JOUR 61: Topical Post 3

I cannot recall a public discourse as one-sided as that over the issue of China and Tibet. The recent protests in Tibet, handled strong-handedly by the Chinese government, has re-ignited the decades old debate over China’s rule over the Tibetan region. Yet, the debate has been framed almost entirely from the point of view of the Tibetans seeking autonomy. Very little has been said about China’s perspective.

I am not taking a stance on this debate; my point is simply that the media has a responsibility to present a debate from both sides. There were thousands of people protesting in San Francisco during the Olympic torch relay for a “Free Tibet”. How many of these people know any more about Tibet than what the majority of this nation’s media have been expelling in recent weeks; that China is the big bad bully, who has ridden into Tibet, denying them independence and culturally oppressing them? How many know that the area of Tibet has never been independent from China? Or, that before China re-claimed autonomy in Tibet, in 1951, that ninety five percent of the population was hereditary serfs and slaves; that ninety five percent of the population was illiterate; that the average life expectancy was thirty-six years? And how many of these people know that China has since invested billons of dollars in Tibet, modernizing the area and providing the Tibetan people with an exponentially higher standard of living? Of course this is only one-side of the story, to find the other side you need not look far.

Jason Le Miere