2008 Woodie Awards
Left Eye
Dear France: What Are You Thinking
Beth Prosnitz
Issue date: 3/3/05 Section: Opinion
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Dear France,
I commend your opposition to President Bush about his aggressive, colonial approach to Iraq. Your criticism about questionable claims of weapons of mass destruction, Bush's economic and personal motivations, as well as the effects of the war on the international community were well founded. But you are not innocent of engaging in questionable activity abroad either. Your push to lift the arms embargo with China is rooted in selfish economic concerns and you ignore the malicious endeavors of the Chinese government.
In October of 2004, your president, Jacques Chirac, proposed the dissemination of the embargo. "Let me remind you," he stated, "that North Korea is not under any embargo from the European Union. This just shows how much the current situation against China has no justification or foundation."
A clear foundation for the embargo does exist, Mr. Chirac. For over half a century, the Chinese government has perpetrated serious abuses against its own communities as well as neighboring societies. In 1950, the People's Liberation Army of China invaded and occupied Tibet, and consequently decimated Tibetan Buddhist culture. Monasteries were destroyed and images of the Dalai were, and continue to be, prohibited in public spaces.
In 1995, after the death of the Panchen Lama, the Chinese government detained the next Lama chosen by a delegation of Buddhist monks and instituted their own. Others who have opposed the Chinese government's policies in Tibet have been arrested or killed.
Conversations about China's usurpation of power are not limited to Tibet. Taiwan has had tense moments with China as well. Issues of Taiwan's sovereignty have been in contention for several years. These issues, combined with both China and Taiwan's initiation of ballistic missile tests in the Taiwan Straights, have caused an enormous rift between the respective governments.
These tensions with Taiwan validated the implementation of the embargo, which was established after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In 1989, students protested the policies of the Chinese government. Hundreds of people were killed or arrested because of their involvement with the protests. The embargo was intended to dissuade China from committing further human rights abuses.
I commend your opposition to President Bush about his aggressive, colonial approach to Iraq. Your criticism about questionable claims of weapons of mass destruction, Bush's economic and personal motivations, as well as the effects of the war on the international community were well founded. But you are not innocent of engaging in questionable activity abroad either. Your push to lift the arms embargo with China is rooted in selfish economic concerns and you ignore the malicious endeavors of the Chinese government.
In October of 2004, your president, Jacques Chirac, proposed the dissemination of the embargo. "Let me remind you," he stated, "that North Korea is not under any embargo from the European Union. This just shows how much the current situation against China has no justification or foundation."
A clear foundation for the embargo does exist, Mr. Chirac. For over half a century, the Chinese government has perpetrated serious abuses against its own communities as well as neighboring societies. In 1950, the People's Liberation Army of China invaded and occupied Tibet, and consequently decimated Tibetan Buddhist culture. Monasteries were destroyed and images of the Dalai were, and continue to be, prohibited in public spaces.
In 1995, after the death of the Panchen Lama, the Chinese government detained the next Lama chosen by a delegation of Buddhist monks and instituted their own. Others who have opposed the Chinese government's policies in Tibet have been arrested or killed.
Conversations about China's usurpation of power are not limited to Tibet. Taiwan has had tense moments with China as well. Issues of Taiwan's sovereignty have been in contention for several years. These issues, combined with both China and Taiwan's initiation of ballistic missile tests in the Taiwan Straights, have caused an enormous rift between the respective governments.
These tensions with Taiwan validated the implementation of the embargo, which was established after the Tiananmen Square Massacre. In 1989, students protested the policies of the Chinese government. Hundreds of people were killed or arrested because of their involvement with the protests. The embargo was intended to dissuade China from committing further human rights abuses.