Nationalism

Anytime I talk about Tibet and the Olympics with the students, I detect a strong Chinese nationalism.  I even get this after they admit that they don't believe everything they read in the newspapers because they know that the government controls it.

So when Tibet and the Olympics come up, I will hear the students parrot the government line.  They will tell me about the Dali Lama being in the control of unscrupulous forces; about how they are for China and how the protestors at the Olympics are terrorists.

None of the students has offered me a different opinion or take on the issue.  None!

When I ask them if there is "free debate" in China, they don't seem to understand the question.

So to convince the Chinese to change their ways, the West will have to take a different tact.  The Chinese have been using western methods in their media blitz against Tibetan Independence.  They will have to be called on it. 

So China liberated Tibet from feudalism like the Americans liberated Iraq from a vile dictator?  (The Chinese always tell me the Iraq war was evil.)

So you can hold protests in foreign countries?  Can the opposition hold protests in yours?

Also, the West has to separate the idea of China and the Chicoms.  We should be always saying the Chicom Olympics and putting the party on the spot.  The Chinese must realize that it really is the government that people around the world object to, not the Chinese people.

The Olympics must not be for the Chicoms but for China.