Halls of Shame: How China Invaded California and Took Over Our Legislature

With little resistance, China's communist leadership invaded California this past Monday landing in Sacramento with the clear intention of inflicting maximum harm to our democracy via the defeat of a resolution in the California State Assembly.

Mission nearly accomplished.

Assembly Concurrent Resolution 6 (ACR 6) sponsored by Assembly Member Sam Blakeslee, (R-San Luis Obispo), was designed to recognize March 10 as "Dalai Lama and Tibet Awareness Day." The intent of the non-binding resolution is to "educate Californians about the teachings of the Dalai Lama and his efforts to preserve the Tibetan culture," and to re-affirm that "freedom of expression, assembly, and religious beliefs are fundamental human rights that belong to all people," including of course, Tibetans.

Resolutions such as Blakeslee's require a majority vote to pass and are considered merely expressions of the Legislature or one of its houses. They are not bills that can be enacted into law.

The Tibet resolution was scheduled to be voted on last Monday by the Assembly, along with other measures that were supposed to be "noncontroversial." However, Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, set aside the resolution.

Is cultural preservation controversial? How about the freedoms of expression, assembly, and religion?

According to our elected representatives, suddenly they all are.

China deployed the full force of its diplomatic arsenal --with shades of economic blackmail--to convince California's democratically elected representatives that, in the words of Consul General Gao Zhansheng, "as the world economy faces a grim situation, it is all the more important for the most developed country and the biggest developing country in the world to cross the river in a common boat and proceed hand in hand."

Hand in hand apparently means accepting China's explanation that Tibet was never an independent country, and therefore it could not have been invaded or occupied by China. The communist government had actually, according to Zhansheng, pushed through reforms liberating Tibet from "feudal serfdom and theocratic rule."

Blakeslee called the consul general's words a "shocking revisionist account of history," and pushed for a floor vote on Monday afternoon.

Democrats, saying only that the matter needed "further study," referred the resolution to the Assembly Rules Committee, where by most accounts it is likely to die a slow death. This mirrors the worsening plight of the Tibetans still left in Tibet who, according to the Dalai Lama--in an uncharacteristically harsh assessment on the March 10 anniversary -- are living in "hell on earth."

It's not just Democrats on China's A-List legislative team here in California. A bipartisan and diverse group of liberals and conservatives have followed China's lead including several lawmakers traditionally known as long-time supporters of human rights.

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma of San Francisco insisted that the Assembly leadership was not caving in to pressure from the Chinese government. California lawmakers, she said, should focus on fixing the state's economy and let the Obama administration deal with China.

"I don't feel we should undermine President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's proactive diplomacy toward China, including human rights, at this time," she said. "[the resolution] puts us in the middle of this."

Ironically, in Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives, led by California's own Nancy Pelosi, had just passed a resolution commemorating on March 10th the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan people's spontaneous uprising against China's occupation of their country. And despite the Chinese government's urgent mission to quash that resolution, it passed by a landslide 422 to 1.

Also earlier this month both Washington state and the city of Seattle issued proclamations to declare March 10, 2009 as Tibet Day for the very first time.

Still a bit of hope remains here in California as the Assembly will now have to hold public hearings on the merits of the resolution.

These will be our public hearings, not China's--not least because China can't have it both ways. When citizens around the world raise their voices against China's police-state crackdowns in Tibet, against imprisonment and torture of innocent bystanders, or the crushing of freedom to practice religion in Tibet, China tells the world to mind its own business. Tibet, they say, is an internal matter.

Yet by what measure of democracy can China's policies in Tibet, a country under occupation now for more than 50 years, remain an "internal matter," while at the same time China's one-party dictatorship is free to meddle in California's "internal affairs?"

China's invasion of our legislature is a major defeat for both democracy and human rights, much as its invasion of Tibet has been for the last 50 years. The legislative process should obviously be open to all concerned citizens, but this definitely does not include members of the Communist Party of China who want to dictate the content of our resolutions.

Written with John Isom, executive director of Tibet Justice Center in Berkeley.
Dechen Tsering, president of the Tibetan Association of Northern California, and Giovanni Vassallo, president of Committee of 100 for Tibet, contributed to this post.

Comments

[commie-lier]

hi,
if you want to know about tibet in the past read these books, twenty yrs in tibet by David MsDonald, eight yrs in tibet by Peter Aufschnieter, Seven yrs in tibet by Heinrich herrer, these are the people who have seen and lived there for some yrs, unlike some other writers.
Dalai lama's my land and my people.
if you want to know about Tibet at present go to Tibet with Dalai lama's picture in hand, you will end up in jail.
FREE TIBET, CHANGE CHINA

[bobdoe]

Of course you would, this is accordance to Chinese law. By the same token, if you go to Dharamsala and tell people you are a beliver of Dorje Shugden, you would be killed, because it's been outlawed by the Dalai Lama.

