The CCP and the Dalai Lama

Question: Could the CCP handle the Dalai Lama situation any worse than it does?

Answer 1. - No. The way that the CCP reacts to the Dalai Lama is a PR train wreck in the eyes of many across the world.

Answer 2. – The CCP needs the Dalai Lama for internal control and management and doesn’t really care whether people in the West get it or not.

So, which answer is right?

Well of course they’re both right.

Through the eyes of a Westerner

Every time Dalai Lama rocks up to another western capital to hob-knob with the latest leader we get to see the worst side of the CCP that is usually kept under wraps and hidden behind their Italian suits and expensive, leather loafers. The shrill condemnations easily crack the all too familiar mask of cool-aloofness that is usually presented to the world on other pressing, global matters. A quick scan through the comments section on the BBC or CNN websites reveals that the same old rebukes get regurgitated over and over again exclaiming that westerners don’t understand China. They know nothing about Tibet and if it’s ok to shout “Free Tibet” then it’s ok to shout, “Free Northern Ireland” or “Free Texas,” which of course… it is ok. Proving the ignorance and banality of their arguments.

Oddly enough, the CCP tries to turn the game back on the west by flirting with the likes of President’s Al Bashir of Sudan and Mugabe of Zimbabwe. However, rather than slam-dunking a feeling of, “Well how do you like it when WE meet people you don’t like?” The entire action falls flat on its face and China comes across as petty, naïve and malign. After all, President Al Bashir, indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal, was in China on a full state visit to sure up support for his new country and trade Sudanese oil for Chinese arms. Meanwhile the Dalai Lama, Noble Peace Laureate, gets squirreled away to the White House Map room to talk about world peace and Tibetan human rights in a hurried, 45minute slot. No arms deals for Tibetan rebels, no resource and trade negotiations or talk of using the UN veto to protect the Dalai Lama’s next conniving plan to de-stable Tibet and split it from China.

Why such a contrast?

Because this is the reality of the situation. The Dalai Lama is not a separatist rebel leader on a global campaign to usurp the CCP and help the West carve up China, but a religious leader and western icon. The Dalai Lama’s fame in the West does not come from his dogged resistance to the CCP. It comes from teaching Buddhism and writing books on world peace. If the CCP simply chose to marginalize the Dalai Lama and completely ignore any messages he gave on Tibetan human rights then it would quickly fade from the congested newswires and he would be left talking about what he knows best, Buddhism to starry-eyed national leaders.

So, why doesn’t the CCP just blot out any internal news of the Dalai Lama and erase him from the collective consciousness?

Certainly they have exceptional experience in doing this - think Zhao Ziyang.

Simply put, the Dalai Lama, a wolf in sheep clothing, that wants to split China is entirely created by the CCP for internal consumption. The CCP could bury news of his world-wide actions but instead chooses to flaunt it in the face of the Chinese people across state media to prove its argument that the West still has machinations to jealously rip a rising China apart.

So what you have is a circular argument entirely created by the CCP, where the Dalai Lama’s role is pivotal in keeping the loop going,

1. The only thing that holds China together is the CCP

2. The West wants to split China

3. They use puppets like the Dalai Lama to do this

4. Every time the West meets with the Dalai Lama it is proof of its real intentions to split China

5. Return to 1.

According to Global Times, “The Dalai Lama is played as a card by the US government,” against China. In reality, the only newsworthy sound bite for western media outlets when a president meets the Dalai Lama is that China so vociferously reacts to it. It would barely make the news otherwise.

Conversely, it is the CCP that constantly wants to keep the Dalai Lama in everyone’s conciseness to remind the Chinese people of the evil things they’re being protected from. This is why the Chinese media acted so objectionably to the so-called resignation of the Dalai Lama this year. As it effectively sidestepped the considerable effort the CCP has invested in over the years into making him a national bogeyman that can stir up patriotic feeling within China.

Without key players like the Dalai Lama and Rebiya Kadeer, the CCP loses significant pieces in its arguments for national legitimacy. This is why they are not willing to let them step out of the spotlight, no matter where they go in the world.