(Letters to editors can be: Via Workers World News Service

Reprinted from the Nov. 14, 1996

issue of Workers World newspaper

By Gary Wilson

It's being called the New Cold War. And the U.S. Congress launched it during the last year without much fanfare.

Congress created a new "Radio Free Asia" that began broadcasts in Chinese on Sept. 29. The broadcasts are openly patterned on the anti-communist "Radio Free Europe." The RFE was used to organize and foment counter-revolution in the socialist countries of Eastern Europe as well as the Soviet Union.

A report in the China Youth Daily newspaper on Nov. 1 commented, "Although the Cold War has been over for years, the United States and other Western nations rely on the superiority of their communication and information technology to increasingly launch Cold War propaganda.

Their goal of setting up Radio `Free Asia' is to use news media to interfere in the internal affairs of China and other Asian nations, to create chaos, and to destroy the stability of these countries."

What the Chinese news account does not make clear is that the main targets of "Radio Free Asia" are socialist countries. The initial broadcasts are targeted at the Tibetan autonomous region of China.

Over the next year, according to the head of the U.S. government-financed radio conglomerate, broadcasts will also be aimed at north Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia-all countries that have tried to build socialism. Also targeted is Myanmar (Burma), seen as an ally of China by the U.S. State Department.

Countries with repressive regimes such as Indonesia or Thailand are not targets because they are freely open to exploitation by U.S. big business and finance capital. The main purpose of "Radio Free Asia" is to agitate for anti-socialist counter-revolution.

Its first broadcasts into the Tibetan region of China will begin Nov. 18.

Who is the Dalai Lama?

One main message of the broadcasts is expected to be an attempt to generate support for the former "god-king" of Tibet, the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 with an estimated $100 million carried out by his personal slaves and a thousand mules.

He left before the advancing Chinese Peoples Liberation Army, which was welcomed by the poor peasants of the region.

Ever since that time, the Dalai Lama has been agitating for a counter-revolutionary return to power in Tibet. Up until the time his rule was overthrown, the Tibetan autonomous region of China was dominated by a feudal hierarchy run by less than 100 noble families and about 100 monastery abbots.

Their rule had an eerie resemblance to today's reactionary Taliban movement, which has seized the capital of Afghanistan and banned all public activity by women. Feudal punishments and public hangings as well as death by stoning have been instituted there.

The Dalai Lama ruled Tibet through the use of harsh violence, maintaining a system of serfdom and slavery. Outside the clergy, 90 percent of the population were serfs, while 5 percent were outright slaves.

The Dalai Lama lived in the 1,000-room, 14-story Potala Palace. The population lived in miserable poverty.

There were no wheeled vehicles of any kind in all of Tibet. Nor was there even a single hospital.

Punishment for defiance of the "god king" included cutting off a hand or foot, or gouging out eyes. Slaves who tried to escape had their hamstring muscles cut or heels sliced off.

As in Afghanistan where the CIA trained and financed the Taliban, the Dalai Lama has long received secret support from the CIA and other agencies seeking to foment counter-revolution in China.

The issue of Tibet is presented in the West as one of self-determination. However, the imperialists were never interested in self-determination for Tibet when China was under their domination. It is only since the Chinese Revolution broke the grip of the imperialists that they have tried to use this question to pressure the Chinese government, raising the cry "Free Tibet!"

The United States and other imperialist governments formally recognize Tibet as part of China, just as they also recognize Taiwan to be part of China. This doesn't stop them, however, from covertly agitating to carve China up.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)