Dalai Lama and CCP Clash Over Reincarnation Stipulations

In traditional Tibetan society, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. The current Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, for fear of his personal safety after a Tibetan uprising against Han Chinese. In India, he set up a government-in-exile, which has been in operation for 50 years. Since the Dalai Lama’s escape, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has advanced restrictions upon Tibetans’ basic rights, in all aspects of life.

U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama, despite threats from China that the meeting "would further hurt already strained bilateral relations." The President, who "snubbed" a visit with the Dalai Lama back in late 2009, will meet with His Holiness, although a date still has not been set.

While China regards the Dalai Lama as a "dangerous separatist," the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is known around the world as a "respected religious and cultural leader." The Dalai Lama wants Tibetans to be able to "freely practice their culture, language and religion under China's rule" - conditions that do not currently exist.

To aid in its control of Tibet and the repression of Tibetan human rights, the Chinese government extended its vast Laogai system into Tibet. According to the International Campaign for Tibet, "the Chinese government severely restricts the rights of Tibetans, including the freedoms of speech, press, association, and religion. Tibetan political prisoners endure harsh prison conditions and torture... Since 1949, hundreds of thousands have died as a direct result of China’s policies."

In October 2009, the Dalai Lama visited the Laogai Museum.  Watch his visit below:

And in this case, "local laws" means the Chinese government's censorship of the Dalai Lama and Rebiya Kadeer.  According to IDG News Service, "Apple appears to have blocked iPhone applications related to the Dalai Lama [and Rebiya Kadeer] in its China App Store."

The article continues "'Given that Apple has cooperated with China before (by not distributing games), it's of course very likely that it's Apple, not the developers, that are preventing certain apps from appearing,' said one China-based app developer, who asked not to be named, in an e-mail."

Scores of companies doing business in China willingly comply with the Chinese Government’s incessent demands to halt the free flow of information into and out of China. Google censors its Chinese search results. Sony installed the infamous Green Dam Software on its computers for sale in China. And Cisco's aid has been paramount in the development of all sorts of censorship and tracking technologies, most notably the Great Fire Wall.

Yahoo! even helped the Chinese government send two Chinese journalist to the Laogai by providing details of their online activity to the government.  “Both journalists were serving ten year sentences in prison for using the web to promote democracy, and both were sentenced after Yahoo! disclosed their other online data to the Chinese government,”  ABC News reported.

Of course, these businesses cooperate with the Chinese government for access to one of the world's largest growing consumer markets (read $$$).  Yet, in doing so, these companies invariably aid in the repression of human rights and the freedoms of Chinese citizens. Sounds like a good reason to enact the Global Online Freedom Act.

For  more on China's censorship, click here.

On Wednesday, the Laogai Museum was honored by a visit from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  We were of course overjoyed, but at the same time disappointed that President Obama did not see fit to meet with the Dalai Lama at this time.  As we saw from the press this morning, the Chinese still kicked off about the fact that the “reviled” Dalai Lama received an award in Congress. 

Obama may have thought that by not meeting with the Dalai Lama before his upcoming trip to Beijing, he would somehow gain favor with the Chinese government on other issues.  In reality, they’ll leverage this decision by pressuring the Obama administration to lower the bar even further when it comes to human rights.  Back in the spring during her trip to Beijing, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said human rights would not be allowed to “interfere” with other strategic issues like climate change or the financial crisis.  But what good is a climate change agreement in a world where the Chinese government routinely imprisons environmental whistleblowers?  And what good is a Chinese-led solution to the global financial crisis without a free press to make sure that the financial sector is transparent?