I don’t think I have Western spectacles though. I’m a bit of a global vagrant and far more critical of other countries than China. Lots of myopia here though. Where are you?

For example, the policy of reducing Tibetan nomadic grazing on the grasslands is also mirrored in Inner Mongolia, Xingjiang and other parts of China where the nomadic lifestyle remains prevalent. The intention is to reduce soil erosion, desertification and the resulting dust storms and lost of arable land caused by overgrazing due to the increased demand for meat because of increased affluence. Of course the contrary perception of the policy’s intention being to increased urbanisation and better social control may as equally be valid as that it is a drive towards development and environmental protection.

The issue of forced sterilisation, however abhorrent, is also not limited to Tibet alone. Whilst China’s minorities are exempt from the one child policy that is imposed on city dwelling Han Chinese, unless of course they can pay the fines, there remains a cap on how many children each minority family can have based on individual families’ circumstances. In most cases, where a minority family have more than two children a ban is imposed, but in the Tibetan situation the policy fails to account for the still common practice of brothers in one family sharing a wife/wives and the perceived affluence of the Han Chinese and their supposed ability to pay the fines and private tuition.

On the issue of religious beliefs, our own experiences in the West, being predominantly based on the struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism and is only now struggling with Islam within our own society, often pale in comparison to China’s complex experience of religion. As well as the home grown belief system of Taoism, Confucianism, ancestral worship and a heavenly hierarchy, the Han Chinese preferred ascetic tradition of Zen Buddhism were historically often in conflict with Tibetan Lamaism and the perceived corruption born out of the indulgences of a Tibetan theocracy. It also didn’t help that because of a shared nomadic tradition, Tibetan Lamaism was also the adopted state religion of the Mongol Yuan and Manchurian Qing minority dynasty, which stood in stark contrast to the agrarian origins of the majority Han Chinese. And whilst Islam was never perceived as an ‘invader’ religion, Christianity was associated with Western imperialism and colonialism.

Further considering the many cult-like revolutions that have toppled dynasties, it is not surprising that today’s CCP, like past dynastic governments, are wary of religion, while the majority of Han Chinese’ attitude towards Buddhism and religion down the ages is perhaps best described as ambivalent pragmatism. But the irony is that many of us in the West, disillusioned with the Churches are increasingly turning to Buddhism as a solace against modernity.

Consequently, the restriction on the number of Buddhist monks and nuns in Tibet also applies to other Buddhist temples in other parts of China. It is as much about pragmatic prevention of challenges to authority as it is about how many ideologically perceived ‘non-productive’ members a society can support in its unrelenting quest for development and modernity.

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/dispatches/undercover+in+tibet/1824047

Which one respected British newspaper TV critic has described as :

” This timely report on the grim realities of life in Tibet under Chinese rule was filmed undercover by Tibetan exile Tash Despa and
director Jezza Neumann ( China’s Stolen Children ). It leaves no doubt that cultural genocide is being enacted by a brutally oppressive regime. A very different picture from that painted in BBC4’s A Year in Tibet “

“What a load of waffle” accurately describes your own clueless remarks. Western intellectual tradition permeates the periphery of all thinking, not least of all economic thought: the tension between the kinder, gentler welfarism of Hu Jintao’s inchoate ‘Scientific Development Concept’ vs the unbridled ‘growth at all cost’ capitalism of the Deng era is the same debate that plays itself out in the West on different terms but in very similar contexts. The very concepts of Marxism, “leftist”, and “rightist” are Western in origin. And China, the last time I checked, is nominally socialist; another Western concept.

You seem to resent China’s capitalistic success. And for that I pity you. Ideological dragons like you would have been first in the line of reactionaries opposing Deng’s reforms in 1978. Far from being “disastrous” those reforms have dragged millions of Chinese out of poverty. Still, the sanctimonious Westerner in you would prefer that a third world country starves while you indulge your ideological scruples. No thanks.

Another point about Western intellectual tradition: you suggest that it is necessary, but you seem to have slept through history. The Japanese are not consciously Western in outlook, but have done well enough. Likewise the South Koreans. And Taiwan. And Singapore, which trumpets ‘Asian values’. Are all these countries ‘disastrous’ in your view?

Your remarks are as superficial, shallow, and gormless as they come.

You forget that India fought Pakistan in 1999 (the Kargil war). China has never taken military action against Taiwan and with the election of the KMT it seems even less likely.

Interesting country though. Feels like living in an experiment. I’d much prefer Beijing to handle global warming than D.C.