Category Archives: Red China-Whole Villain

Bloodthirsty Dracula symbolizes the relationship between Han Chinese and Tibetans

“The Tibetans and the Han Chinese are like lips and teeth, we are linked by Blood.”

Han Chinese are like the teeth of ‘The Dracula’. Innocent Tibetans are like the lips of The Dracula’s Bride. Instead of kissing the lips, Han Chinese thirst for the blood of the Tibetans. Indeed, it is a true story about Blood Relationship.

Clipped from: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-spends-big-tibet-avert-crisis-when-dalai-lama-dies-n904676

China spends big in Tibet to avert a crisis when the Dalai Lama dies

Global Power

China is increasingly trying to enhance its image by casting itself as the largest nation of Buddhist believers.

by Eric Baculinao and Jason Cumming / Aug.30.2018 / 3:53 AM ET / Updated Aug.30.2018 / 4:09 AM ET

Pilgrims near the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. Johannes Eisele file / AFP/Getty Images

LHASA, China: China is pouring billions of dollars into Tibet as Beijing seeks to cement its control before the succession struggle that is likely to follow the death of the Dalai Lama.

During a rare Chinese government-organized visit to the region, local officials described a development program that they contend will bring prosperity to the 3.3 million Tibetans who inhabit a vast area roughly double the size of Texas.

The massive infrastructure projects include new airports and highways that cut through the world’s highest mountains, with planned investment totaling $97 billion.

The investment plan aims to protect Tibetan Buddhism’s holy sites while building a sustainable “green economy” that safeguards the fragile environment that is an average elevation of 13,000 feet above sea level.

The roof of the world

Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing officially terms a peaceful liberation. China has long aimed to reduce the influence of the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India.

Source: Natural Earth

Graphic: Jiachuan Wu / NBC News

According to official figures, China has also already spent over $450 million renovating Tibet’s major monasteries and other religious sites since the 1980s. An additional $290 million has been budgeted for the next five years.

The huge investment by China comes as the officially atheist country increasingly tries to enhance its image by casting itself as the largest nation of Buddhist believers. China claims some 300 million Buddhists of various schools, of which Tibetan Buddhism is one.

The effort comes as China faces charges from rights groups and exiles of repressing the Tibetan people. China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since 1951, a year after its troops marched in.

The Dalai Lama in 2015.Ben Stansall / AFP – Getty Images file

Last month, Vice President Mike Pence said Tibet’s people “have been brutally repressed by the Chinese government.” And in June, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said conditions were “fast deteriorating” in Tibet.

Beijing routinely denies charges of repression, saying that its rule ended serfdom and brought prosperity to what was a backward region and that it fully respects the rights of the Tibetan people.

It insists Tibet has historically been part of its territory since the mid-13th century. Many Tibetans, though, say the region has been effectively independent for most of its history.

While Beijing regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist who seeks to split off nearly a quarter of the land mass of the People’s Republic of China, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Tibetan spiritual leader says he only seeks greater rights for Tibetans, including religious freedom and autonomy.

Reincarnation

For supporters of the Dalai Lama, China’s Tibet strategy is “aimed at increasing its control and limiting the personal freedom of the Tibetan people,” said Matteo Mecacci, a former lawmaker in Italy and president of the International Campaign for Tibet.

He called the infrastructure improvements and monastery renovations “superficial.”

Mecacci said Tibetans are “not even allowed to receive teachings from the Dalai Lama.”

A portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Sera Monastery in Tibet. Eric Baculinao / NBC News

He added, “When it comes to the real practice of Buddhism, China continues to increase restrictions.”

With the Dalai Lama now 83, many Tibetans fear that China will use the succession issue to split Tibetan Buddhism, with a new Dalai Lama named by exiles and another by the government after his death.

(Barry Kerzin, an American monk and the Dalai Lama’s personal physician, told NBC News that he is “perfectly fit.”)

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet and went into exile in India in 1959, has repeatedly tussled with China’s ruling Communist Party over who has final authority on the issue of reincarnation.

“The Tibetans and the Han Chinese are like lips and teeth, we are linked by blood.”

