FW: [WTNN] World Tibet Network News - December 11, 2010

[Alex Bunjes]

Saturday, December 11, 2010
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue ID: 2010/12/11
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Tibetans condemn imprisonment of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo (PTI)
2. Life After The Nobel: Will China Make Nations Pay?
   Will Liu Xiaobo Be Forgotten? (Forbes)
3. Dalai Lama requsted to open activites for Nijalingappa samadhi (TOI)
4. Karmapa’s birth 900 year anniversary: 17th Karmapa,
   Ogyen Trinley Dorje presides (Times of India)
5. Sikkim govt bans killing of animals during Dalai Lama's visit (PTI)
6. 'Dalai Lama will remain religious, temporal head' (IANS)
7. Tibetans observe Nobel day (Himalayan
8. Peace prevails as Tibetans mark Dalai's Nobel anniversary (Himalayan Times)
9. China's strategic highway to Indian border set for completion (PTI)
10. Training for Tibetan tour operators (Republica)
11. Is China Seeking to Achieve Too Much Too Soon? (Diplomatic Courier)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Tibetans condemn imprisonment of Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dharamsala, Friday, Dec 10, 2010 (PTI)
 
Condemning the imprisonment of Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, the Tibetan government-in-exile today said keeping a few individuals in prison cannot lock up their thoughts and aspirations.

Celebrating the 21st anniversary of the conferment of the Nobel Peace Prize on Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, it expressed happiness that Liu has been chosen for the coveted award this year.

"Since the values and aspirations of all the Nobel laureates are well known around the world, keeping a few individuals in prison cannot lock up their thoughts, principles and aspirations," it said in a statement.

Liu, a writer and former university professor, was at the forefront of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges after he called for political reforms in China.

The Tibetan government-in-exile said the Dalai Lama had showed that all global conflicts can be solved through non-violence and described the Nobel prize as an "outstanding recognition" of the Tibetan struggle for justice.

"If the Tibetan people in and outside Tibet can reaffirm their genuine pledge for the non-violent path based on trust and understanding,then this occasion will constitute a meaningful celebration," the statement said.

Referring to the Dalai Lama's recent announcement that he will retire next year from his role as the leader of the Tibetan government in exile, it appealed to him to "remain as ever the religious and temporal leader of Tibet".

The Dalai Lama, who addressed a seminar in Lucknow today, emphasised on the need to spread the light of education.

The 75-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule, said that the majority of the problems faced by humankind today are because of ignorance and lack of education and they could be overcome only by spreading education.

"All the problems do not have their roots in ill will as a majority of them take shape due to ignorance and lack of education," the spiritual leader said, adding that they can be overcome by education as has been preached by the Gautam Buddha.

On the growing intolerance in today's world, he said, "All the religions basically give one message which is to remove problems of people and provide them happiness."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Life After The Nobel: Will China Make Nations Pay?
   Will Liu Xiaobo Be Forgotten?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Forbes
Dec. 10 2010

By GADY EPSTEIN

We have learned one thing for sure in the two months since Liu Xiaobo was chosen for the Nobel Peace Prize: China’s leaders simply do not care that many nations view them as bullies for trying to pressure them into boycotting today’s ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

What will be the real-world results of this anti-Nobel campaign? Will the nations that declined to attend see an appreciable economic benefit from their piety to China? Will the rest of the nations that sent their dignitaries pay a price in, say, trade deals with Beijing? Will the cause of Liu Xiaobo fade with time, as the world gets back to business?
We have a precedent for answering the first two questions, because this bullying was just a higher-profile version of what Chinese diplomats do on a regular, day-to-day basis in the case of another Nobel Peace Prize winner Beijing hates: the Dalai Lama.

And believe it or not, as the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos pointed out, two German researchers have actually studied whether nations that choose to receive the Dalai Lama suffer economically in terms of trade with China after the fact. The answer, according to “Paying a Visit: The Dalai Lama Effect on International Trade”: Under President Hu Jintao, they have indeed taken a measurable hit, typically lasting for about two years.

Of course, in this case it will be hard for China to make all the attending nations pay, because they comprise many of China’s trading partners. It will be harder to isolate, say, France, than it was when Nicolas Sarkozy met with the Dalai Lama and incurred Beijing’s wrath (he seems to have worked hard to make up for that). This time, there is safety in numbers for many Western democracies.

