Why So Cosy?

At the moment the Dalai Lama is travelling around the UK on a tour of the country, stopping to give speeches on how the youth today have the power to change their world. Naturally this has angered China, not for the first time this year. In May China got in a huff because David Cameron met with the Dalai Lama in London. China stopped meetings between Chinese Ministers and their UK counterparts and said they would not be restored until the UK "stops supporting anti-Chinese forces”.

For those not in the know here is a quick history lesson. The current Dalai Lama is the 14^th manifestation of the bodhisattva of compassion and the leading figure of Tibetan Buddhism. In 1950 after the end of the Chinese Civil War which saw Mao Zedong declare the “communist” People’s Republic of China, the Chinese army invaded Tibet. The Dalai Lama fled in 1959 and since then has been the face of the Tibetan independence movement.  

For the Chinese government the Dalai Lama is the enemy. He wants Tibet to be freed from its invaders; he has condemned the Chinese regime saying it is in no way Marxist and brought to the attention of the entire world the culture of torture and abuse run by the Chinese government not just in Tibet but in the rest of China. To many around the world the Dalai Lama is a hero, a champion of pacifism and unity in mankind and someone who stands up to oppression. But in recent decades foreign governments have grown wary of him. Talking to the Dalai Lama always annoys China and many governments, including the UK government, have grown rather cosy with  China since its implantation of a more market based economy. They weigh money as more important that what is morally right. Cash comes before human life in their barometer if what is right.

But this is wrong.  How can we happily stand by a regime which has murdered millions, forced women to have abortions, massacred students in the streets when they peacefully protest, destroyed people’s homes when they are still in them, censored the media and the internet and supported regimes around the world that ignore human rights. How can we ever befriend such a country? The western world was happy to condemn the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact friends but because they can make a few bucks in China, they are praised.

I am not advocating a second Cold War, but I am advocating a system of foreign relations where human rights and human life is seen as sacred and of paramount importance, not the will of the markets. For instance at the moment China is blocking any resolution from the UN Security Council that would condemn the Syrian regime as they see the opposition movement as the ones in the wrong; China wants to condemn the massacred not the murderers. And the western response to this, hold a few press conferences where you say “Oh yeah we don’t agree with China and hopefully they will change their mind”. If it was me, or any right minded human being, I would be battering down their door demanding why they are ignoring human rights, I would be holding press conferences where I would be saying that this is typical of a regime that relies on terror and fear to cling on to power.

In the past few decades the UK has grown to close to China. How can we champion democracy and human rights when one of our biggest trading partners is a regime that is estimated to have caused the death of up to 55 million of its citizens? The UK needs to annoy China; it needs to talk to the Dalai Lama. In the 21^st Century we need to stay away from the People’s Republic and talk around the world of how we must support those repressed by the regime and demand that if China wants to enter the world community its needs to reform and start acting like a 21^st century country, where human rights and not optional extras and democracy and active political discussion is encouraged not beaten out of people. We cannot stand by murderous dictators, we must condemn them.