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Letters and Blogs
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-04 07:54 Best service that the Dalai could do The Dalai Lama's visit to Taiwan island won't do him or the Taiwan province any good. In fact, I think this visit marks the watershed that ushers in the beginning of the demise of his separatist attempts against China. The Dalai's usefulness as a pawn of the West has run its course and is about to play out. He will soon turn from being useful to inconsequential for the West, if not already so. First, overall, China and the West have been gyrating for mutual accommodation over the past decade. Then came the big bang of the world's financial crisis that changed the landscape for good. The West will emerge from this crisis stronger, and so will China. Both will be more realistic in their increasingly intertwined common interests. As a result, the relationship between China and the West has evolved into mutual stake holding. Which culminated in recent economic and strategic cooperation between China and the US. The working relationship underscores that the West is eager to abandon the old tactics towards China. As a new relationship and new tools are taking hold, old tools like so-called "Taiwan independence" or "Tibet separation" will simply be out of the market soon. Second, for decades the Dalai and Tibetan separatists lived in India. But things are changing now. India may have weathered this global recession, but by Indian Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee's own admission, its central government's deficit will grow. It now borrows 34 out of every 100 rupees it spends. Economically, Sino-Indian ties are growing. China is India's largest trading partner and the trend is not going to reverse despite some interference. Hence, we can expect that India's support to the Dalai will weaken, too. Finally, Tibetans are much better off today than under the theocratic rule of the Dalai. The following are some statistics of Tibet in 1959 and 2008: Population: 1.228 million (1959) - 2.871 million (2008, 95 percent are ethnic Tibetans) GDP: 0.174 billion yuan, or $25.6 million (1959) - 395.9 billion yuan (2008) Per capita GDP: 142 yuan (1959) - 13,861 yuan (2008) Highway: nil (1959) - 44,000 km (2008) Electricity coverage: less than 1 percent (1959) - 73 percent (2008) Telephone and cellphone penetration: nil (1959) - 1.562 million lines (2008) Foodstuff and crop production: 0.1829 million ton (1959) - 0.95 million ton (2008) Health care facilities: 62 (1959) - 1,339 (2008) Life expectancy at birth: 35.5 years (1959) - 67 years (2008) Literacy rate: less than 6 percent (1959) - more than 95 percent (2008, in Tibetan language). The Dalai will do his people a great service by returning to China without any condition. Andrew Chao via e-mail (China Daily 09/04/2009 page8) |
