China's Involvement in Darfur

:: Class Discussion::

So I was nominated by my classmates to host a debate/discussion on the Beijing Olympics in class for the speaking portion of the test yesterday. During the discussion Okabe, the Japanese student, pontificated that the Chinese were selling weapons to the Darfur rebels and that this was amoral. I had never heard of this before since I had always thought the Chinese were neutral and there purely for pragmatic reasons, namely to acquire resources to feed the beast that is the Chinese economy. Recently, they had even denounced the genocide.

Thus, this inspired me to make my second post concerning the misinformation in the Western media surrounding China, human rights, etc. Folks, I can't stress enough the importance of reading independent, alternative media. Whether that's through blogs (Technorati), lesser known media outlets like The Huffington Post, Alternet, Harper's, etc. From what I've heard the younger generation in China doesn't trust the media either so they resort to blogs and alternative media sources as well. As Noam Chomsky has asserted, manipulation through the media is even easier in democratic, supposedly open societies because people assume their media is trustworthy, while in autocratic states the people intrinsically are skeptical and find their own answers through creative outlets.

::Alternative News Sources::

I also like to read some well-known news sources (albeit most of them are from the UK), like The Economist, BBC, Newsweek, and occasionally The Washington Post or Christian Science Monitor. For the most part these are very trustworthy, especially The Economist, but the danger with these is that they often are so successful because they rely upon advertising and sponsors and they have vested interests as well that sometimes conflict with giving unbiased news. Of course the smaller independent media sources also have this problem so it's important to read myriad, diverse media to get a more realistic picture. This was probably the best lesson I garnered working at CCR (Center for Constitutional Rights) in NOHO, Manhattan. I had to do research on the mistreatment and torture of suspected terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Grahib, and also on US policies of repatriation of political asylum seekers even in the face of imminent death or torture when they return. I also was doing a research paper on the NSA wiretapping scandal, where American civilian phone conversations were being illegally recorded and screened to find terrorists amongst the American populace. Time, BBC, and Newsweek had many articles but I often had to resort to searching out alternative news sources for more information. And I was advised by my mentor at CCR to seek out alternative news sources as well (he's the one that introduced me to Google News and Technorati).

::China's Role in Development in the Third World::

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I've seen a documentary and read a great article that highlights how China actually has a mutual symbiotic relationship with these resource rich, capital poor countries in South America and Africa.

The documentary, "China vs. USA: Battle for Oil" (Part 1 of 5):



From the article, "The Forgotten Oil War in Sudan:"

Unattached development aid from China:

"China has actually helped Sudan’s economic development while serving its own needs for oil. With its more than $1.3 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves, China has been generous in dispensing its soft loans, with no interest or outright grants to some of the poorest debtor states of Africa. The loans have gone to infrastructure including highways, hospitals, and schools, a stark contrast to the brutal austerity demands of the IMF and World Bank. In 2006 China committed more than $8 billion to Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique, versus $2.3 billion to all sub-Saharan Africa from the World Bank. Unlike the World Bank, a de facto arm of US foreign economic policy, China attaches no strings to its loans."

US policy in these countries:

“ 'The United States, acting through surrogate allies in Chad and neighboring states has trained and armed the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army, headed until his death in July 2005, by John Garang, trained at US Special Forces school at Fort Benning, Georgia.

By pouring arms into first southern Sudan in the eastern part and since discovery of oil in Darfur, to that region as well, Washington fueled the conflict that led to tens of thousands dying and several million driven to flee their homes. Eritrea hosts and supports the SPLA, the umbrella NDA opposition group, and the Eastern Front and Darfur rebels.

The Pentagon has been busy training African military officers in the US, much as it has for Latin American officers for decades. Its International Military Education and Training (IMET) program has provided training to military officers from Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, in effect every country on Sudan’s border. Much of the arms that have fuelled the killing in Darfur and the south have been brought in via murky, protected private “merchants of death” such as the notorious former KGB operative, now with offices in the US, Victor Bout. Bout has been cited repeatedly in recent years for selling weapons across Africa. US Government officials strangely leave his operations in Texas and Florida untouched despite the fact he is on the Interpol wanted list for money laundering.

US development aid for all Sub-Sahara Africa including Chad, has been cut sharply in recent years while its military aid has risen. Oil and the scramble for strategic raw materials is the clear reason.' "

Spin Control

So it's been awhile since my last post, it's not that nothing has been happening but rather too much personal stuff that has been occupying my time and I would rather not discuss it on a public blog. In any case, I figure the recent Taiwanese elections would make a good post to get back in the groove.

