In The News

The Need for Unanimity in China Exacts a Hidden Price

Howard W. French April 24, 2008
By scheduling the Olympics in Beijing, China and the rest of the world anticipated cooperation and new understanding of the other’s ways. Instead, disagreements over human rights in Tibet and subsequent media coverage have unleashed bitter criticism all around. Perhaps most alarming for the West: the intense anger displayed by Chinese citizens on the internet, defending China’s crackdown on...

Asia’s Republican Leanings

Roger Cohen April 10, 2008
The heated US presidential campaign offers a lesson in democracy for the globe, and many who are not citizens of the US follow every detail. One ambassador has noted that the election is the “best diplomacy tool I’ve had in a long time,” reports columnist Roger Cohen in the New York Times. The world is looking on beyond the Bush administration, Cohen notes and, like US voters, is divided about...

Torch's Guards Have a Link to Tibet

Gordon Fairclough April 10, 2008
A global procession kicks off the Olympic Games, with athletes sharing the honor of bearing and passing off the lit torch. The journey starts in Athens and extends to cities throughout the world. But this year’s torch relay is complicated, as protesters line the route. Members of the People’s Armed Police of China – which provide security in China and assisted in quelling protests in Tibet –...

Pro-Tibet Groups Targeted In Cyberspace

Thomas Claburn April 9, 2008
Accusations fly about internet tactics, as pro-Chinese supporters clash with supporters of Tibet independence. Messages expressing support of Tibet independence include some sophisticated surveillance tools, reports Thomas Claburn for InformationWeek.com. Political activists are reporting internet interference and spyware accompanying what appear to be supportive e-mails from trusted sources. The...

Tibetan Olympiad

Nayan Chanda April 1, 2008
China’s rise as an economic superpower since 1989 has justified Deng Xiaoping's open door policy. As the world’s second largest economy, China seeks to further strengthen global ties by hosting the Olympics. However, as China moves into the spotlight, the country is under extensive scrutiny and protest. Activists in Darfur wish China to end its support for the regime in the Sudan. Anti-...

Taiwan’s Success Could Show the Way for Tibet

Humphrey Hawksley March 31, 2008
Demands of the global supply chain and tightly interconnected trade have tempered both China’s rejection of capitalist ways and the West’s criticism of politics and human rights in the world’s largest communist country. But independence movements in Taiwan and Tibet have the potential for ruffling relations. The Taiwanese-Chinese relationship – avoiding direct political control while continuing...

EU Weighs Olympic Boycott Over Tibet

Robert Marquand March 28, 2008
As protesters in Tibet plead for religious freedom and other human rights from Chinese authorities, China insists that the Dalai Lama is the troublemaker, trying to disrupt plans for the August Beijing Olympics. But that claim has not convinced Europe, whose leaders call for restraint and point out that the Dalai Lama did not call for an Olympics boycott, reports Robert Marquand for the Christian...