Tibetan Buddhism holds that the soul of a senior lama is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death.

China says it must approve the next Dalai Lama, and the Dalai Lama has said his biggest concern is that China will try to name his successor.

The Panchen Lama who was installed by the Chinese government attends an event in 2016.Cui hao / Imaginechina/Getty file

In 1995, after the Dalai Lama named a boy in Tibet as the reincarnation of the previous Panchen Lama, the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism, China put the boy under house arrest and installed another instead.

Many Tibetans are torn between accepting and spurning the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama.

Palaces and shrines

Explaining the seeming contradictions in China’s policy, Tibet’s foreign affairs deputy chief, Ma Qiang, said that while the Community Party “doesn’t believe in religion,” China’s government was “duty-bound to protect Tibetan Buddhism and restore and preserve its holy sites because that is also what the Tibetan people want so they can exercise their freedom of worship.”

The most iconic landmark to receive Chinese funding is the imposing Potala Palace, the thousand-room residence that overlooks Lhasa. It houses the tombs of all but one of the Dalai Lamas who have died since 1682.

Lhasa’s Potala Palace. iStock / Getty

According to the museum’s deputy director, Gonga Zhaxi, the 13-story palace has undergone two major renovations on which Beijing spent $37 million. Another $4.4 million has been budgeted for the repair of its ornate golden roofs.

To protect its priceless Buddha statues, frescoes and scriptures, a limit has been set of 5,000 pilgrims and tourists per day, and cats have been deployed against the colony of rats, he said.

Other sites that have benefited from Chinese cash include:

• The seventh-century Jokhang Temple is Tibet’s holiest shrine as it houses a life-sized statue of Buddha (Jowo Shakyamuni) at the age of 12. The labyrinth of chapels thick with the smoke of incense and prayer candles is visited daily by around 12,000 pilgrims and tourists. Buddha’s statue was the gift of the Chinese Tang dynasty Princess Wencheng when she married Tibetan King Songtsan Gambo around 1,300 years ago. The union is now immortalized in a spectacular open-air opera with a cast of 800. A private production company has invested more than $80 million to promote this narrative of Tibet-China unity. Lhagba, a prominent monk and the site’s management director, said Beijing has spent $14.7 million on major repairs there in the past 10 years.
• Beijing has also helped with major renovations at Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery, two of Tibet’s most influential Buddhist academies, with grants of $30 million and $8 million. Thanks to government help, the monks can focus on their studies and need not bother with the monastery’s repairs, according to Awang Ciren, the monastery’s academic head. To increase its enrollment of 480 monks, Beijing is building a new dormitory that can accommodate 170 monks, he added.

In addition, 46,000 monks and nuns are now covered by health insurance and social security, officials said.

And with Beijing’s “preferential” policy and massive budget subsidies, Tibet’s economy has been growing faster than the rest of China.

Some $170 million was spent on environmental projects last year, part of a 23-year plan unveiled in 2009 that’s worth $2 billion.

“In Tibet, we don’t allow the burning of coal, and since 2011, we have stopped approving any new mining projects,” said Luo Jie, Tibet’s environmental protection chief, adding that more than one-third of Tibet’s territory consisted of nature reserves. “We also don’t tolerate river pollution.”

Developing a “green economy” is the future of Tibet, according to economic planning official Jiang Taichang

Tourism is also an industry that is drawing more focus. Last year, more than 25 million tourists and pilgrims visited Tibet, generating more than $5.5 billion or one-third of Tibet’s income, and their number is expected to rise to 70 million in four years. (The majority of tourists are Chinese, as security has been ratcheted up significantly in the decade since anti-government protests spread through Tibetan areas in 2008 and Tibet remains mostly off-limits to foreigners.)

Monks at Tibet’s Sera Monastery debate Buddhist teachings. Eric Baculinao / NBC News

Lhasa’s special economic zone, built with a $30 million investment from Beijing, is already fully leased out, with 200 enterprises producing a range of products from beer to medicines. A new technology zone and financial district are being planned.