::Taiwanese Election Results::

So for those not living in Taiwan, yesterday the results of the presidential elections were released. This has been basically consuming the daily lives of Taiwanese for the past several months preceding the election and has caused a strict divide in Taiwanese society between green (DPP) and blue (KMT). Based on your affiliation, you either were rejoicing last night or in a pit of despair...or you plain didn't give a rat's ass.

These were the candidates:
Ma Ying Jiu (KMT; for improved relations with the mainland, direct flights to PRC)

Vs.

Frank Hsieh (DPP; for a strict stance against the PRC; stated that Ma could cause Taiwan to become a "second Tibet.")

The winner was the former. Today during class our teacher bitterly informed us that people set off fireworks in Taipei. She and the Japanese student in our class were extremely resentful and could barely contain their displeasure. During class, whenever we had to create sentences to practice vocab or grammar patterns, the Japanese student would to no avail create sentences that spoke of China's poor human rights record, xenophobia, and supposedly contradictory arguments. He also criticized the US since he said that because America wouldn't boycott the Beijing Olympics that no other countries would either. Then he complained about how Japan wasn't nationalistic/xenophobic enough...

Needless to say class is...quite interesting now. Especially since for the past two semesters both my teachers have been staunchly KMT, especially my last teacher, who constantly criticized Chen Shui Bian and urged us all to support Ma.

::Tibet Situation::

Oh and the other topic of discussion today was Tibet and how that affects how we view the Beijing Olympics. And we talked about how we all sympathize with the Tibetans' plight. Since I always advocate the point of view that is neglected (I'm somewhat of a contrarian), I informed them that the innocent Buddhist monks were trained militarily and armed with weapons by the CIA in a secret mission decades ago. I didn't mention this but the Tibetan monks had essentially an oppressive oligarchy in place and tortured dissenters, which is why some viewed the Chinese communist troops as liberators rather than conquerors. Especially since most of the Tibetan people's lives improved dramatically after Chinese takeover and it was only the small percentage of the Tibetan oligarchy that fled as refugees to India, including the famous religious and political leader, Dalai Lama.

Part 1 (of 6) of the documentary, "CIA in Tibet," posted on YouTube:



My friend posted an interesting article on this much lauded political/religious leader. I intrinsically distrust religious leaders and even more so when they are political leaders, so I wasn't that surprised when I read the article, "Behind Dalai Lama's Holy Cloak," by an Australian news source. (An excerpt: "No mere spiritual leader, he was the head of Tibet's government when he went into exile in 1959. It was a state apparatus run by aristocratic, nepotistic monks that collected taxes, jailed and tortured dissenters and engaged in all the usual political intrigues. (The Dalai Lama's own father was almost certainly murdered in 1946, the consequence of a coup plot.))"

::No Spin Zone::

It always amuses me when people decry the Chinese government's supposed deplorable treatment of the Tibetans when they know close to nil about Chinese history and Tibetan history, besides what is shown on TV, which brings me to my next point. People say the media is biased but in this case it's quite laughable. I didn't even know it was this bad until I saw numerous pictures posted by members in a Facebook group:





As you can see the pictures do not correspond with the captions or articles written. They use photos of violent crackdowns in India and Nepal but only mention China's oppression.Also, even in the photos that ARE of China, the photo is strategically cropped, which completely changes the meaning it conveys. Even the facts are highly exaggerated or fabricated. The official casualty toll was 16 but in that CNN screenshot this is inflated to a ridiculous 100 people dead. (FYI: All of these screenshots were taken from the Facebook group, "Tibet was, is and always will be apart of China," I did not create or own these screenshots).

Obviously, I don't think China has no culpability but I think it's ridiculous how much facts are being distorted in the media. Russia cracked down on Chechnya in a much more violent way and even resorted to extensive bombing on the region but didn't receive half as much negative press. Furthermore, what outsiders don't realize are the ramifications of allowing a province separate would entail. It would lead to a snowball effect where numerous provinces would also demand separation, such as Xinjiang, Sichuan, Yunnan, Ganxi, Hei Long Jiang, Inner Mongolia, and possibly others. One of the central jobs of a state is to protect the integrity of its borders. Outside observers seem to overlook the fact that China is a melting pot with numerous minorities groups and overseeing a country of that magnitude and diversity is not easy, just look at China's neighbors, India and Russia, and the problems with terrorism and language barriers that they have as well.

UPDATE:

Conor Stuart sent me this great Atlantic Monthly article, "Tibet Through Chinese Eyes," that gives a different perspective from an American correspondent who went to Tibet.