THE SPECTATOR
CHINA'S UKRAINE
We do not often look at 'the roof of the world'. But the recent demonstrations against Chinese occupation in Tibet should cause us to look again. For what has happened to Tibet in the 27 years since the communist Chinese invasion is a very great tragedy. All but a handful of that country's thousands of Buddhist monasteries have been utterly destroyed: their art and statu- ary smashed- or melted down for profit; their priceless manuscripts burned; their monks degraded, herded into forced labour camps or simply murdered. Forced labour, famine, the horrors of the 'Cultural Revolution' and the Chinese equivalent of the Gulag have probably taken the lives of more than one million Tibetans, one in six of the country's pre-invasion population. The world 'holocaust' is commonly re- served for the unique tragedy of the Jews under Hitler; and rightly so. But this is almost another holocaust.
It is true that most of the Chinese people also suffered terribly during the Cultural Revolution. It is true that the authorities in Peking have now admitted that especially grave 'mistakes' (familiar euphemism) were committed in Tibet during that period. But much of the most brutal destruction of Tibet's two-thousand-year heritage actually occured before the Cultu- ral Revolution, in the years immediately after the bloody suppression of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. If Chairman Mao un- leashed the ideological and class terror of the Red Guards on his Own people, in the case of Tibet this was compounded by a third element: racism. The Tibetan experi- ence might be compared to that of the Ukrainians in the 1930s.
It is true that the Chinese authorities have become milder oppressors over the last decade. In particular, the material standard of living seems to have somewhat improved. There has been no famine of late: as, indeed, there need never have been. Yet the region remains 'auton- omous' only in name. It still lies under heavy army and police occupation. Virtual- ly all senior and middle-ranking official posts are held by Chinese, with the excep- tion of a few token Tibetans. If this were Africa, it would be called apartheid. What is more, the Chinese authorities have embarked on a policy of massive popula- tion transfers, apparently designed to swamp the native population with Chinese settlers. If this were Africa, it would be called colonialism. The demonstrations of recent weeks indicate very clearly that many Tibetans are by no means resigned to the lot of third-class citizens in their own country.
Britain, like most Western powers, is faced with a dilemma. On the one hand, every consideration of realpolitik would seem to dictate indifference. The very consideration which once, at the height of the 'Great Game', even impelled us to intervene in Tibet by force, is now an argument for non-intervention. Today, maintaining good relations with the op- pressor of Tibet is the way we try to contain the Russian bear.
Our own latter-day mandarins will argue that we have far bigger fish to fry in our relations with China — containing Russia, trade, and of course the future of Hong Kong — and they have a point. On the other hand, if we believe at all in the prin- ciple of self-determination, in morality, justice, human rights and international law, then Britain must feel an obligation to protest.
Our Government should consider whe- ther there is not some way in which the issue can be raised, either bilaterally or multilaterally. UN resolutions in the past have been as ineffective on this as on most other issues, but they are not without some marginal significance. In the exiled Dalai Lama we have a leader who still holds the allegiance, to say the least, of most Tibe- tans. Given the fact that Peking has embraced the principle of 'one country, two systems' for Hong Kong and Taiwan, one does wonder if some western states- man, sometime, might not venture to suggest that this benign principle could be extended to Tibet.
Almost certainly, governments will do none of these things. But there is one thing we can do, even if they do nothing. This is simply to ensure that the truth is told, and told as widely as possible.
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