Thousands of Chinese demonstrators from Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal gathered on Parliament Hill today to rally against boycotts of the Beijing Olympics and to oppose Tibetan independence.
A pro-China demonstration on Parliament Hill on Sunday attracted about 5,000 Chinese-Canadians from Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto eager to show support for the troubled Beijing Olympics.
The planning of this event had been orchestrated online, facilitated by thousands of willing volunteers who wanted to show their support for China. There were some hiccups with the chartering of buses, when (allegedly) an opposing entity threatened the busing company. However, sources state that a Chinese-Canadian businessman arranged (out of his own pockets) for more than 30 buses to transport demonstrators and the elderly to Parliament Hill.
This event is an instance of powerful Chinese patriotism which has brought thousands together against “media distortion” and attempts to disrupt China’s hosting of the Olympics.
A few hours ago, approximately 5000 protestors also gathered in Australia for the same cause.
Isn’t it strange, though, that news of these events aren’t on the media… aren’t found on the homepage of Google News (the last time I checked)… aren’t even mentioned?
Interestingly, Jack Cafferty (whom I had respected previously) on CNN made a comment that “…they (Chinese) are basically the same bunch goons and thugs they have been in the past fifty years.” Absolutely intolerable!
Watch him make his offensive comment:
The following video, “The true face of Western media”, was previously noted here as a YouTube video. Since then, I have obtained permission from the creator of the video to republish and redistribute his/her video to get the message out. The original AVI was uploaded to blip.tv and below is the high-quality Flash conversion:
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.Or, you can download a H.264 QuickTime movie.
Do you want to see proof of media bias? Or, perhaps, some real facts about Tibet?
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.You can download the above clip in an MP4 format (H.264 and AAC) suitable for the iPod or downloading.
Here’s something about media bias:
And, of course, the follow-up to the above video:
And more of the Tibetan violence!
Here’s an example of someone who is strongly biased against China, and who has uploaded more than 120 videos, many of which are anti-China. (Well, anything that is against the government of China is anti-China.) Interestingly, a lot of this user’s uploads violate copyright (as do many videos on YouTube) and do not qualify for fair use, yet are not being removed. (You’d think that if someone uploaded more than 120 copyrighted video clips, they’d be flagged or something.)
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
–
“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–
“… 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.”
Nancy Pelosi and others are questioning the conduct of China’s government in dealing with the unrest in Tibet. Here’s my take on things.
It’s not my belief that the situation in Tibet demonstrates any violations of human rights. The right to peaceful assembly was not denied, for those who were protesting were violent, as even Tibet’s government-in-exile would admit. Smashing in windows and attacking innocent bystanders who happen to be non-Tibetan Chinese citizens does not constitute peaceful assembly.
And, if no such right were denied, then China’s military & police being sent in is the same as what any other nation would have done to suppress a dangerous riot.
As the BBC’s article notes, protesters were filmed burning the Chinese flag near Hezuo. Consider the following: flag-burning may be a protected right in some countries, like the United States, but cracking down on those who burn the national flag in China does not violate any rights, because flag-burning is NOT a given or human right.
Some believe that the right to free speech has been violated. Consider the following: the right to free speech may be a human right, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the debate about free speech continues today, even in North America. How far does free speech go? Is such a right protected even when it injures or harms others? Furthermore, does freedom of speech include the violence that went along with the protests in Tibet?