As for the nations that acceded to Beijing’s wishes to boycott the ceremony, many of them are China’s longtime allies, or they have their own records of quelling dissent. You can see not going as an easy decision for Russia, which could well have its own Liu Xiaobo someday — and already had its own under the days of Soviet rule, days which former KGB man Vladimir Putin seems to remember fondly.

Don’t be surprised in the months ahead if Beijing sends wreaths of roses, in the form of investments or trade deals, to some of the countries that stood with it in boycotting the Nobel ceremony, including nominal democracies Afghanistan and Serbia.

What about the last question, though, the most important one? Will the cause of Liu Xiaobo move to the back burner as the business of the world moves on? That is surely what China wants, and it might seem that human nature would be on Beijing’s side.

Our collective attention span can absorb only so much about one issue. Diplomats can only spend so many of their bullets in each meeting bringing up Liu Xiaobo and other dissidents; and journalists can spill only so much ink before moving onto the many other China stories out there.

Until now, Beijing has managed to do its very best to keep the Liu Xiaobo story in the headlines — by cracking down on dissidents before the ceremony, by putting Liu’s wife Liu Xia under house arrest and refusing to allow her to travel to accept the award, by trying to bully other nations into not attending today, and by calling the Nobel panel members “clowns” who are perpetrating an “anti-China farce.” Kooky partisans heaped on the absurdity by awarding in parallel fashion yesterday a “Confucius Peace Prize.”

Tomorrow Liu Xiaobo will still be in jail, and China’s leaders seem determined to keep him there. Yet as long as he is imprisoned, the world will remember him, and his peace prize will remain “perhaps the most important” yet awarded, as Nobel chairman Thorbjoern Jagland put it yesterday. His eloquent writings will live on, despite his fears that they might not. They will live on somehow in the country that tries to obliterate them within its Great Firewall.

Liu Xiaobo will not be forgotten, in no small measure because China’s leaders will keep pressuring the world and their own citizens to forget him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Dalai Lama requsted to open activites for Nijalingappa samadhi
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Times of India
TNN, Dec 10, 2010

CHITRADURGA: The Dalai Lama has been requested to formally launch activities at the samadhi site of former statesman S Nijalingappa during the last week of January or first week of February, disclosed H Hanumantappa, chairman of the central silk board on Friday.

Talking to newsmen after offering floral tributes at the samadhi on the 109th birth anniversary of the late statesman, Hanumantappa takled about activities based on the philosophy of life that were practised by the late leader.

"The life and mission of the late leader was a role model to others," Sri Sivamurthy Sharanaru maintained in his tributes to the later leader. "We should imbibe those qualities for the good of society," he said.

S Sivashankarappa, MLA and president of S Nijalingappa memorial foundation, M Chandrappa MLA, H Anjaneya, former MLA and many followers graced the occasion.


Read more: Dalai Lama requsted to open activites for Nijalingappa samadhi - The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hubli/Dalai-Lama-requsted-to-open-activites-for-Nijalingappa-samadhi/articleshow/7078897.cms#ixzz17p65tE1s

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Karmapa’s birth 900 year anniversary: 17th Karmapa,
   Ogyen Trinley Dorje presides
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Times of India
December 11th, 2010

In a most auspicious and upbeat focus of respect and honor, the “Karmapa 900” organization recently (Dec. 9 – 10, 2010) initiated a yearlong celebration presided over by H.H. the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.  This massive gathering and teaching is to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the birth of the First Karmapa, Dusum Khyenpa.

Dusum Khyenpa was born in 1110, and this year’s celebration marks the founding of the first lineage of reincarnated lamas in Buddhist history, fundamentally shaping Tibetan Buddhism as it is today.  Many other such reincarnated lineages have since been created.  The most well known of these lineages is that of H.H. the Dalai Lama, which began with the first Dalai Lama who was born in 1391.  The current Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatsom is the 14th in that reincarnation lineage.

The “Karmapa 900” organization continues to facilitate this auspicious occasion as H.H. the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje led a gala opening ceremony Dec. 8 at Buddhism’s most sacred site in Bodhgaya, India.  This is the site where the Buddha attained enlightenment while sitting under the Bodhi Tree.

The initial two-day celebration was held on a specially constructed outdoor stage and included performances of sacred songs in Sanskrit and Tibetan, traditional Tibetan drama as well as rituals and prayers. The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Samdhong Rinpoche addressed the 5,000 plus people who attended the opening event.

H.H. the Dalai Lama has expressed his support for the year’s commemorative events in a special message sent to Karmapa 900.  He said,

“I am delighted to know that this is happening, and extend my prayers and best wishes to all.”