Norbu Thondup, the Beijing-appointed executive vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Tibet’s administrative name, condemned the “sabotage” activities aimed at the “harmony and happiness in today’s Tibet” by groups supporting the Dalai Lama.

He reiterated China’s policy that the “gate is open” if the Dalai Lama abandons the idea of “splitting” Tibet from China.

“The decision is for the Dalai to make,” Thondup said of him returning to his homeland. “The Tibetans and the Han Chinese are like lips and teeth, we are linked by blood.”

But Mecacci, of the International Campaign for Tibet, said it was important for China to engage with the Dalai Lama.

“Only a serious dialogue while the Dalai Lama is alive can provide a lasting political solution in Tibet,” he said. “Finding an agreement with the Tibetans would help China because it’s the right thing to do and because it will help China both domestically and internationally.”

Eric Baculinao reported from Lhasa and Jason Cumming from London.

© 2018 NBC UNIVERSAL

Tibet Awareness – Look at Tibet Issue From All Angles

We look at Tibet issue from all angles to openly declare that Red China is an Evil Power, a Tyrant, an Aggressor, a Neocolonialist, an Expansionist, an Oppressor, and a Subjugator of Tibet.

Mercedes-Benz Apologizes to China Over Dalai Lama Post

Mercedes-Benz has become the latest major global brand to offer a public apology after upsetting the Chinese government on a sensitive subject.

Clipped from: http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/07/technology/mercedes-benz-tibet-china-apology/index.html

The carmaker apologized Tuesday for hurting “the feelings” of Chinese people by quoting the Dalai Lama in a post on its Instagram account. The move comes just weeks after Marriott, Delta Air Lines and other big names found themselves in trouble with Beijing over how they described politically sensitive places like Taiwan and Tibet.

The Chinese government has launched frequent attacks on the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, calling him a “traitor” and a separatist. Beijing considers Tibet to be part of its territory and comes down hard on any suggestions to the contrary.

Mercedes, which is owned by Daimler, (DDAIF) ran afoul of China’s stance when it paired a quote attributed to the Dalai Lama with a photo of one of its luxury sedans on Instagram — a social media platform that is banned in China.

“Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open,” the quote read.

The ad was posted on Monday and garnered nearly 90,000 likes before Mercedes deleted it the following day, according to a screenshot posted by Chinese state media.

The Global Times, a state-run newspaper that often strikes a nationalistic tone, criticized Mercedes, saying the company was quick to respond to the incident but shouldn’t make such mistakes in the first place.

Mercedes issued a statement in Chinese about the incident on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter (TWTR), offering a “sincere apology” three separate times.

“We fully understand how it has hurt the feelings of people in the country, including our colleagues working in China, we sincerely apologize for this,” Mercedes said, adding that the post contained “extremely erroneous information.”

With its rising middle class and growing economic might, China is a key market for many global brands. Mercedes is no exception.

Of the nearly 2.4 million vehicles it sold worldwide last year, more than a quarter were snapped up by Chinese buyers.

A growing number of international companies have recently found themselves in hot water in China over politically sensitive issues.

Authorities last month blocked Marriott’s websites and apps for a week in China after it listed Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as separate countries in its emails and apps. Marriott (MAR) apologized profusely, saying it respects and supports the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.

Shortly after that, Delta (DAL) came under fire for similarly listing Taiwan and Tibet as countries. It said it was “an inadvertent error with no business or political intention” in its apology.

At the same time, the owner of European clothing brand Zara was chastised by regulators for listing Taiwan as a country and ordered to rectify the situation.

China and Taiwan — officially the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China — separated in 1949 following the Communist victory on the mainland after a civil war.

They have been governed separately since, though a shared cultural and linguistic heritage mostly endures, with Mandarin spoken as the official language in both places. The government in Beijing has always maintained that Taiwan is a renegade province that is part of its sovereign territory.

Communist China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 to enforce its claim on the region and has controlled it since 1951 — though the central government in Beijing has faced repeated bouts of unrest from ethnic Tibetans unhappy over its rule.

— Nanlin Fang contributed to this report.

CNNMoney (Hong Kong) First published February 7, 2018: 2:43 AM ET