Tibet, Olympics and Chinese Nationalism

One of the hot topics of debate in the last couple of days has been: whether the protests directed against China at torch relays in London, Paris and San Francisco have been used by the Communist regime in China to ignite a sense of nationalism among its people.  Are we witnessing another round of anti-foreign sentiments?  Is this going to put a break on further political liberalisation in China?  In short, as John Kennedy at Global Voices Online has succinctly put it: have the pro-Tibet protestors made the silencing of many liberal voices within China acceptable collateral damage for their successful campaign?

Shen Hua at Radio Free Asia Mandarin Services conducted an interview with Ling Cangzhou and Ran Yuefei in order to find out their view on these questions.  Ling is a Beijing-based media expert.  China Digital Times has translated one of Ling Cangzhou’s open letters where he expresses concern about grassroots elections in China.  Ran is an independent analyst from Chengdu.  The following is my translation of the interview.  You can listen to the recording of the interview here.

 

Restating the obvious: Tibetans are Asians.

“We have now sunk to a such a depth, that the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” – George Orwell, circa 1946

Tibetans are Asians.  They’re non-white Asians.

What more can, or ought, any wielder of Occam’s Razor say in response to the latest chunk of hyperabstract hackery by Adam Minter?  Here’s the money quote in his hack-job: “The Protests, the Olympics, and Race”:

 

…how can one miss the fact that the most vocal torch protesters (in much greater numbers than Tibetans) are white, while the most vocal torch supporters are Asian?

 

Well it might be a “fact”, but has it really been “missed” or glossed over? More to the point, does it mean anything other than what ought to be obvious?