Читать книгу An Introduction to Intercultural Communication - Fred E. Jandt - Страница 132

Chinese control over Tibet dates as far back as the 13th century. In the 1940s and 1950s, British and U.S. agents were seen to have been encouraging independence. Chinese troops occupied Tibet in 1950, waging war on the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhism. In 1959, the Dalai Lama unsuccessfully tried to oust Chinese forces and was forced into exile, creating an exile community of some 145,000 around the world. The Dalai Lama has proposed autonomy—not independence—for Tibet, allowing China to retain control over defense and foreign affairs. The major concern has been the elimination of the Tibetan culture, language, and faith as more Chinese move into the region. Tibetan exiles claim that more Chinese live in Tibet than Tibetans. Many young Tibetans now speak a pidgin of Chinese and Tibetan. No Western country challenges China’s sovereignty, but the United States and others have protested the treatment of the people and culture of Tibet. China has responded that the Nobel Prize–winning Dalai Lama is trying to achieve political objectives of independence under the guise of religion. The Dalai Lama has since relinquished his political duties, and Lobsang Sangay was elected prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Chinese officials declared the election illegal.

The Potala Palace, the winter palace of the Dalai Lama since the 7th century until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It symbolizes Tibetan Buddhism.

iStockphoto.com/hxdyl

Since 2011, a reported 140 Tibetans, many of them teenagers, have chosen self-immolation as a means of expressing their anger and desperation to China’s repression. Among Tibetan Buddhists, self-immolation is most extreme as it is believed that suicide destroys not only the body but also the chance of being reincarnated as a human being (Demick, 2012). In a White House statement issued after his meeting with the Dalai Lama in February 2014, President Barack Obama expressed his support for Tibet’s “unique religious, cultural, and linguistic traditions, and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China.”

When President Obama met with the Dalai Lama, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that was an interference with China’s internal affairs. As recently as 2012, then Chinese vice president Xi Jinping (now president) voiced the demand that the United States view Taiwan and Tibet as parts of China.