The "Three Ts" boil over for China's Communist Party
Posted by: Chuck DeVore | 03/15/2008 4:48 PM
The Peoples Republic of China and the "Three Ts."
That the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship in Beijing is obsessed with Taiwan, Tibet, and Turkestan - the "Three Ts" - is well known to most China-watchers. Now, on the eve of the Beijing Summer Olympics, it appears that all three Ts are in play, much to the discomfort of Chinese ruling elite.
Turkestan has been brewing for some time. In Xinjiang (a.k.a. Turkestan a far-Western province with a large Muslim ethnic group known as the Uighurs "Wee-gars") Chinese security officials are increasingly worried about separatists whom they say are returning home from al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The militants' target? The Beijing Olympics. The well-trained guerillas are said to be entering China by crossing the rugged mountain ranges that form the border between Afghanistan and China (my book, China Attacks, opens with Chinese security forces attacking Muslim guerillas in that same area). Recently, Chinese authorities detailed two disrupted plots involving bomb making and an attempt to blow up a passenger jet.
The second "T" to boil over recently is Tibet. Rioting there has now gone into its second night and has spread from the old capital city of Llasa to Xiahe, site of an influential Buddhist monastery. Some experts fear another Tiananmen Square massacre as Hollywood actor Richard Gere called for an Olympic boycott. Gere, a long-time Buddhist, has extensive contacts in Tibet.
On March 22, Taiwan holds its presidential election. Ma Ying-jeou, the candidate of the nominally pro-Beijing party, the Kuomintang (KMT), has been holding a commanding lead over the more independence-minded Frank Hsieh, the nominee of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Along with the presidential election on the island nation of 23 million people there will be two referendums on the ballot as well. The more controversial one is sponsored by the DPP. It reaffirms the Taiwanese people's desire to be admitted to the UN, states to the world community that Taiwan does not want to be absorbed into China's totalitarian regime and protests China's suppression of Taiwan through enormous diplomatic and military pressure. Taiwan held its legislative elections in January during which the KMT crushed the DPP. With the violence in Tibet, however, the KMT's commanding presidential polling lead may collapse as voters in Taiwan are once again reminded at how brutal the one-party communist dictatorship in Beijing really is.
With the Summer Olympics only five months away, the "Three Ts" boiling over could not come at a worse time.
All the best,
Chuck DeVore
California State Assemblyman, 70th District
That the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship in Beijing is obsessed with Taiwan, Tibet, and Turkestan - the "Three Ts" - is well known to most China-watchers. Now, on the eve of the Beijing Summer Olympics, it appears that all three Ts are in play, much to the discomfort of Chinese ruling elite.
Turkestan has been brewing for some time. In Xinjiang (a.k.a. Turkestan a far-Western province with a large Muslim ethnic group known as the Uighurs "Wee-gars") Chinese security officials are increasingly worried about separatists whom they say are returning home from al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The militants' target? The Beijing Olympics. The well-trained guerillas are said to be entering China by crossing the rugged mountain ranges that form the border between Afghanistan and China (my book, China Attacks, opens with Chinese security forces attacking Muslim guerillas in that same area). Recently, Chinese authorities detailed two disrupted plots involving bomb making and an attempt to blow up a passenger jet.
The second "T" to boil over recently is Tibet. Rioting there has now gone into its second night and has spread from the old capital city of Llasa to Xiahe, site of an influential Buddhist monastery. Some experts fear another Tiananmen Square massacre as Hollywood actor Richard Gere called for an Olympic boycott. Gere, a long-time Buddhist, has extensive contacts in Tibet.
On March 22, Taiwan holds its presidential election. Ma Ying-jeou, the candidate of the nominally pro-Beijing party, the Kuomintang (KMT), has been holding a commanding lead over the more independence-minded Frank Hsieh, the nominee of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Along with the presidential election on the island nation of 23 million people there will be two referendums on the ballot as well. The more controversial one is sponsored by the DPP. It reaffirms the Taiwanese people's desire to be admitted to the UN, states to the world community that Taiwan does not want to be absorbed into China's totalitarian regime and protests China's suppression of Taiwan through enormous diplomatic and military pressure. Taiwan held its legislative elections in January during which the KMT crushed the DPP. With the violence in Tibet, however, the KMT's commanding presidential polling lead may collapse as voters in Taiwan are once again reminded at how brutal the one-party communist dictatorship in Beijing really is.
With the Summer Olympics only five months away, the "Three Ts" boiling over could not come at a worse time.
All the best,
Chuck DeVore
California State Assemblyman, 70th District