David McDonald is a British colonialist with associations to Francis Younghusband. Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter have associations to the Nazi party. None of them are scholars. These are hardly reliable sources of historic information as compared to someone like Melvyn Goldstein, who by the way have been studying Tibetan language, culture, and history since the 60's and have been to Tibet many, many times.

[commie-lier]

Dharamsala is not Tibet, just go there and check yourself. unlike Tibet there is no restriction at all. you will find people from all over the world there. you commie lier, your lie will not work here.
Melvyn Goldstein, she havent seen Tibet before 1959. she may be studying Tibetan history since 60's. But where? In China right, commie land ah. where you roll tank on your own children for peacefully marching on street. Melvyn goldstein is basically a sold out to china. whatever she wrote about tibet is for money. world knows about that.
http://media.phayul.com/frm_detail.aspx?av_id=147

[darkforest]

Heather, in that vein we should perhaps distinguish between books written by:

The dissident Tibetan minority who produce 'research' with the McCarthist and ruined-Shangrila overtone some of us like to hear

verus

those from the former-serf Tibetan majority who are genuinely grateful of being free from being enslaved by the elite monk class.

[patrickmahoney]

Gr8 article, Christal.

Folks, its time to re-think all economic systems. The old ones have been maxed out.The entire system is based on theories of economies from ages ago. The money supply is way outlandish in size, the interest rates? OMG. Credit? And then there is banking....and the stock market debacle. The last depression taught us stuff about the stock market and investor confidence in the theory of efficient markets, etc..

For too long we have been riding the horse of: "Perceptions create reality". Sorry, but reality is reality, and perceptions change. They can't "consumer confidence" their way out of this one.....the spending/c­onsumption engine has hit a brick wall. Who really needs more "stuff"Hasn't the recent 8 yr orgy proven that excess doesn't equate to happiness?

Sooo,what to do? Revise Economic systems.Many have worked the system they were supposed to manage (whatever happened to fiduciary trust? ;-) Most economists are inbred, insular, "keepers of the faith" of efficient market theory and protectors of the secrets.All B.S.

So, what to do???? Commission a study, of a cross section of people from all walks of life-all "levels"& re-examine our priorities in life. THEN, let the people vote on alternatives.

Its time to take the power from headless corporate shells, China GOVT, &let real people manage life-not computers or lifeless entities (or their human approximations ;-)

Be clever. We are Americans. After all, that IS our forte, eh?

:-)

[littleVilla]

It is interesting we want to have a day for awareness of Tibetan culture, but we do not have a day for awareness local America Indians. We may appreciate how does other feel when either Cuba, China, France, or any other country want to setup awareness day on December 29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_massacre). Let's cast the first stone. By same principle, we should return this land to local Indians. It was very spiritual place, 200+ years ago.

[patrickmahoney]

We MUST Institute an ImmediateTRADE EMBARGOon CHINA2Free­TIBET&Nego­tiateNewGl­obal Econ.Systems.Our Fin.crisis is Due to a$1.4TRILLION TradeDeficit w/China over last8yrs!Their EndGame?Wo­rldDominat­ion.

Here R the numbers: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5700.html

We MUST make doing evil unprofitable,&doing right lucrative/­desirable-­in order2get the changes we need in this world2keep it habitable&humane.

China didn't do this alone,they just got us addicted2easy profits&mass consumption.The Chinese Govt plan is clear: Domination thru Economics.How to change this? Change the rules of economics.Economics is only a method to allocate a society's resources. Keynes made most of this up,& the Queen made him a knight;& rich :-o

An old Chinese ideogram: Change =Danger (plus) Opportunity

Lets use R present crisis Opportunity 2correct Both problems.Contact your Congressmen &say: "SAVE Tibet,& SAVE Money. Just Embargo Chinese goods"(after all,who is buying anyway? ;-)

[bobdoe]

Why don't you read Melvyn C. Goldstein's book "The Snow Lion and the Dragon: China, Tibet, and the Dalai Lama" or any other books by Goldstein to gain a general understanding of the history of Tibet before you write about Tibet? From what it appears, you understand nothing right now.

[Heather Reddick]

bobdoe: you should try reading a book about Tibet written by a TIBETAN.

[acuu981]

TIBETAN living outside Tibite or TIBETAN living in Tibet? You get be clear!

[bobdoe]

Goldstein is about as impartial of a Tibetan scholar as you are going to get. What do you have against him?

Also, Tibet's literacy rate was below 5% (only monks and aristocrats were literate) prior to 1951, you're not going to get anything that wasn't approved by the the lamas.