In March 2007, Britain’s Minister for Trade, Mr. Ian McCartney, was pressed, in the House of Commons, on China’s human rights violations, most specifically in regard to the shooting and torture of a group of Tibetans who had attempted to flee the country. McCartney, in response, employed a strange yet certainly now very poignant phrase:

We welcome the fact that access will be opened up during the Olympic games and hope that that will be a Pandora’s box

Though McCartney seems to have been blissfully unaware of the negative connotations (and had promised to press the Chinese in regard to several issues), a Pandora’s box appears to have opened up. The Tibetans have risen up against the oppression of the Chinese government, and, in response, they have sent in troops to quash the uprising. The Tibetans stand no chance militarily and have only courage and right on their side. But, as history has shown, that is often enough, especially when a chorus of dissent begins to be heard around the globe.
 
Nevertheless, British government’s reaction to China’s ongoing human rights abuses has not been very robust. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has discussed trade with China, but has apparently not broached any more sensitive issue, and he has shied away from meeting the Dali Lama on his planned visit to Britain this month, just in case it should upset the Chinese.

If the Prime Minister is hardly a modern Churchill, it will be worth noting that at least some others in Parliament, and elsewhere in Britain, have retained an interest in Tibet, and have voiced serious concerns over China’s treatment of its indigenous people. On March 9, member of the Foreign Affairs Committee Fabian Hamilton, spoke at Westminster Cathedral Hall in support of the Tibetans, saying that the (government orchestrated) influx of Chinese immigrants into Tibet was turning them into a minority in their own land. Again, on March 11, in an early day motion, the House of Commons called:

on the Chinese government to recognize the rights of Tibetans and in the spirit of the Olympic Games adopt a tolerant and respectful stance towards the beliefs and rights of Tibetans.

In January Prince Charles, a friend of the Dalai Lama and longtime supporter of the Free Tibet Campaign, refused China’s invitation to attend the Olympics’ opening ceremony, apparently because he did not wish to allow the government any credibility in the face of its human rights abuses in Tibet. And, he had already accepted an invitation to meet the Dalai Lama.

A few days ago Annie Holmes, Director of the Free Tibet Campaign, sent a fax to Gordon Brown, in which she remarked that the Chinese government has been “emptying Tibet’s capital city of all foreigners, with a clear wish that there be no witnesses to its actions”. The fax goes on to say:

For too long the UK government has hidden behind China’s bad faith negotiations with the Tibetan government-in exile. This has always represented a betrayal of the Tibetan people.

Prime Minister, we are appealing to you to take a strong stand, as you did last year on Burma.

The UK must demand that the Chinese government allow UN observers and the western media into Lhasa before midnight tomorrow. We must also demand that a UK embassy representative be allowed into Tibet to monitor the situation on behalf of the British people.  

If this call is not made publicly today, Britain (and every other country which fails to make this demand on China) must be considered complicit in any blood that is shed in Tibet tomorrow.

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