You need to calm down.
You do not own the Uyghurs. The Uyghurs have absolutely no reason to learn Mandarin. Stop forcing the Uyghurs to learn Mandarin (a foreign language).
You do not own the residents of Taiwan. They want to be left alone. Leave them alone. Stop imposing Mandarin (a foreign language) on them.
You do not own the residents of Hong Kong. They want to be left alone. Leave them alone. Stop imposing Mandarin (a foreign language) on them.
Dear Chinese people living outside of China. Guess what? You can't violently attack people who have a different opinion than you. If you want to act that way, go back to China and join the regime. Then you can be free to violently attack whomever you wish to.
Sincerely,
Someone with the freedom to have their own opinion and the freedom to share it.
Bamiyan Panorama
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china. Show all posts
Friday, August 16, 2019
Wednesday, November 07, 2018
Dear China, Mind your own business
Dear China,
Mind your own business.
For example:
Regarding the Uyghur people group who have their own land (that you claim), their own language, their own culture, their own religion - mind your own business.
Regarding sending the Uyghur people to 'reeducation camps' - mind your own business.
Regarding the average Joe who wants to choose his or her own religion - mind your own business.
Regarding letting people think for themselves - wow what a novel concept! You should try it sometime!
Sincerely,
A human being who has a brain and can think.
Mind your own business.
For example:
Regarding the Uyghur people group who have their own land (that you claim), their own language, their own culture, their own religion - mind your own business.
Regarding sending the Uyghur people to 'reeducation camps' - mind your own business.
Regarding the average Joe who wants to choose his or her own religion - mind your own business.
Regarding letting people think for themselves - wow what a novel concept! You should try it sometime!
Sincerely,
A human being who has a brain and can think.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
China thows temper tantrum. again.
Really China? Quit throwing temper tantrums when other countries don't do what you want. Did it ever occur to you that the Dalai Lama has a right to talk with whomever he wants to, because he is NOT under your jurisdiction. Are you really going to withdraw your Olympic athletes over this? If you are - your loss. Nobody elses loss. Just yours. Your strict controls on everything do not extend beyond your 'borders'. Sorry.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg met the Dalai Lama at St Paul's Cathedral
China warned earlier that relations would not be restored until the UK "stops supporting anti-Chinese forces".
It has also reportedly threatened to withdraw its Olympic athletes over a scheduled Dalai Lama speech in Leeds.
The UK's Foreign Office has called the row disappointing and appealed for its sensible resolution.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader visited the UK to receive the £1.1m ($1.7m) Templeton Prize for his work affirming the spiritual dimension of life.
Downing Street said he was "an important religious figure" who had met previous British prime ministers.
But the encounter triggered an angry response from Chinese officials, who described it as an intrusion into its domestic affairs and warned of "serious consequences".
As a result, all high-level meetings with Britain have been suspended since May, including a visit to London by senior leader Wu Bangguo.
UK ministers Lord Green and Minister Jeremy Browne, both in Beijing to discuss trade and justice matters, saw their meetings either cancelled or downgraded.
"We demand the British side take immediate measures to remove the Tibetan influence, so as to restore China-UK relations with concrete actions."
Returning to the UK this week, the Dalai Lama is expected to speak at an international business convention in Leeds, which will also be the training base for China's Olympic athletes.
It is thought Chinese officials asked Leeds City Council to put pressure on the organisers to cancel his visit.
The Dalai Lama's visit will go ahead but the council has removed any association between itself and the convention.
In a statement, Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council, said the convention was a private event not organised by the council.
"Whilst we are aware of some sensitivities around this year's convention, as it is not a council event we do not feel it is appropriate for us to make any further comment," he said.
The Dalai Lama lives in exile in India, travelling the world to seek support for more rights for Tibetan people.
China halts UK ministerial meetings over Dalai Lama row
China halted ministerial meetings
with UK counterparts in May, when Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai
Lama, British officials have confirmed.
China warned earlier that relations would not be restored until the UK "stops supporting anti-Chinese forces".
It has also reportedly threatened to withdraw its Olympic athletes over a scheduled Dalai Lama speech in Leeds.
The UK's Foreign Office has called the row disappointing and appealed for its sensible resolution.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader visited the UK to receive the £1.1m ($1.7m) Templeton Prize for his work affirming the spiritual dimension of life.
Downing Street said he was "an important religious figure" who had met previous British prime ministers.
But the encounter triggered an angry response from Chinese officials, who described it as an intrusion into its domestic affairs and warned of "serious consequences".
As a result, all high-level meetings with Britain have been suspended since May, including a visit to London by senior leader Wu Bangguo.
UK ministers Lord Green and Minister Jeremy Browne, both in Beijing to discuss trade and justice matters, saw their meetings either cancelled or downgraded.
"The responsibility lies on the British side," said the
Chinese Foreign Ministry's Liu Weimin.
"We demand the British side take immediate measures to remove the Tibetan influence, so as to restore China-UK relations with concrete actions."
Returning to the UK this week, the Dalai Lama is expected to speak at an international business convention in Leeds, which will also be the training base for China's Olympic athletes.
It is thought Chinese officials asked Leeds City Council to put pressure on the organisers to cancel his visit.
The Dalai Lama's visit will go ahead but the council has removed any association between itself and the convention.
In a statement, Tom Riordan, chief executive of Leeds City Council, said the convention was a private event not organised by the council.
"Whilst we are aware of some sensitivities around this year's convention, as it is not a council event we do not feel it is appropriate for us to make any further comment," he said.
The Dalai Lama lives in exile in India, travelling the world to seek support for more rights for Tibetan people.
Friday, November 04, 2011
What IS the Wakhan Corridor?
