Tibet, China and the Olympics Torch relay

China must have been stumped when the protests during the Olympics torch relay started. They underestimated the feelings of the Tibetans and the free world against its occupation of Tibet. It is very unlikely that China will ever return Tibet to its righful owners, the Tibetans, but it is also strange that many commentators on this topic get into convoluted justifications on why Tibet belongs to China.

My points:

1) China invaded and occupied Tibet in 1950 and since then had ruled it. They claimed that Tibet belongs to China as once in the distant history it was ruled by the Mongolians who had unified China and Tibet in a vast empire. This is much akin to saying that most of Europe should belong to Italy as there was once when the vast Roman empire extended all the way across Europe to England. They also claimed that they invaded Tibet to free its people from the feudal-like society existing at that time - it is odd that the Tibetans did not appreciate this so-called release from serfdom. Not surprising as this was another hogwash of an excuse.

2) Supporters of China claim that China had done much in improving the infrastructure and life in Tibet. Yes, there were indeed improvements but does it mean Tibet could not have improved on its own? Nepal and Bhutan were also once highly inacessible and backward countries and both have came a long way on their own and both had democratic elections recently.

3) The Tibetans and Han Chinese do not look the same - you can tell them apart easily; their culture and lifestyle is different and the Tibetan writing has Greco-Indian influences while the Chinese writing is more pictorial-based. So simply said, Tibetans are not Chinese and were never Chinese.

The Tibetans lost their homeland - they simply want it back and it is not surprising that they and their Western supporters are using the Olympics games to exert pressure on China. How can China be suprised by such Tibetan nationalistic feelings as China itself exerts great pressure and often threathens Taiwan as it feels that the latter belongs to it. How can China be surprised by the mixing of politics with the Olympics as it itself had, for years, prevented the participation of Taiwan in the games?

Free Tibet - that is all I can conclude.