I tried to register for the protest on April 19^th, but the places were strictly limited and my application went in too late. I did, however, go to Westminster anyway to be a quiet witness and to show my support. Having been following the BBC’s coverage of China for the past 8 years - including that of the recent turmoil in Tibet and the Olympic torch relay, the BBC’s tireless reiteration of its objectivity and impartiality sounds almost laughable to me. It seems that the BBC (and many other media outlets) is so biased that it can no longer appreciate the reason for which millions of Chinese around the world – many of whom are well educated, and some of whom even spent significant amount of time immersing in the Western environment – find the BBC’s reporting on China to be biased. Before the BBC, and other formerly respected member of the Western media start to come up lame excuse such as successful government propaganda and simple-minded nationalism, let me, an ordinary Chinese citizen, give the magnificent BBC some enlightening hints

1.       Positive reports on China are a rarity on the BBC, and are always accompanies by a lengthy “but”. Negative reports on China, in contrast, occurs little short of weekly, and almost never had to bear the burden of polemics

2.       Negative reports on the Tibetan government-in-exile were never aired on the BBC despite ample evidence of its

a)         Former, if not on-going, brutality (The head of Forteen Settlement Party, Gungthang Tsultsim, was murdered in his own courtyard by an assassin hired by the Tibetan Government in exile on March 13th 1977. Forteen Settlement was a political organisation set up by devotees of the other four sects of Tibetan Buddhism beside the Dalai Lama's Gelugpa sect to oppose the latter's effort to consolidate its administrative power over religious, as well as political, issues)  

b)        Prevalent corruption

c)        Prevailing nepotism

d)        Aggressive agenda (the Tibetan Youth Congress, which constitutes a significant portion of the Tibetan government-in-exile, calls upon followers to sacrifice their lives for the course that they are pursuing. It also provokes hatred among Tibetans against China, Chinese people, and the Chinese government)

3.       The possibility that some actions taken by the Chinese government might be well intentioned is almost never entertained

a)         Blaming the “Dalai Clique” – maybe part of its purpose is to avoid ethnic hatred against the Tibetans in general

b)        Reduced negative coverage of the disturbances during the Torch relay – maybe it is to avoid creating too much hostility against the West (BBC was quick to redicule China’s “ostrich media policy”, minutes after the end of the disastrous London relay when it was already late night in China)

c)        Restricting media access to Tibet – maybe it is designed to cut the fuel for further riot. In case the BBC has not already noticed, maximum media stunt is what the rioters and violent protesters, both inside and outside Tibet, are looking for.

4.       At the same time, the possibility that some actions taken by the Dalai Lama, and his government-in-exile, may not be entirely good-intentioned is also almost never entertained

a)         The Dalai Lama claims that he never intended to derail the Olympics and is not pursuing Tibet-independence, yet his speech on Mar 10^th was filled with inflammatory terms like “gross violation of human rights” and “increased brutality” which are outrageous exaggeration of, if not plain lies about, the real situation in Tibet. Also, if his speech had nothing to do with the Olympics, why bother marking the 49^th anniversary when the 48^th passed rather eventlessly?

b)        The Tibetan government-in-exile has a track record of lying

                         i.              Even to this day, the Dalai Lama calls the 1959 rebellion a peaceful uprising, which, in fact, was an armed rebellion instigated by Tibetan aristocrats, assisted by the CIA, and coordinated by two of his brothers Gyalo Thondup and Thubten Norbu - who, among other things, orgainised the training of Khampa guerilla fighters at U.S. military bases in the Pacific island of Saipan and in Camp Hale, Colorado

                       ii.              Dalai Lama has more than once referred to Chinese government’s policy in Tibet as “Cultural genocide” with no recognition of the fact that since the end of the Cultural Revolution, from which all 56 Chinese ethnic groups suffered, the Chinese government has made enormous investment in the rebuilding and restoration of Tibetan monasteries. Many Chinese workers, who later started business in Tibet, were originally shipped in to compensate for the labour shortage in Tibet, not to marginalize Tibetans nor to destroy Tibetan culture, which is recognized by the government as the main source of income for Tibet

                      iii.              No source, other than the Tibetan government-in-exile, suggest that Tibet (both inner and outer) had a population of 6 million at the time of communist takeover (most sources suggest around 2.5 million). And for its claim of “1.2 million Tibetans died under Chinese suppression” to be true, the Tibetan would have to have worked very hard to create a population of 4.6 million in 1990. Given the oxygen scarce environment in Tibet and people’s devotion to Buddhism, I would be very surprised if that was the case.

5.       As investigative as BBC is, it is surprising – well given that now we know the BBC is not objective, it is not so surprising any more – that little effort was made to understand the cause of the riot. Instead, the BBC conveniently adopted the conventional wisdom: “Chinese suppression”. No mentioning of the following facts was made

a)         Tibetans farmers and herdsmen enjoy the highest medical coverage among all rural residents in China. Their children are eligible for free education with food and accommodation provided. (Tibetan language IS taught in schools)

b)        Many descendants of former serfs and slaves were in fact grateful for the Chinese government. Some of them even hang Mao’s picture in their living room

c)        The riot in Tibet share many commonalities with those occurred in other regions around the world where the promotion of free-market capitalism led to minority dominance of local economy: Bolivia, Indonesia, Russia, South Africa … all have experienced similar events. Yet since it occurred in China, the answer becomes simple.

6.       Every time the BBC describes the Chinese government’s accusation of Dalai Lama’s involvement in instigating the riot, the title, the Dalai Lama, is always followed by a variation of the attributive clause, “Laureate of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize”. In a situation where objectivity is on the brink of being lost – if not already lost - in the forum of public debate, such behavior that subtly honors credibility to one side of the debate can in no way be seen as objective or impartial.

It is true that the media block imposed by the Chinese government made it difficult to carry out independent verification of claims. Much of what I mentioned above, however, is either well documented history or plain common sense. For a member of the general public to not check historical facts and not exercise common sense is somewhat understandable; yet for a reputable media group like the BBC to do the same is nothing but disgraceful. As experienced journalists, reporters as well as editorial staff at the BBC should know better than I do that selective facts can be deceptive facts, and convenient truth non-truth. If not, one should not blame the Chinese government for the media ban.

To be ignorant is one thing. To be informed but behave in an ignorant manor is quite another.