Oh, grow up!

More free advice for the Chinese leadership

We haven't had any for a while. But then, you-know-who hasn't been in the news for a while.

The latest outpouring of (government-inspired) anti-French sentiment here is just so depressing.

Even Yang Rui, a TV talk show presenter who is usually a toadying mouthpiece for the government, seemed to be expressing an uncommonly sceptical viewpoint about the wisdom of the Chinese response to Nicolas Sarkozy's recent meeting with the DL (although he may just have been setting up the objections so that they could be easily batted down by his guests).

He did, however, begin his programme by claiming that "the Chinese people are outraged" by this meeting. Oh, bollocks! The majority of the Chinese people are completely unaware that this has happened. Many of those who know really don't give a rat's arse. For the most part, it is only the crazy nationalist youth - the fen qing - who are outraged; and they live in a state of almost permanent outrage about everything anyway, just waiting for the government propaganda-mongers to prompt them towards a new target.

1) China has no right to dictate to foreign heads of state who they should or should not meet with.

2) China has no right to take offence over such trivialities, or to use the possibility of taking such offence as a stick to beat other nations with in its diplomacy.

3) The DL is a spiritual leader as well as a political one. He is a spiritual leader not just for the Gelugpa sect or for the Tibetan people, but for all Buddhists everywhere; indeed, he is viewed as a spiritual leader - or an inspiring role-model (and, yes, oops, as an icon of non-violent resistance) - by adherents of many other religions; and also by adherents of no religion, such as myself. There is therefore no necessity to represent his meetings with the likes of Sarkozy as having a political dimension.

4) Even if this was an essentially political - rather than personal or spiritual - discussion, it is of absolutely no significance at all: it does nothing, NOTHING to advance the cause of Tibetan independence in practical or even in PR terms. (Get this into your heads, Communist Party numbskulls: the DL does not advocate Tibetan independence; even if he were secretly striving towards that goal [as you so fatuously maintain], he has no way of achieving it; even if there were some hope of his achieving it, his meeting with Sarkozy has no impact on that process. You are getting your knickers in a knot over NOTHING.)

5) Cancelling the EU-China Summit because of this is puerile and self-harming. GROW UP!

The Chinese leadership really needs to acknowledge that there is a 'Tibet issue'. In fact, there is a whole raft of interrelated issues.

There is an issue about how best China can govern Tibet for its own advantage (maintaining a full-on military occupation just isn't a viable option in the long-term - cf. Iraq).

There is an issue about how to improve the living conditions and the contentment of the Tibetan people (if they're really so f***ing proud and happy to be 'Chinese', why do we need dozens of squads of sub-machine-gun-toting soldiers patrolling the streets of Lhasa and Shigatse?).

There is an issue about how China could improve its public image around the world in this regard (persisting in ludicrous attempts to demonize the DL is not the way to go).

As I've said before, I think engaging with the DL could go a long way towards addressing all of these issues. I think it's probably the only way to break through the current impasse.

Even if the leadership here can't get their heads around that, they could at least stop hamstringing their foreign policy by making such a ridiculously big deal about everything the DL does and everyone he meets (Really, nobody cares: who the DL meets with is a matter of no significance whatsoever unless you choose to make it so.). Honestly, chaps, chucking your toys out of the pram like this just makes you look STUPID.