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Notizie Tibet
Sisani Marina - 6 febbraio 1998
China Co-opting Academia for Political Gain (WTN)

World Tibet Network News Sunday, February 08, 1998

By Conrad Richter

TORONTO, Feb 6 -- The sedate world of Tibetan studies has taken a decidedly political turn. In the propaganda war over Tibet, China has stepped into the quiet confines of academia to coax international scholars into making supportive statements about its policies in Tibet.

Reports published in the past six months in the Beijing-controlled media quote Western scholars in an apparent attempt to counter Western criticism of China's handling of Tibet. The reports were sparked by the release last year of U.S. Congressman Frank Wolf's "travel notes" detailing government repression and human rights abuses in Tibet. Wolf released his findings in Washington after a private visit to Tibet.

After Wolf's comments were reported in the West, the Chinese media were quick to interview Western scholars seeking comments that could be used to refute Congressman Wolf. It is now clear that the Chinese media used out-of-context quotes to give the impression that the government has the support of Western Tibetologists.

Western scholars attending a conference in Beijing and a post-conference excursion to Tibet appear to have been targetted by the Chinese media. The Beijing Seminar on Tibetan Studies, hosted by the China National Center for Tibetan Studies and the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences, was the subject of at least four articles, the most recent published in the current issue of China's Tibet.

In at least one case, a Western scholar was unexpectedly thrust under the glare of television lights and pressed to answer questions despite protestations that she had no authority from her employer to speak publicly. In another case a Western scholar is said to have demanded a retraction from Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, of a report in which she is misleadingly quoted out-of-context.

The conference was organized by invitation only. One leading Western Tibetologist was pointedly not invited presumably because of sympathies unfavourable to China. It is rumoured that Doje Cedain (Dorje Tseten), head of the China National Center for Tibetan Studies and former head of the Tibetan Autonomous Region government, was responsible for the snub. The scholar, fearing future professional repercussions, agreed to speak to WTN only under the condition of anonymity.

A China News article distributed on the Internet, "Overseas Tibetologists Refute Wolf's Remarks," directly distorts comments made by Western scholars while on the post-conference excursion to Tibet. The article said a "group of foreign experts on Tibetan studies who are currently on an inspection tour in Tibet have cast doubt on the validity of US Congressman Wolf's recent critical remarks about life in the region." WTN News has learned that scholars quoted in the story were never asked about Wolf's remarks and that they were not in fact aware of Wolf's remarks while in Tibet.

Richard Strassberg, Professor of Chinese at UCLA, was quoted in the China News article saying "that his personal experiences in Tibet contradict Wolf's comment that 'the oppressed Tibetans are living under unimaginably barbarous conditions'". Strassberg told WTN that he could not have made this statement because he "had not seen [Wolf's remarks] and was in China at the time they were made." He did confirm that he had seen signs of economic progress, but what he said was not made "in the context of refuting Wolf's remarks."

The same China News article quoted Susan Meinheit, Tibetan Specialist at the Library of Congress in Washington. Meinheit told WTN that she was asked by a film crew at the Tibetan Traditional Medical College about the value of Tibetan medicine, not about Congressman Wolf's remarks. She said only that "it was important to preserve traditional Tibetan medicine and that it was of great interest to scholars worldwide." "All other references misrepresented my comments and the context of my comments." Meinheit was in Tibet to present a paper on the library's Tibetan collections, and to acquire recent Tibetan publications for the Library of Congress collections. Her visit to Tibet had nothing to do with Wolf's findings.

Also mentioned in the same article was Tibetologist Ellis Gene Smith, who retired from the U.S. National Library of Congress in February 1997. Although China News gave the impression that he and other scholars were refuting Wolf's remarks, Smith told WTN that he was in Beijing and Tibet to buy books only and that he was very careful to avoid saying anything political on what was his first visit to China and Tibet.

The China News article described scholars in "unanimous agreement" that economic conditions are improving in Tibet. Graham Clarke of Oxford University was quoted as saying, "Progress in these respects has been startling since I last came here in 1990." Clarke, who presented a paper at the Beijing Seminar on the environmental degradation of grasslands in northern Tibet, was quoted in China News saying, "As many Chinese say, this has been brought on by Deng Xiaoping's socialist policy with Chinese characteristics."

