Thus the Academic Left loathes Xi because China's investment projects in the underdeveloped world have produced tangible results like jobs and higher living standards, as opposed to decades of the American Left's virtue-signaling in the same places. Also, recent Chinese technological achievements have shown up American Academia for the intellectual pygmies that they really are.
On Friday, President Trump had a very successful conference with Xi that smoothed over many tensions between the two countries. This conference was hailed in the Chinese Media (though ignored in the US) as a 'new dawn in Sino-US relations.' Historically, China is a natural ally of the US. Though there have been some rough times between the two countries on occasion, the two countries have been on friendly and mutually beneficial throughout most of our history.
So between the confirmation of Rex Tillerson and Trump's meeting with Xi, the UC-San Diego decided to throw a spanner into the works and invite the Dalai Lama to address their commencement ceremonies in June. Now, of course, the Lama is a hero to the Left, and outspokenly anti-Trump. In October, the Lama said of Trump, "I see a new Hitler in the making. If American people vote for Trump, it will be the end of great American civilization."
We Americans are accustomed to Left-Wing whackos spouting off like this at universities; but China's position on the Dalai Lama is that he's an international criminal and wanted in China for capital offenses. From China's perspective, this would be a similar insult their national pride as it would be if Chinese schools invited American Anarchists to speak about conditions in the US. It's very transparent here that the UC-San Diego timed this announcement to embarrass both Trump and Xi.
Pradeep Khosala, the president of UC-San Diego, hypocritically stated that the Dalai Lama was "a man of peace" and "a spiritual leader." It's doubtful that he'd feel the same way about inviting prominent Christian leaders to speak, however. Khosala is an immigrant from Mumbai, India with an academic background in Technologies. He formerly served as head of DARPA under the Clinton Administration and worked for several defense contractors under Obama before becoming head of UCSD in 2012. He also has affiliations with the Taiwanese government. He draws a fat $450,000 annual salary from California taxpayers.
When Tibet was ruled by the Lamas, the country had an international reputation as a hotbed of foreign spies and international crooks. The Lamas had a human-rights record about on a level with the Wahhabi States in the Arabian Peninsula today. It was such a brutal regime that when China annexed it 1951, even many Western pundits believed that Maoist Communism would be an improvement. The fact that many Tibetans welcomed the Chinese Army as liberators speaks for itself.
Tibetans were forced to worship the Dalai Lama as a god. The monks owned all property in Tibet and human life was without value to them. Professor Michael Parenti, a Left-Wing academic himself at Yale, wrote the following:
"Tibet was hardly the idyllic paradise of Hollywood lore. Serfs often had to carry their owners on their backs...it would not be incorrect to say that before the arrival of the Chinese PLA in 1951, that the Lands of the Lamas was a hell on earth. Over 70% of the population was comprised of poor, illiterate serfs and nomads; they had absolutely no rights and no value."
Parenti also alleges that the Lamas practiced torture and seized even the wives and daughters of peasants for sexual purposes. It's well known too that the Dalai Lama's so-called 'Government in Exile' was (and may still be) on the CIA payroll.
Like most of these Left-Wing icons, the Dalai Lama is a fraud and when we peer beneath the surface, we find the sordid interests of the Left behind him. Pre-annexation Tibet though does sound remarkably like the type of government that the Cultural Marxist mandarins and overlords in California Academia would like, though.
I don't even know where to start here. As usual you stimulate the grey matter.
ReplyDeleteI never thought about China being a natural ally of the U.S. My concerns are myriad, and include but are not limited to religious persecution in China (including the suffering of the underground Catholic Church), and human rights abuses there in general, such as organ harvesting.
With regard to China vs. the Dalai Lama - both are enemies of the US in my view. Until I read this article though, I never thought about that fact. It's making my head hurt a little bit - sort of like the wacko Librard protesters today outside of RINO McConnell's house.
Although the history you cite is new to me, I'm not surprised to hear about Tibet. Many years ago I sat next to the Dalai Lama's nephew on a long-haul flight. During this brush with greatness the nephew, (who, quite sadly, died a few years back in a motor vehicle accident while raising money for Tibetan freedom), proceeded to regale me with detailed stories about his successful business dealings in Bloomington, Indiana. The sole subject of this one-sided conversation, during which I listened intently for several hours, was $$$$$$.
China and the US have had some issues, but historically, we've usually worked together (like WW2). We're the two dominant powers in the Pacific, so the potential for beneficial co-operation is enormous now. Xi is somewhat of a moderate compared to his predecessors and he's like Trump in a lot of ways: both are business-minded negotiators.
DeleteChina's sent a delegation to the Vatican for the upcoming summit on international organ-harvesting. Organ trafficking is illegal in China, though I can't say how well the law is enforced. The Pope has been reaching out to China extensively on religious freedom and is making some progress. Xi is actually very open to broadening religious freedom, but has some opposition from hardliners in the CPC.
http://nightwind777.blogspot.com/2016/08/chinas-new-approach-to-religious-freedom.html
Tibet was formerly bordered by Russia, China, and British India and criminals escaping those countries often went to Tibet to run their enterprises and pay protection to the Lamas. During WW2, Tibet was full of Nazi, Japanese, and Russian spies wreaking all kinds of havoc. It's believed that some Axis war criminals hid out there after the war.