Ten days ago, when Lian Yue rejected suppression of information on Tibet, he had broad support from his readers. Here’s Danwei’s translation of his post:
Information Theory of Tibet
1. Any power which tries to withhold information should be regarded as a bad power.
2. Any power that keeps people from getting information should be regarded as a bad power.
3. Any information released by a power that has monopoly over releasing information should be regarded as a lie.
4. A power that tries to distort and withhold information should be responsible for the consequences.
5. A power that keeps people from getting information does not have the credibility to tell people what is true and what is false.
6. Information being suppressed is the only cause of the worsening situation and deepening disagreement, because each side can say whatever they want and none of it is provable.
7. Extreme nationalism is passionate and irrational. It is nourished by the suppression of information. Tibetan supremacist, Han supremacist, anti-Japanese sentiment and anti-Taiwan sentiment run rampant in an environment where information is suppressed.
8. Mainland China is a place where [people with] extreme feelings are the biggest supporters of power, and these people and feelings prevent power from reforming itself.
9. Only freedom of information expression can dissolve extreme sentiments. Trying to withhold dangerous information is the most dangerous way to act.Therefore, one important way to solve the problem is to give the media freedom to interview in Tibet.
Another post by Lian Yue a few days ago was less popular:
Tutu’s proposal on Tibet
Archbishop Tutu has issued a statement of mediation. Much of what he says will perhaps make many people unhappy, very unhappy. However, when someone like this, who is not very likely to harbor malice against China, says things so divergent from what you imagine, perhaps it is time to take a look at your own problems. If the world has really misunderstood you for decades, at the same time as you criticize the world, you should also consider what it is that makes us so easily misunderstood.
I wish to express my solidarity with the people of Tibet during this critical time in their history. To my dear friend His Holiness the Dalai Lama, let me say: I stand with you. You define non-violence and compassion and goodness. I was in an Easter retreat when the recent tragic events unfolded in Tibet. I learned that China has stated you caused violence. Clearly China does not know you, but they should. I call on China’s government to know His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as so many have come to know, during these long decades years in exile. Listen to His Holiness’ pleas for restraint and calm and no further violence against this civilian population of monastics and lay people.
I urge China to enter into a substantive and meaningful dialogue with this man of peace, the Dalai Lama. China is uniquely positioned to impact and affect our world. Certainly the leaders of China know this or they would not have bid for the Olympics. Killing, imprisonment and torture are not a sport: the innocents must be released and given free and fair trials.
I urge my esteemed friend Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet and be given access to assess, and report to the international community, the events which led to this international outcry for justice. The High Commissioner should be allowed to travel with journalists, and other observers, who may speak truth to power and level the playing field so that, indeed, this episode — these decades of struggle — may attain a peaceful resolution. This will help not only Tibet. It will help China.
And China, poised to receive the world during the forthcoming Olympic Games needs to make sure the eyes of the world will see that China has changed, that China is willing to be a responsible partner in international global affairs. Finally, China must stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing one whose life has been devoted to non violence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Nobel peace laureate.
The first reader’s response to this post received the most number of votes:
If China let people who think like you run the country, things could only get worse!
In 1989, I was still a child. When I saw students everywhere carrying big tape recorders playing Voice of America broadcasts and mobilizing crowds, I admired them a lot. But time has allowed me to understand what is right. Time will also test whether or not you are right.
Human civilization is very complex. Let time tell what is right and what is wrong!
Lian Yue, if you have talent then please start from the basics. There’s no way the Chinese government will allow someone like you to go into politics. But national relations and relationships between people are based on much the same things. Try setting up a business - it can big or small! See if you can do well and how many people you can provide a livelihood for.
One step at a time
Give 100 people a living.
Give 1,000 people a living..
Give 10,000 people a living…
Even more and more…..If you can do this, a great many people will support your ideals. Talking to much is useless. Thinking too much is useless. Try it out and see.
In short, I really hate you. Honestly.
Right now 143 people have voted in support of this comment, 76 against. There was, however, this response from another reader:
“There’s no way the Chinese government will allow someone like you to go into politics.”
This sentence is quite interesting. Is it the people who will or will not allow ** to go into politics, or the government who will or will not allow Lian Yue to go into politics? We can tell a lot from this judgement about a person’s way of thinking.
This comment currently has 36 votes for, 3 against.
One Comment
What strike me as odd is that the writer of the first comment did not just whether the idea is any good for Chinese people, but rather whether it is good for the Chinese government. I think we know whose side he is on.
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