If you look at a map of Afghanistan you will see a 'finger' sticking out of the northeast part of the country. Odd? I think so. From my knowledge of maps, I know that when you see a strange border shape there is normally a long story attached to it. That is true in the history of the Wakhan.
I could summarize the history of the Wakhan, but I prefer to use a synopsis written by Greg Mortenson, as well as some quotes from Wikipedia:
"...The Corridor was historically used as a trading route between Badakhshan and Yarkand.[7] It appears that Marco Polo came this way.[8] The Portuguese Jesuit priest Bento de Goes crossed from the Wakhan to China between 1602 and 1606. In May 1906 Sir Aurel Stein explored the Wakhan, and reported that at that time 100 pony loads of goods crossed annually to China.[9] (wikipedia)
"For centuries it [had] been a natural conduit between Central Asia and China, and one of the most forbidding sections of the Silk Road, the 4,000-mile trade route linking Europe to the Far East.
The borders of the Wakhan were set in an 1895 treaty between Russia and Britain, which had been wrestling over the control of Central Asia for nearly a century....Eventually Britain and Russia agreed to use the entire country as a buffer zone, with the Wakhan extension ensuring that the borders of the Russian empire would never touch the borders of the British Raj.
Only a handful of Westerners are known to have traveled through the Wakhan Corridor since Marco Polo did it, in 1271. There had been sporadic European expeditions throughout the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In 1949, when Mao Zedong completed the Communist takeover of China, the [eastern] borders were permanently closed, sealing off the 2,000-year-old caravan route and turning the corridor into a cul-de-sac. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, they occupied the Wakhan and plowed a tank track halfway into the corridor. Today, the Wakhan has reverted to what it’s been for much of its history: a primitive pastoral hinterland, home to about 7,000 Wakhi and Kirghiz people, scattered throughout some 40 small villages and camps." (Greg Mortenson)
"There is no modern road through the Corridor. There is a rough road from Ishkashim to Sarhad-e Broghil[11] built in the 1960s,[12] but only paths beyond. It is some 100 km from the road end to the Chinese border at Wakhjir Pass, and further to the far end of the Little Pamir." (wikipedia)
WHO LIVES THERE?The Wakhi people live in the wide valley of the Wakhan Corridor itself, in Afghanistan and across the borders in Tajikistan and Pakistan. The Wakhis are Shia Ismaili Muslims, whose spiritual leader is the Aga Khan.
In the Pamir mountain valleys at the far east and northeast of the panhandle live the Kyrgyz, who are among the last of the Central Asian peoples who still follow a nomadic lifestyle. The Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims. They once roamed more widely but the arrival of Communist governments in the Soviet Union and China confined them to an increasingly restricted area as border controls were tightened. Those who remain in the Afghan Pamir still follow their traditional pastoral lifestyle, especially in the two main valleys -- the Great Pamir and the Little Pamir. (A 'pamir' is a wide green valley, good for grazing animals.) (www.wakhan.org)
I could summarize the history of the Wakhan, but I prefer to use a synopsis written by Greg Mortenson, as well as some quotes from Wikipedia:
"...The Corridor was historically used as a trading route between Badakhshan and Yarkand.[7] It appears that Marco Polo came this way.[8] The Portuguese Jesuit priest Bento de Goes crossed from the Wakhan to China between 1602 and 1606. In May 1906 Sir Aurel Stein explored the Wakhan, and reported that at that time 100 pony loads of goods crossed annually to China.[9] (wikipedia)
"For centuries it [had] been a natural conduit between Central Asia and China, and one of the most forbidding sections of the Silk Road, the 4,000-mile trade route linking Europe to the Far East.
The borders of the Wakhan were set in an 1895 treaty between Russia and Britain, which had been wrestling over the control of Central Asia for nearly a century....Eventually Britain and Russia agreed to use the entire country as a buffer zone, with the Wakhan extension ensuring that the borders of the Russian empire would never touch the borders of the British Raj.
Only a handful of Westerners are known to have traveled through the Wakhan Corridor since Marco Polo did it, in 1271. There had been sporadic European expeditions throughout the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In 1949, when Mao Zedong completed the Communist takeover of China, the [eastern] borders were permanently closed, sealing off the 2,000-year-old caravan route and turning the corridor into a cul-de-sac. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, they occupied the Wakhan and plowed a tank track halfway into the corridor. Today, the Wakhan has reverted to what it’s been for much of its history: a primitive pastoral hinterland, home to about 7,000 Wakhi and Kirghiz people, scattered throughout some 40 small villages and camps." (Greg Mortenson)
"There is no modern road through the Corridor. There is a rough road from Ishkashim to Sarhad-e Broghil[11] built in the 1960s,[12] but only paths beyond. It is some 100 km from the road end to the Chinese border at Wakhjir Pass, and further to the far end of the Little Pamir." (wikipedia)
WHO LIVES THERE?The Wakhi people live in the wide valley of the Wakhan Corridor itself, in Afghanistan and across the borders in Tajikistan and Pakistan. The Wakhis are Shia Ismaili Muslims, whose spiritual leader is the Aga Khan.
In the Pamir mountain valleys at the far east and northeast of the panhandle live the Kyrgyz, who are among the last of the Central Asian peoples who still follow a nomadic lifestyle. The Kyrgyz are Sunni Muslims. They once roamed more widely but the arrival of Communist governments in the Soviet Union and China confined them to an increasingly restricted area as border controls were tightened. Those who remain in the Afghan Pamir still follow their traditional pastoral lifestyle, especially in the two main valleys -- the Great Pamir and the Little Pamir. (A 'pamir' is a wide green valley, good for grazing animals.) (www.wakhan.org)
Wakhi People
A Kyrgyz Nomad
My next post will go into more detail about the Wakhi & Kyrgyz people in the Wakhan corridor today.
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