The Olympics As A Diversion
By Ghali Hassan
12 August,
2008
Countercurrents.org
It is reported recently that Spain's National Court has launched an investigation into alleged crimes against humanity committed in Tibet, indicting Chinese political and military leaders. China is accused of ‘a generalised and systematic attack against the Tibetan population’. But what are the motives behind the current anti-Chinese propaganda? Have the anti-Chinese protesters at the Beijing Olympics missed an opportunity?
The Olympics have always been used as an opportunity to manipulate public opinion, demonise the ‘Others’ and divert the public away from Western-perpetuated crimes. From the first day of its stage by the Nazis – as a propaganda tool for resurgent German nationalism and racism –, the Olympics have been used to puff-up the ugly side of nationalism and manipulate public opinion.
The alleged abuses of human rights in Tibet by the Chinese government is just part of Western propaganda designed to distort the images of China and portrayed the Chinese government as an oppressive government. Tibet has become a pretext for those who are trying to blacken the name of China. As a reminder, the current anti-Chinese propaganda has nothing to do with the welfare of the people in Tibet and most Tibetans are against this Western-staged propaganda. Indeed, most Tibetans do not want to return to Tibet’s old feudal and violent regime when most Tibetans lived as serfs. (For more on Tibet Feudalism refer to notes: [1] and [2]).
China’s claim on Tibet as part of its territory dated to the 13th century under the (Mongol) Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) then again in the 17th century under the (Manchu) Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In 1959, China resumed full control of Tibet. At the time, life expectancy in Tibet was 35. Illiteracy was 90 per cent. Infant mortality was around 43 per cent. The per capita income for Tibetans was less than $40. Today, life expectancy has almost doubled to 68. Literacy is more than 90 per cent. Infant mortality is 2.4 per cent. Per capita income has exploded to $1500. And because Tibet is exempted from China’s one-child policy – apply to Han Chinese only -, the population of Tibet has increased from 1.2 million to 2.4 million. Ethnic Tibetans still account for more than 92 per cent of the 2.7 million Chinese in Tibet Autonomous Region. All this is due to China’s multibillion-dollar investment into the Tibetan economy and development. Compare these remarkable achievements with the appalling and shameful living conditions under which Australian Aborigines have been living for the last two centuries.
Furthermore, the recent race riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa had nothing to do with Tibet independence, which is opposed by the right-wing Dalai Lama. The riots have targeted Han Chinese and Muslims, suggesting ethnic or religious motives. Reliable sources show that the riots were sponsored by outside agents and designed to destabilise China. Since the early 1950s there has been systematic and substantial interference by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA) to stir-up anti-Chinese sentiment and fomenting violence.
The same can be said about CIA interference in Uygur-Xinjiang autonomous region of western China where China’s oppressive restrictions on Xinjiang Muslims (approximately 8 million) are not helpful and discriminatory. Reliable sources pointing to CIA involvements in fomenting violence between Muslims and non-Muslims Chinese in a bid to destabilise China and globalise the West-Zionist campaign of Islamophobia, which is infecting the Western world and is the driving force behind the U.S. fraudulent “war on terror”.
Meanwhile, China is moving in a direction to ‘improve’ the welfare of its people and has some success in improving the living conditions of the people. China is not threatening and invading defenceless nations, terrorising and slaughtering their peoples and seizing their land and resources, always ‘disguised with the hypocritical mask of altruism’. It is instructive to highlight few cases where the pro-human rights demonstrators have failed the test of altruism.
While Westerners protesting against China’s alleged human rights abuses, the Iraqi people have been living under murderous Occupation since the 2003 Anglo-American aggression. More than 1.3 million innocent Iraqi civilians, mostly women and children have been killed by U.S. and British forces and their collaborators. Tens of thousands of Iraqis, including women and children, are imprisoned indefinitely in barbaric conditions in U.S.-run prisons throughout Iraq, without charge or trial. They are denied their basic rights, abused and tortured routinely. On top of that, at least 5 million Iraqis have been displaced as a result of U.S.-orchestrated ethnic cleansing. Of these, at least 2.8 million Iraqis are internally displaced persons (IDPs) faced worsening living conditions. More than 2 million Iraqis have fled the Occupation-generated violence to neighbouring countries. An entire nation of 25 million people has been deliberately targeted for destruction, including cultural genocide. And although the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people are against the murderous Occupation, the U.S refused to withdraw its troops and mercenaries from Iraq. Why there is no protest for free Iraq?
