you really know about the Dalai Lama other than his
displayed charm? It is worth checking out an article by Micheal Backman on ‘Behind Dalai Lama’s holy cloak’.” -AndyToronto

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“… I’m sorry to say not all monks are true and honest as we like to think them. ‘True’ monks don’t promote their supporters to go around killing innocent people by setting everything on fire and say its a ‘peaceful’ protest.” -Ann

Then, allow me to talk about the real event on March 29. The students here in Toronto decided that they had had enough of the twisted version of events portrayed by Western media, and they wanted to organize a peaceful rally for support.

Patriotic music, Chinese & Canadian flags, chants of “One China!”… totally peaceful and conflict-free until a group of Tibetans decided to organize an anti-protest.

Those Tibetans are the same ones who claim that the students who participated in the rally “are visa students… who are being controlled by the Chinese Consulate…”

What can we conclude? Well, we can definitely see that the methods used by both sides correspond with their ideals.

• The Tibetan monks incite instability and doubt.
• The Chinese students in Canada promoted unity and peace.

The Chinese students didn’t burn down shops, cutting the ears of women, looting stores and businesses, or rioting. They wanted to show unity. At the same time, many other similar rallies are occurring all around North America, where the Chinese population is high.

The message is clear: “Beijing 2008… One World, One Dream… One China.”