Morning Edition, March 27, 2008. The Chinese government says stability has returned to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. Steve Inskeep talks with China's ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong about the violence in Tibet, which Zhou says was meant to sabotage China ahead of the Beijing Olympics. He also says the Dalai Lama's vision for Tibet is closer to independence than autonomy, and that talks won't happen until that stance changes.
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Poster Comment:
Notice that the Chinese ambassador to the United States refuses to answer the questions. Notice that the interviewer is far more concerned about Tibetan civil rights than we typically hear on mass American media regarding our diminishing freedoms. Notice that the answers the Chinese ambassador gives are very similar to the types of reasoning we hear regarding our own "need" to suppress aggressive dissent here. for o
This report followed one by Jeff Dyer of the Financial Times. You can find that audio here.
Note that Dyer's minders permitted him to visit a monastery, where monks were said to have been under heavy guard before and after the visit. The press were suddenly surrounded by other monks who came in and in so many words said that any apparent freedoms enjoyed by the monks was a sham.