As the Olympic torch reaches the culmination stage of its world run inVietnam, a special lantern lit from the same flame has been taken to the basecamp of Mount Everest on the Tibetan side of the Himalayan mountains for beingtaken to the top of the Everest. A team of 30 journalists -- 19 Chinese and 11representing foreign media -- was also taken from Beijing to the camp on April28, 2008, to cover the event. A team of Chinese mountaineers has beenacclimatising itself at the base camp before starting the climb. The Chinesehave not announced when the climb will start and when the final climber orclimbers with the lantern will reach the summit, but it is expected to be beforeMay 10, 2008. Previously, the Chinese were planning to make this a high-profileevent. However, in view of the continuing unrest in the Tibetan-inhabited areas,they have now been treating it in low key.
The torch, which has reached Vietnam after being taken to Japan, South Korea andNorth Korea will be taken across China covering all provinces. It is expected toreach Lhasa on June 19, 2008. It will first be taken to the Potala Palace, thehistoric residence of the Dalai Lamas. It will be received by the ChineseCommunist Party nominee as the Panchen Lama. Thereafter, it will be taken acrosssome areas of Tibet. In the expectation that by then the situation in Tibetwould have returned to normal, the Chinese have been mobilising members of theHan Chinese community in Tibet and other provinces of China to assemble at Lhasato give a big welcome to the arrival of the torch in Lhasa and to greet itsreception in the Potala Palace by the Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama. There is apossibility that one or two important leaders of the Chinese government may alsogo to Lhasa to be present on the occasion.
If the situation in Tibet improves by then, the Chinese are likely to remove therestrictions on the visits of foreign journalists and tourists to Tibet so thatthey could see the big welcome being planned for the torch. Worried over thepossibility of fresh demonstrations by Tibetan youth and monks on the occasion,only carefully vetted members of the local Tibetan community will be allowed toparticipate in the function.
There are conflicting signs from Beijing regarding the reported willingness ofthe Chinese for a fresh dialogue with a representative of the Dalai Lama. Whilethe only incomplete indictors on the subject have come from the Hsinhua newsagency, the government-controlled media have kept up their campaign ofdemonisation of the so-called Dalai clique and the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC),which is repeatedly and virulently projected as a terrorist organisation. Whilethe Western countries have welcomed the reported Chinese willingness for a freshdialogue, the Dalai Lama has not reacted enthusiastically He and his advisersseem to suspect that it is a tactical move to deflect international pressure andto lower the temperature in Tibet.
On April 25, 2008, the Hsinhua circulated the following report: "China'scentral government department will meet with Dalai's private representative inthe coming days, Xinhua learned from official sources on Friday. In view of therequests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevantdepartment of the central government will have contact and consultation withDalai's private representative in the coming days," an official said."The policy of the central government towards Dalai has been consistent andthe door of dialogue has remained open," he said. "It is hoped thatthrough contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves tostop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violenceand stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to createconditions for talks." It is interesting to note that the Chinese do notcall His Holiness as the Dalai Lama. They insist on referring to him only asDalai in order to underline that they do not recognise him as the leader of theBuddhist religion in the Tibetan-inhabited areas of China.
Subsequently, the US-funded Radio Free Asia reported as follows: "KalsangGyaltsen, the Dalai Lama’s special envoy in Europe, has acknowledged that hewas contacted by Chinese authorities about the proposed talks but has given nodetails. The exile Tibetan prime minister, Samdhong Rinpoche, suggested the timewasn’t right for renewed discussions. "We feel it will require normalcy inthe situation in Tibet for the formal resumption of talks, and we are committedto take all steps including informal meetings to continue in bringing about thissituation,' he said in a statement. "It is our position that for any meetingto be productive it is imperative for the Chinese leadership to understand thereality and acknowledge the positive role of His Holiness the Dalai Lama ratherthan indulging in a vilification campaign that is even contained in this sameXinhua report," Samdhong Rinpoche said.
Western governments have been under contradictory pressure from their humanrights activists and business houses. While the human rights activists have beenurging that they should keep up the pressure on China on the Tibetan and otherissues, the business houses, which have invested heavily not only in the Chineseeconomy, but even in the Olympic Games itself, have been urging that the DalaiLama should be advised to tone down his campaign against the Chinese and keepthe TYC under control. They are against any action against the Olympics orbefore the Olympics, which might be seen by the Chinese people as an attempt bythe West to humiliate China and its people.
In the debate in Chinese web sites, there have been references to what isdescribed as the asymmetric soft power enjoyed by the West by virtue of itsperceived control of the global media. There is anger over what the Chinesepeople see as the exaggerated focus on the versions of His Holiness and ablack-out of the versions of the Chinese government. There have also beenallegations of mischievous coverage by TV channels such as the BBC and the CNN.It is pointed out that when violence broke out in Lhasa on March 14, 2008, withwidespread attacks on the members of the Han community and their property by theTibetans, the Western TV channels showed visuals of the action being taken bythe Nepalese and the Indian police against Tibetan refugees demonstrating inKathmandu and Dharamsala without specifying that these visuals were from Nepaland India and not Tibet. Such projection tended to create a wrong impression inthe minds of the viewers that these scenes were from Lhasa.
The Chinese have sought to counter the soft power of the Western media throughthe soft power of the patriotic response of the Chinese people and the overseasChinese diaspora. After being on the defensive for some days in the wake of thedetermined anti-Chinese campaign mounted by the Tibetan diaspora inco-ordination with their Western supporters, the Chinese went on a patrioticoffensive by mobilising hundreds of the overseas Chinese in South-East Asia,Australia, Japan and the two Koreas to welcome the Olympic torch and to counterthe demonstrations by Tibetans and their supporters. The overseas Chinesecommunity in Europe also held patriotic demonstrations to condemn the attacks onthe torch in London and Paris.
Similar demonstrations were organised in China itself particularly against theFrench and the French super market chain called Carrefour. There were calls foran economic boycott of the French. This had an immediate impact on the French.President Nicolas Sarkozy of France rushed two special emissaries to Beijing tosoothen Chinese sensitivities. While continuing to call for a resumption of thedialogue between the Chinese and the Dalai Lama, the French have conceded thatthe conditions imposed by the Chinese for this are reasonable.
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B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute for Topical Studies,Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies.
