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    March 29, 1991

    In his latest gesture to the regime in Beijing, President Bush seems to be saying that some invaders of their neighbors are more equal than others.

    For decades ago, China did to Tibet what Saddam Hussein tried to do to Kuwait. More than a million Tibetans have perished as a consequence of China's genocidal occupation of their country.

    To undo Iraq's annexation of Kuwait, Bush forged a coalition of 30 countries and waged the most intensive bombing campaign history has ever known. His response to China's brutal efforts to exterminate the culture, religion and nationhood of Tibet has been a timorous acquiescence to Beijing1s line - that it will not tolerate interference in the internal affairs of China.

    Bush gave the masterminds of the Tiananmen massacre a flagrant proof of his docility when he thwarted an address that the Dalai Lama was to have given to a joint session of Congress on April 16. To preclude an event that would have peeved the heirs of Mao Tse-tung, the administration sponsored an appearance on the same date by Violeta Chamorro, the Nicaraguan president whose election Bush originally celebrated as a victory over the Red menace in Central America.

    Fortunately, as compensation for the joint-session address that the administration sabotaged, the Dalai Lama will be able to speak for his people's survival at a special ceremony in the Capitol rotunda on April 18.

    The legislators who arranged his ceremony are to be commended. However modestly, they are defending the principle that Saddam's theft of Kuwait is no less intolerable than the Soviet occupation of the Baltic nationsr Indonesia's annexation of East Timor, or China's colonization of Tibet. A new world order, if it is to be truly just, can be founded only on this principle.

    Less admirable is the inconstancy of the Democratic leadership in Congress. Having originally supported a joint session for the Dalai Lama, Democrats fearful of defying a popular resident on an issue of foreign policy reneged on their word. Their fear of Bush may be less blatant than his subservience to the rulers in Beijing, but it is shameful nonetheless.

    The imperious attitude of the Chinese regime was on display in nearly identical letters its consulate in New York sent on March 20 to the presidents of Cornell University and Massachusetts institute of Technology. Seeking to prevent appearances by the Dalai Lama this week at those colleges, the deputy consul general wrote:

    The Chinese government resolutely opposes his visits to other countries in whatever capacity and under whatever reason to deliver reports distorting Tibet's history and current situation or advocating Tibetan independence. It also opposes any country that takes advantage of the Tibet issue to interfere in China's internal affairs. The letter concluded with the hope that you would kindly use your influence to handle this matter properly.

    The presidents of Cornell and MIT resisted this attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of their universities. The president of the United States should have been no less resistant to Chinese interference in the affairs of his country. 

    Letters to the Editor

    A symbol of social and cultural backwardness

    May 1st, 1991

    I found myself both amused and appalled on reading the March 29 Globe editorial Another kowtow to Beijing. The writer is either illiterate in history or is purposely distorting the facts by comparing Tibet with Kuwait, East Timor and the Baltic nations. The Dalai Lama used the Chinese central government power vacuum during the Chinese civil war between the Kuomingtang and Communist parties to claim TibetT s independence.

    It is natural that after the establishment of the People's Republic China, the central government should rule all the territories which belonged to China for hundreds of years. A visit to Tibet with an open mind would show that the Chinese government has not exterminated the culture and religion of Tibet. Beijing has only abolished slavery and limited the power of the Dalai Lama, who ruled over a theocratic system similar to those of the Dark Ages. It is ironic that many Westerners, including the Nobel Prize Committee, support this symbol of social and cultural backwardness while simultaneously claiming to be advocates of human rights.

    YUH KANG PAN Newton

    ӰEQQȺ578505007ɵɣwjm_tcy롰Jeff Ao

    ӰEȺ437813363

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