Empire building.
Anne Applebaum had a piece on Slate today about the Tibetan unrest. A journalist/Eastern European scholar, she drew comparisons between China of today and the European empires from the last two centuries. She is optimistic for the Tibetans, however,And if they aren't worried, they should be. After all, the history of the last two centuries is filled with tales of strong, stable empires brought down by their subjects, undermined by their client states, overwhelmed by the national aspirations of small, subordinate countries. Why should the 21st century be any different? Watching the tear gas roll over the streets of Lhasa yesterday on a blurry, cell-phone video, I couldn't help but wonder when—maybe not in this decade, this generation, or even this century—Tibet and its monks will have their revenge.
She makes a familiar argument, correct or not, that often only annoys the Chinese. In their eyes, the comparisons are invalid because things are in fact different. They would laugh at the comparison between China and the imperial Western Europe. Those empires were based on technological advantages while China relies on its shear size, population and land mass (even minus its western region).
The Chinese if nothing but students of history know time is on their side. The French had their Algeria. But Algeria was more than twice of France's size. England and India, please. Notice the Dali Lama was most concerned about "culture genocide" not Ms Applebaum's "political manipulation, secret police repression and military force." Because in truth, the Han Chinese do not need those. Tibetans are already minorities in their own land. The parts of Lhasa that are burning are inconsequential because they are new, use by the Hans, have no real cultural value and can be rebuilt quickly. As long as the monasteries and palaces remain standing for tourists, and yes, some monks inside would be nice, all is well.
It is curious why Ms. Applebaum, who is American, fails to see the similarity between China and the U.S. Many Chinese will happily point out that today's U.S. owns much of its geography to expansion, sometimes by brute force but often less blunt, often by the mean of population migration. This is a sad time for someone like myself who hopes one day to visit Tibet. Let us hope the Lhasa of tomorrow will not be consisted of wide boulevards, ancient monasteries and gleaming casinos.
posted by hedgehog @ 1:42 AM
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