Forums → WEPR → Tibet

I certainly think it's a great thing that Tibetan Freedom has been able to get such worldwide attention and in so many different countries.
The actions of protesters and different countries' responses do indeed speak volumes. I think we could achieve some long term goals if people can continue to demonstrate and put pressure on their respective governments after the Olympic Games.

Hm, again from the Australian perspective, in what was seen as a courageous move, Australia's PM Kevin Rudd quite unequivocally voiced his concerns on the situation to China's PM. The response was that of denial (not refusal, denial), after which there isn't much room for further discussion.

Which leads us to the question of exactly how international pressure should manifest. I saw suggestions of sanctions and censures but what do you think would be the most appropriate way of going about this?

That is a question for someone with expertise in International Diplomacy, which I imagine is a subtle and devious art. In other words, beats me!

The only downside to censures and sanctions is that politicians only suffer as much as their public approval rating drops. Why would that happen? Well, maybe a glut of supplies for export, with nowhere to send them to (because of sanctions), leading to a loss of revenue for all the regular folk. Seems like Cuba is as good an example as any, that sanctions only hurt the locals, and the politicians at which they are aimed are not readily persuaded to change.

So, if any diplomats play Armor games, by all means, share with us your cold, calculated dealings in cases of international scandal!

I think you're right about the ineffectiveness of sanctions. Recently, the U.S. has finally adopted the long-known technique of incentives. That's one of the techniques the U.S. is using to try to ensure that Iran does not go nuclear and is entering into the equation in talks with North Korea.
The basic idea is to reward a country for doing what you want by giving them things that they need (nuclear power, for example). I'm not sure what we could offer China, though. They have a terrible problem with energy, so maybe help develop their coal mines or those new methane plants... I dunno...

If we aided their coal development, we'd get nasty looks from the Kyoto Protocol > But incentives is by far the best solution so far (that has been suggested on these forums, anyway) I say we help them set up ENORMOUS wind power stations all over the land! YAAAAAAAY so clean! I'm partial to wind power, because, much like Scandinavia in general, the north US loves wind power.

Oops, sort of off topic. But yeah, energy is one option.

I've heard the criticism that wind power, in the scope of massive energy problems of the magnitude of China's growing demand, would be a bit tokenist (pissing in the wind, hahaha, so funny). As an auxilliary I'm all for it but as a complete energy alternative I'm not sure it'd be viable.

That said, I'm not sure how effective positive incentives would be here...or any incentives at all before we answer the question of whether China's practice of disclosure has improved over the past few decades.

wave machines (taking power from waves not making em) aswell as wind farms as they dont take up much space and make next to no sound

but yes this is going a bit off topic, i ment the topic to be weather the olypmics should be held wheather we should ignore tibet or whatever

Yeah, my vision of wind power peppering the earth is pretty optimistic, but a guy can dream...

I don't know it's not right what China is doing but I don't think we need to change the 2012 Olympics because of it


(P.S. also China is just a corrupt country)

the olypmics will go on no matter what even if we boycotted it they would still happen. We should just keep on eye on china but boycoytting the olympics that wouldnt do anything.

Notepad, every country is corrupt. Some more than others.
China's not corrupt, they run things pretty well, but its just too many people to handle. There police and government work force isn't high enough to fight off 1 billion. Heck, if there were that many in America I bet you'd definately be seeing some more cops around.

Well, let's take a closer look at that last bit about corruption. What do you mean, Armed, when you say that every country is corrupt, but China is not corrupt?

As far as we can tell, China's human rights record is what is of concern, and furthermore they tend to put up a stonewall of either silence or denial. This is the perceived trend with regards to not just Tibet, but also Taiwan, the Falun Gong movement and religious practice.

It is possible to argue that these have improved (see economic significance of China and its turning to industrialisation and capitalist affluence for positive incentives to clean up one's act), but because of the extensive history of such hidden features as the mass executions and "disappearances", the underground organ harvest trade and other cultural persecutions and the official line "that doesn't happen", it is difficult to tell exactly what is what nowadays.

Note that the above does not have anything to do with the forms of despotic, economic "corruption" per se, moreso a corruption of information transfer, if one could even call it that.

...are there any Chinese nationals on this forum?

great views, but keep em coming!

The Dhali Lama said they should