The system of reincarnate lamas instituted by Dusum Khyenpa is founded on high levels of spiritual attainment and has been subsequently adopted by all other branches of Buddhism, providing strong continuity to Buddhism in Tibet.  Dusum Khyenpa also established the 900-year old Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism that is headed today by the seventeenth reincarnation in the Karmapa line, His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje.

Regarding this occasion, H.H. the 17th Karmapa said,

“What we are remembering and reflecting on with Karmapa 900 is the great kindness of Dusum Khyenpa. Not only did he show measureless kindness to beings: through his deeds in founding the Karmapa lineage and the great lineage of the Karma Kagyu, Dusum Khyenpa was the source of 900 years of kindness to beings.

Countless great masters have come and engaged in enlightened activities over the past nine centuries through this lineage. That was all possible only because Dusum Khyenpa came into the world. He was the actual seed for the vast tree of the Karma Kagyu, with its wide shade-giving branches and its blossoms and rich fruits.

“It is my personal duty and the duty of all followers of the Karma Kagyu to honour his deeds and his great compassion, courage and wisdom, by cultivating those same qualities ourselves. Karmapa 900 is designed to serve as a reminder, and as an opportunity to do so.”

May all sentient beings benefit from the celebration of this most auspicious occasion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Sikkim govt bans killing of animals during Dalai Lama's visit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Gangtok Saturday, Dec 11, 2010 (PTI)
 
The Dalai Lama

The Sikkim government has banned the killing of animals, fowl and fish during the visit of Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, between December 15 to 17.

Special permits will be issued to individuals or government organisations intending to import meat, except poultry from outside the state for marriage and social ceremonies, according to a circular issued by the animal husbandry, livestock fisheries, veterinary services department.

Special permits will also be issued for feeding carnivores at the Himalayan Zoological Park at Bulbulay.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
6. 'Dalai Lama will remain religious, temporal head'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Dharamsala, Dec 10, 2010 (IANS) Expressing full faith in his leadership, the Tibetan government-in-exile based here Friday again reiterated that the Dalai Lama would remain the Tibetans' religious and temporal head.

'The Kashag (cabinet) would like to offer the wholehearted prayers of Tibetans, beseeching His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) to remain as ever the religious and temporal leader of Tibet,' a statement said here on the 21st anniversary of conferment of the Nobel Peace Prize on the Dalai Lama.

'From the depth of our hearts, we request you never to consider or even talk about semi-retirement and full retirement,' it said.

The statement came a few days after the Nobel laureate indicated he would quit public life and hand over most of his political powers to the prime minister-in-exile.

Supporting his non-violence approach towards the cause of Tibet, the Kashag said: 'The Dalai Lama has guided the Tibetan struggle for justice onto the path of non-violence, making it different from other national struggles in the world. He has also shown that all global conflicts can be solved through a non-violent approach.'

The Dalai Lama, 75, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 in recognition of his struggle for the liberation of Tibet through peaceful solutions.

The Buddhist leader fled to India in 1959 as China crushed an uprising in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, also a recipient of the US Congressional Gold Medal, is viewed by Beijing as a leader of Tibetan separatists.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Tibetans observe Nobel day
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Himalayan Times
2010-12-10

KATHMANDU: Tibetan exiles today observed the 21st anniversary of conferment of Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama as the world celebrated the 62nd World Human Rights Day.

Though the government directed the police not to allow them to indulge in anti-China activities, around 400 Tibetans thronged the Bouddhanath Stupa and performed a special prayer service remembering the Dalai Lama-led peaceful movement for the freedom of the people of Tibet.

Security was stepped up elsewhere in the Capital city ‘to prevent the Tibetans from staging protest against China rule’. Riot police in sizeable number were deployed around the Chinese Embassy, Chinese Consulate, Swoyambhunath and Bouddhanath areas.

DSP Pradhyumna Kumar Karki informed the Tibetans observed the day amid a low-key prayer service at Bouddhanath Stupa. “The celebration was peaceful and no clashes were reported,” said Karki.

The Nobel Peace Prize was conferred on the Dalai Lama on December 10, 1990, for his ‘outstanding contribution to world peace’.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Peace prevails as Tibetans mark Dalai's Nobel anniversary
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Himalayan Times, 2010-12-10
SABIN CHANDRA ACHARYA

A sizable number of riot police were deployed in the adjoining areas of the Chinese Embassy, Chinese Consulate, Swoyambhunath and Bouddhanath areas.
KATHMANDU: Tibetans exiles today observed the 21st anniversary of conferment of Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama as the entire world was celebrating the 62nd World Human Rights Day.

