Criticism of China distorts reality

The barrage of criticism waged against China before the Olympics has increasingly intensified. However, the majority of the “human rights” allegations are fabricated and fail to consider relevant facts. One of the favorite targets of the critics is controversy over Tibet. The “free Tibet movement” often claims that the Chinese “invaded” Tibet. These claims are baseless since Tibetans are Chinese (“Chinese” does not refer to any specific ethnic group). China is a multiethnic society including Han and Tibetan populations, and all ethnic groups are afforded equal rights under the Constitution. Furthermore, the region of Tibet has been a part of China for centuries and never declared independence. Many people have the mistaken idea that Tibetan society before “Chinese rule” was a Utopia. In reality, Tibet was a feudal society ruled by an aristocracy that owned a disproportionate amount of land while maintaining a system of chattel slavery. After the Communist Revolution unified the country, slavery was abolished, land and education reform were instituted and women were granted equal rights. These reforms, however, were too much for the Tibetan aristocracy. With assistance from the CIA, they launched a violent rebellion in 1959 after refusing to abolish slavery and implement other reforms (see “The Tibetan Myth” by Michael Parenti, for example). Another favorite tool of the human rights crusaders is to quote U.S. state department documents referencing “beatings” and “torture” in Chinese prisons. These reports, likely being fabricated in the first place for political purposes, also fail to make comparisons between China and other nations. Human Rights Watch, for instance, has criticized the U.S. – which has the highest imprisonment rate in the world – for ill treatment of prisoners. Those attacking China for supposed “human rights violations” should consider that they have achieved a lot over the last century. China went from a feudal society ruled and plundered by foreign imperial powers, to a unified country. Women were liberated, and life expectancy more than doubled from the 1950s to the 1970s. China was also recently lauded by the United Nations Children’s Fund for reducing hunger and poverty more than most others.