Current Event #6: Limited Impact of Tibetan Activism

Days before a meeting between Brazil, Russia, India, and China in New Delhi, a Tibetan man set himself on fire near India’s parliament during a protest against Chinese rule in Tibet. He died shortly after, but the main concern Chinese officials had was not the strength of his protest about Tibet but to avoid embarrassment on behalf of President Hu Jintao during his visit to India.  Incidents of this type are not uncommon in Tibetan protests with a similar example in New Delhi in 1998 and more than 30 other cases of self-immolation recently.

China does not seem to worried by Tibetan protests because many Western countries are more focused on securing Chinese help for other international and economic issues than focusing on the internal problems with Tibet.  Avoiding confronting China in favor of cooperation means that Tibetan protests are not given much attention.  China has been forced to be non-committal about other problems as a result of its issues with Tibet for fear that taking a stand in support of intervening in another country like Syria will lead to support for anti-government protests in China.

Tibetan protests have caused the government of China to become more strict and increase security.  All Tibetans involved in the protest or practicing self-immolation are being called terrorists.  Media is portraying the Dalai Lama as fascist who wishes to remove other ethnic groups from Tibet.  It seems that protests will continue despite the fact that their purpose and effectiveness is very limited.

http://www.economist.com/node/21551540

Current Event #5: China's World Pressures: Then and Now

China's economic growth and increasing world influence has changed how they can act in regards to foreign policy.  In the past, China could attempt to stay out of issues and involvement in far away places like Iraq last decade. China's president at the time, Jiang Zemin, said, "The Iraq problem is relatively far away from us. But I think, as I made clear in my discussion with President Bush just now, the important thing is that peace is to be valued most.”  Instead of becoming entangled with random foreign issues, China focused on domestic growth and internal issues. 

Now, given China's dependence on large amounts of oil and the extent to which they have officials in other countries, it is impossible not to get involved.  China is projected to require 266 million tons of oil this year so it must be concerned with oil-producing regions.  China also was forced to evacuate 35,000 officials from Libya last year after things fell apart last year.

With the recent events in Iran and the Middle East, China has been receiving pressure from many countries to adopt a hard policy on Iran.  While countries like America, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are urging China to take a stand with them, with China's energy and commercial needs this could be detrimental to their economy. They are feeling a similar pressure about Syria as it grows more chaotic by the day.  China's importance has become so large that they much speak out regardless of whether the involved countries are in a close proximity or not.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2012/02/china-and-world