Though the government directed the police not to allow them to indulge in anti-China activities, around four hundred Tibetans thronged the Bouddhanath Stupa and performed a special prayer service remembering the Dalai Lama-led peaceful movement for the freedom of the people of Tibet.

Security was stepped up elsewhere in the Capital city 'to prevent the Tibetans from staging protest against China rule'. A sizable number of riot police were deployed in the adjoining areas of the Chinese Embassy, Chinese Consulate, Swoyambhunath and Bouddhanath areas. DSP Pradhyumna Kumar Karki, Kathmandu Operation in-charge informed that the Tibetans observed the day amid a low-key prayer service in Bouddhanath Stupa.

"The celebration was peaceful and no clashes were reported," he explained. "They did not dare to take to the street and chant anti-China slogans".

The prestigious Nobel Peace Prize was conferred on the Dalai Lama on December 10, 1990, for outstanding contribution to world peace and for supporting the cause of non-violence for the freedom of the people of Tibet.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
9. China's strategic highway to Indian border set for completion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PTI, Dec 11, 2010

BEIJING: China has inched closer to completing the construction of a strategic highway in a remote Tibetan county close to its border with India, which is likely to boost its capability to move troops and logistics quickly to the borders.

Motuo, the remote Tibetan county from where Brahmaputra river enters India, would soon have a highway connecting it with the rest of the Tibetan plateau and Chinese mainland.

The harsh natural conditions meant building a highway connecting Motuo to outside world was once considered a dream. However, with the last tunnel due to be completed for the Motuo highway, the dream will come true, China's state-run CCTV reported today.

Construction of the highway, which began in April 2009 and expected to be completed next year, has its own strategic significance as the county was virtually the last post on the China-India border.

Located on the southern slope of the Himalayas, Motuo would now have a 117-km long highway connecting it with the nearby Bomi county.

During the past few years, China has embarked on a massive effort to strengthen its rail, road and air infrastructure in the remote Tibetan plateau connecting its mainland.

While it has vastly improved the infrastructure facilities in the Himalayan region, it has caused concern in India as it provided the strategic capability to Chinese troops to move quickly to the borders.

It has prompted India to beef up infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as part of Southern Tibet.

Amid the long-standing boundary dispute, India and China have held a series of border talks to resolve the differences on demarcation of some of the areas of the 4,000 km-long boundary between the two countries.

Recently, India also conveyed concerns to China over Beijing's plans to build a dam over Brahmaputra.

China in its response assured New Delhi that it planned to build a run of the rive project to generate electricity and not a dam to block the water.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Training for Tibetan tour operators   
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Dec 10, 2010 A 10-day travel and tour management training for Tibetan tour operators and officials of Tibet Tourism Administration concluded here Friday.

The training was designed to include both workshop-style and session on communication, marketing, team building and customer services.

President of Nepal Association of Tour Operators (NATO), Ashok Pokharel, gave away the certificates to the participants.

Speaking on the occasion, he urged the participants to implement the skills learnt in the training in practice. Drolma of Tibet China International Travel Service and Rupesh K Shrestha, CEO of Fifth Dimension addressed the concluding ceremony.

The program was supported by United Nations Development Program, China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchanges and Tibet Tourism Administration.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Is China Seeking to Achieve Too Much Too Soon?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
By. Rajeev Sharma
Diplomatic Courier
Friday, 10 December 2010

The year 2010 will go down in history as a year in which the world witnessed with awe the menacing assertiveness of China in diplomatic, military, transnational infrastructure network and trade arenas. The chill in China’s bilateral relations with the United States, Japan, and India reached an uncomfortable level in 2010 and each of these three countries started with long-term measures spanning vast and diverse fields with the sole aim of containing China.
 
Major world powers are bracing to deal with China’s assertive diplomacy (such as the Senkaku Islands spat between China and Japan); aggressive trade policies (such as China’s refusal to appreciate its deliberately undervalued currency and its unofficial ban on export of rare earth metals to Japan and the West); and frenetic investments in military infrastructure and space militarization. China’s rise and its global implications is indisputably the biggest news story of 2010.
 
The unseemly haste shown by China in becoming a superpower has triggered off an international scramble and Asia has become a chess board of diplomatic moves, counter-moves and strategic maneuvers. India, largely perceived as an effective counter to China, is center stage for the international community in this great power game. Japan is another Asian giant that is being looked upon by the West to contain China. Japan is in a tailspin and it is a matter of when, not if, the Japanese will abandon their 65-year-old policy of non-militarization.
 
