Are Beijing’s concerns about the Dalai Lama’s visits to Washington merely about preserving face, as they say in Asia? Is it reasonable to suspect that the United States today is, or has plans to use the Tibetan Diaspora to destabilize Tibet and/or China? For Russia’s Novosti, columnist Dmitry Kosyrev writes that there is more than wounded pride at the heart of Beijing’s histrionics.
The Dalai Lama’s meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was probably the most interesting part of the Tibetan leader’s visit to Washington, because the State Department develops concrete policy, even in regard to the Dalai Lama.
It would not be a trivial affair if the United States were to actively encourage the Tibetan exiles to work against China. This is why Beijing reacts so nervously to the Dalai Lama’s ceremonial visits to the White House – and why it so carefully monitors the State Department in this direction. Beijing is trying to understand what kind of influence it exerts on Tibetans. Ultimately, the Dalai Lama’s belief that the destinies of Tibet and China are inseparable is known. But he’s 75 years old. What if the Tibetan exile community split into moderate and extremist camps? In fact, such a split has already occurred, but for the time being, Tibetans are trying not to show it.
Are Beijing’s reactions to attempts by U.S. authorities to participate in this process excessive? It depends on whether you look at things in a “broader” context. And in this case, the context is quite broad, stretching back over half a century.
The role of the CIA in the events of 1959 – the year that the Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of his compatriots fled Tibet – isn’t well known. … There is a book published in 2002 called, The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet. It’s a very respectable and informative book written by people who directly participated in these events. There were, as it turns out, Tibetan guerrilla training camps in Colorado and the practice of attacks on Tibet itself, with CIA air support. The Dalai Lama’s escape over the Chinese border was the work of the same people. The book concludes with the CIA laying the groundwork for the Tibet uprising, having assumed complete control of the “resistance movement.”
Later the CIA worked with the Diaspora. It was recently admitted that the Dalai Lama’s administration received annual subsidies from the CIA in the 1960s amounting to $1.7 million. Part of the money funded guerrilla operations against Chinese authorities. There is undoubtedly more information on this out there. So in fact, the U.S. was engaged in a war of subversion. You may recall that it was busy with the same “work” with regard to Cuba. Then it moved on to the Vietnam War. The fact that Beijing remembers the past should come as no surprise. Whether history will repeat itself is another matter.
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