Clarke refused to discuss his comments with WTN preferring to let his forthcoming paper on his work would speak for him. In a draft of the paper obtained by WTN Clarke describes environmental degradation in northern grasslands which he attributes to socio-economic changes that have accompanied a government-directed shift away from traditional nomadic pastoralism.

Elaine Robinson, a graduate student at London University, and a missionary, was described as a "Tibetan religious expert" in the China News and Xinhua articles. She reportedly said that the loss of religious freedom in Tibet is "definitely out of the question." WTN was unable to reach her for comment.

The only Western scholar quoted in the China News article to be unreservedly and unequivocally critical of Congressman Wolf is Colin Mackerras of Griffith University in Australia. According to Alex Butler, President of the Australia Tibet Council, Mackerras is the person the Australian media turn to "put the Chinese case on Tibet."

In the China News article, Mackerras says, "Even though what I've learned is only a fraction of the entire scope of Tibetan studies, I dare say that I know more about the place than most westerners, like Wolf."

Mackerras, who has been to Tibet three times, said, "What I saw in Tibet is entirely different from Wolf's description." Taking issue with Wolf's claim that the Dalai Lama has wide support of Tibetans, Mackerras said that while some did support him, they were a "small minority." He was also quoted as saying he believes none of the Tibetan people want independence.

In an interview with WTN, Mackerras reiterated his positive views of Tibet, adding that he has seen "thousands of Tibetans in Tibetan costume enjoying religious festivals at Sera Monastery and Jokhang" and that it is "nonsense that Tibetan culture and religion are being destroyed by the Chinese." He said that Tibetan is the instructional language in primary and secondary schools but "of course there are not many secondary schools in Tibet."

When asked by WTN to account for Congressman Wolf's remarks, Mackerras suggested that "there has been a political change in the U.S., to discredit the Chinese," though he added he could not be sure. "This is nothing to do with the protection of Tibetan culture." "No doubt modernization is destroying some aspects of Tibetan culture; that is unavoidable; but people confuse this with deliberate destruction of Tibetan culture. Modernization leads to that perception, but it is not the same thing." In contrast, he says, there is "ample evidence" that culture is flourishing in Tibet.

In a letter to the Times Higher Education Supplement where a Xinhua-based report on the Beijing Seminar appeared previously quoting Mackerras ("Tibetan culture 'live and kicking', Oct 24, 1997), Geoffrey Samuel, Professor of Religious Studies of Lancaster University in the U.K. (now at the University of Newcastle in Australia), wrote that Mackerras "is not a 'professor of Tibetology'", rather "his primary expertise is in Uighur history and Chinese performing arts." According to Samuel, Mackerras is a "long-standing apologist for Chinese rule over Tibet." He added, "There are few if any Western Tibetologists who would take as positive a view of developments in Chinese-ruled Tibet."

International Tibetology has been an official target of the government's propaganda strategy since at least the early 1990s. At the 1993 Beijing Propaganda Conference on Tibet, attended by top government strategists, scholars were singled out as the instrument of one of the government's three main "offensives" of a plan to "infiltrate our propaganda into the mainstream life of the West." A plan to send Tibetan scholars to the West to lecture was prominently promoted at the conference.

In a story on last year's Beijing Seminar on Tibetan Studies in the current issue of China's Tibet, participants from Chinese-controlled institutions such as Tibet University and the Tibet People's Publishing House repeat official government line on Tibet. Balsang Norbu, "special professor" of Tibet University said that Tibetans "enjoy more human rights today than before." That was followed by 86-year-old Professor Li Youyi, whose affiliation was not given, saying "I saw Tibetan troops beat young serfs," and by Wang Gui (no affiliation given) saying monks "were forced into monasteries" in old Tibet.

Western Tibetologists say that the lure of direct access to China and Tibet is influencing the scope and direction of academic research. One Western scholar was denied entry into Tibet in 1992 after publishing research articles that portrayed the effects of the government's management of Tibet in a negative light. He has since been "rehabilitated" and allowed back to Tibet. In a conversation with WTN, and in a recent paper, the scholar was circumspect about laying blame on the Chinese government, choosing instead to focus on the effects of "market forces."

 
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