Other Asian powers—especially Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan—too are apprehensive of China’s intentions. Russia also has reasons to be wary of China, considering the deep forays that China has already made and is still making into Central Asia that Moscow treats as its exclusive area of influence.
 
China is seeking to achieve too much too soon, riding roughshod over the diplomatic and strategic concerns of everyone, whether near abroad or far abroad. As China is an Asian country, Asia is bearing the brunt of the Chinese power games. Asia is in a tailspin. The Asian strategic matrix is changing rapidly. All because the unprecedented aggressive strategic posturing by China in Asia points to one thing: China has finally buried Deng Xiaoping’s philosophy of “hide your capabilities and bide your time”.
 
If China has stirred up the hornet’s nest by its recent words and deeds and propelled virtually the rest of the world to consider how to deal with China, it is the present Chinese leadership led by President Hu Jintao that is to be blamed.
 
In this context, one needs to see the comparatively recent Chinese over aggressive diplomacy when it comes to world leaders meeting the Dalai Lama. In 2008, China did away with its annual talks with the European Union for the first time in 11 years to retaliate against French President Nicolas Sarkozy meeting with the Dalai Lama.  This is documented in a recent study by authors from the University of Goettingen in Germany and published by the Social Science Research Network. The authors’ survey covered exports to China from 159 countries between 1991 and 2008. “Our empirical results support the idea that countries officially receiving the Dalai Lama at the highest political level are punished through a reduction of their exports to China,” said the authors using data from the United Nations and World Bank. They found that ‘official’ meetings between the Dalai Lama and the leadership of a country resulted in a cut in exports to China from that country of an average of 8.1 percent. This effect lasts about two years. The most interesting aspect of the findings is that that they have only held true since 2002, when Hu Jintao took office as president.
 
Strangely, the state-owned Chinese media has taken note of the Chinese predicament of “befriending the distant while alienating neighbors”. In a rare and unusual criticism of Chinese foreign policy, Chinese Communist Party-controlled People’s Daily Online carried a commentary on November 12, 2010, noting that while China’s relations with far-away powers in Europe were improving, its relations with immediate neighbors were “not cordial”. The opinion piece “China befriending the distant while alienating neighbors?” by Li Hongmei quotes an old Chinese proverb in this context: “a distant water supply is no good in putting out a nearby fire”.

A day before Li’s article, the Global Times published an editorial titled: “China needs to mitigate external friction.” It said: “Before China reaches a certain level of industrialization, it has to spare some efforts to deal with various disputes and conspiracies. In its neighborhood, China needs to make sure regional disputes over material benefits do not escalate into ideological confrontations.”

It is not just the case of China alarming its neighbors; its own citizens are getting alarmed by an increasingly assertive China. David Zweig, director of the Center on Environment, Energy and Resource Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said many Chinese analysts are perplexed by the way China’s government and military are engaging with the world.

Zweig says: ‘These academics are deeply concerned. Even usually nationalistic, pro-government friends are hesitant to defend current policy. Is China feeling its oats? Or is it bravado that masks feelings of insecurity? In any case, the message is that for the first time in decades, Chinese foreign policy researchers see most of China's external problems emanating from its own behavior, rather than foreign efforts to contain China’s rise.” One academic told Zweig he could not figure out why, when China had secured the release by Japan of a detained fishing vessel captain in September, it continued to demand an apology.

China is being looked at as a regional bully not just by neighbors but also by its own citizens who dare not speak out. What has muddied the waters further is the role of China’s People’s Liberation Army. The PLA is increasingly being seen by Chinese observers as an entity that is pushing its own agenda. Sample the following quote from Zweig: “Chinese observers’ views of the military are also critical, and in some cases almost hostile. They all agree that the PLA has begun to act as an interest group, pushing its own agenda by having its officers appear on television, in military uniform, speaking out on foreign policy...This is a new phenomenon and one that makes civilians anxious.”
_________________________________________________________

Send articles to:         wtn-e...@tibet.ca
Subscriptions to:         list...@lists.mcgill.ca (SUB WTNN-L [yourname])
Cancellations to:         list...@lists.mcgill.ca (SIGNOFF WTNN-L)
WTN Archived at:          http://www.tibet.ca
_________________________________________________________




------ Einde van doorgestuurd bericht