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| Content | | | | Tibet: Clash of Symbols | China serves as a projection screen for everything the West does not like. As China is still unfamiliar for many people it is especially easy to cultivate prejudices.
One recent example were the Olympic Games which started on August 8, 2008 in Beijing, China. Long before the Games actually began, quite a number of celebrities and politicians demanded quite a number of things of China: freedom for Tibet, respect for human rights, freedom for the press, no more support for the regime in Sudan, a solution for the Darfur crisis etc. Critics of China found even more legitimate reason for their demands when in March 2008 riots took place in Tibet and its neighbouring provinces.
A reporter of the British magazine “Economist” - a publication that does not tend to be an executive body of the Chinese communist party - was in Tibet when the events took place and according to him the following happened: On March 14 in the afternoon some monchs organized violent riots in Lhasa. About 1,300 shops (mainly owned by Han Chinese) were plastered with stones, looted, demolished, and set on fire. The owners ran away in panic. It took until the evening that the police established barriers in order to allow the fires to be extinguished and to prevent further violence. Up to then the security forces did not much (contrary to 1989 at Tiananmen Square) - something the Han Chinese fearing for their lives in Lhasa did not find particularly funny.
On March 15, the security forces started to use tear-gas and fired some warning shots. The official China stated that 105 rioters had been taken in custody; 22 people died in the riots. During the following days, the riots spread to other monasteries in Tibet and in the provinces Sichuan and Qinghai. The Dalai Lama condemned the violent events and threatened to resign. The Chinese government accused the “Dalai Lama clique” to be the driving force behind the riots. Western media reported about the events in Tibet and accused the Chinese police to have brutally put down the riots - sometimes by using faked or old photos or footage. Western politicians urged China to stop the violence (China’s) and to start a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. The Chinese public is appalled how China is depicted by the Western media.
A comparison between the communication efforts of the Tibetans - and here particularly the Tibetans in exile - and the official China partly explains the different perceptions:
The Tibetans in exile very early realized that the Olympic Games would be a perfect opportunity to articulate their concerns and wishes. According to the New York Times, Tibetan organizations began as early as 2001 to contact PR strategists and develop a very professional communication kit for 650 regional groups such as wordings, samples of press releases, plans how to organize protests. Every two months they conducted a media training; four times a year they organized a so-called “action camp” where participant were trained to stage protests, how to deal with the police and how to launch a street-fight in a way that it will be reported by the media. At a conference in 2000, the members of the Tibetans in exile community decided to make the London chapter responsible for coordinating all efforts related to the Olympic Games. However, it took until 2005 that they had raised enough money to pay a full-time campaign organizer for the Olympic Games.
On the other hand, the Chinese government was caught off guard when the riots took place in March and reacted with crisis communication that can only be categorized as „how not to“. First, they expelled the few journalists that were left in Tibet, thus immediately causing suspicion (“what do they have to hide?”). Then the Chinese government simply refused to talk to the Dalai Lama, calling him “wolf” and “liar”. Their reaction was completely on the defense, and they had nothing to compete with the strong (although sometimes faked) pictures of monks beaten up by the police or the always-friendly Dalai Lama. The Tibetans’ pictures won.
A much more competent authority than I, e.g. the old China-hand Georg Blume who is above any suspicion due to his critical reports about China criticized the response of the Western world as wrong and out of proportion. My personal conclusion is rather disillusioning: In the Western world prejudices towards China became stronger; in China people felt misunderstood, which led to an increased patriotism and nationalism including campaigns against Western countries. The situation in Tibet will not change much; however, the chances to find a solution are definitely not better now.
The “Tower of Babel” is still alive.
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