From China's Point of View

I found an article in Reuters today. It was titled: China says unity at stake over Tibet. In this article Chinese officials were saying the dispute with Tibet derives from "National unity" rather than human rights, or religious/ethnic conflict. They continued by saying that they were "hurt" by the fact that the European nations were considering not attending the Opening Ceremonies.

I think that it is very interesting that the Chinese are so quick to criticize others for their condemnation. They believe that other countries aren't looking at all the facts, and their actions are justifiable. This is ridiculous that the Chinese not only are doing horrible things to the Tibetan people, but also are surprised and "hurt" that other nations look down upon them for their actions. Do you think that is is outrageous? Any other comments?

China's Actions: A Bit Closer To Home

Because Matt recently posted on a topic similar to this one, I'm not going to ask whether or not you believe the U.S. should "boycott" the Olympic Ceremonies. However, I will bring up a slightly different topic.

As many of you know the Aragon Music Program a group composed of almost 200 people when including students, parents, and teachers will be traveling to China this summer. They have already been kind of thrown into this Tibet controversy. Because they are going to China, they need to get visas at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. As you can imagine, there were hundreds of protesters screaming at people who were entering in the building.

While Aragon Music Program certainly doesn't support China's actions, some people are beginning to speculate whether or not they should even be going to China. I believe that it just needs to be clear to the students that this is a time of controversy and they need to be aware of the facts.