Tibet

With the Olympics over, I hope the Western sport of bashing China over Tibet might stop.
    Working in Beijing during the Tibet riots and the preparations for the Olympics gave me a unique perspective. Growing up with Western media and Hollywood, I am used to our embrace of the Dalai Lama. Being in China, I saw the Chinese point of view.
    Seeing both sides suggests the need to abandon simplistic political stances in favor of some self-reflection and historical context.
    Although we should criticize China's censored media, the Tibet riots revealed some troubling blindness among our own media. While the causes of Tibetan unrest are complex, it is clear that the March riots were started by Tibetan protesters and that they were quite violent. Indeed, they were violent enough to lead the Dalai Lama to threaten resignation if his followers did not stop the violence.
    Since "violent Tibetan" does not fit our stereotype, our media fixed the news. While Chinese media showed extensive footage of violence and interviews with Chinese and Tibetan victims, Western media manipulated images and even showed footage from other countries (Nepal and India) in order to paint a picture of ruthless oppression by China's government. … [Read more]

James Miles describes his experience as the only Western journalist reporting from Tibet during the eruption of the violent riots and unrest that began on March 14 in the city of Lhasa.