While Westerners are protesting against China’s alleged human rights abuses, their own governments are participating in Israel’s criminal siege of the Palestinian population in Gaza. The siege, a deliberate collective punishment against the Palestinians who exercised their democratic right to elect their own government, ‘has plunged a million and a half innocent Palestinians into wretched conditions: imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme Israeli military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity. The siege violates the most fundamental principle of international law: the inadmissibility of harming civilian populations’. Why there is no protest against Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians in Gaza?
While Westerners protesting against China’s alleged human rights abuses, the people of Afghanistan are enduring daily violent bombings by U.S. and NATO troops illegally occupying their country. Thousand of innocent Afghani civilians have been killed; thousands of innocent Afghanis are rounded up and imprisoned and tortured. Why there is no protest against Western atrocities in Afghanistan?
While Westerners protesting against China’s alleged human rights abuses, tens of thousands of innocent Muslims are imprisoned in hundreds of U.S.-run gulags around the world, including the U.S. From Abu Ghraib in Iraq to Bagram Military Base in Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, the U.S. is the most violator of human rights on the planet. Prisoners are denied their basic human rights, tortured and abused on daily bases by U.S. mercenaries and their collaborators.
Furthermore, the U.S. has one of the most racist and unfair justice system in the world. The U.S. imprisoned more people than any other country. With only 5 per cent of the world’s population, the U.S. incarcerates 25 per cent of the world’s total prisoners; the vast majority are African-Americans and Latino-Americans. The U.S. is one of only three countries (the others are Israel and South Africa) which sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole. Why there is no protest about human rights abuses in the U.S.?
While Westerners protesting against China’s legitimate right to block anti-Chinese Internet websites, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of Internet websites that are blocked or interfered with by Western governments. The most targeted Internet websites are those that provide impartial news reports on the U.S. murderous Occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and critique of Israel’s fascist policies in Palestine. Media self-censorship played an important role in spreading disinformation (lies) in order to justify an illegal act of aggression against the Iraqi people. Further, the censorship of the war on Iraq is an ongoing campaign to normalise the atrocities, distort reality on the ground and manipulate the American public. Even the news of killed and wounded U.S. soldiers is off limits, and no one protesting.
Finally, can anyone seriously protest that the Chinese treatment of Tibetans compares unfavourably with the brutal treatment of people under U.S./Israel murderous Occupation? Can anyone seriously hold China responsible for the human suffering in Darfur because of China’s investment in Sudan’s oil industry, while ignoring the West’s oil investments in countries ruled by bloody and corrupt dictators? If Westerners are serious about human rights, they should first hold their own governments accountable, before they consider whether they have the right to play moral hypocrites.
Lets not forget, this August also marks the 63rd anniversary of the most premeditated and unnecessary act of mass murder of innocent civilians; America's atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A protest at the Beijing’s Olympic Games against the use and spread of nuclear weapons by the U.S. and Israeli governments is paramount and timely. It is a unique opportunity for human rights organisations and civil societies to denounce U.S. militarism, violence and imperialist hegemony. It is also an opportunity to remember the unimaginable suffering inflicted on the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine – just to mention few – by those nations whose governments pretend to respect and defend human rights and the rules of law.
The current anti-Chinese propaganda, masquerading as anti-repression and pro-human rights protests is a classic Western hypocrisy and designed to advance U.S.-Western imperialist agenda. When did Western-based human rights organisations have seriously and impartially protested against Western-perpetuated human rights abuses and war crimes except the usual and confused rhetoric? They have become the West’s most useful tools deflecting attention from U.S./Israel criminal wars. The anti-Chinese protesters at the Olympics have missed great opportunity.
The Olympics must remain free of propaganda that aimed at diverting the public away from Western-perpetuated human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is time that European and international courts of justice commence criminal proceedings against past and present Western political and military leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ghali Hassan is an independent writer living in Australia.
Notes:
[1] Curren,
E. D. (2005). Buddha's Not Smiling: Uncovering Corruption at the Heart
of Tibetan Buddhism Today. Alaya Press.
[2] Parenti, M. (2007). Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth. http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html
