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Letters: Dalai Lama deserves medal

Beijing's complaints over the US Congress bestowing the Congressional Gold Medal upon the Dalai Lama were, as usual, teeming with calumnies and hypocrisy.

Beijing characterized the award as interfering with "China's internal affairs" and demanded that Congress "take measures" to "remove the impact" of the act.

Under US law, Congress has the right to bestow a Congressional Gold Medal upon whomever it wishes and for whatever reason it wishes. Beijing has the right to disagree with the decision, but they have no right to meddle in the US' internal affairs by ordering Congress about. Unlike Hong Kong, Tibet and East Turkestan, the US is not a colony of Beijing.

We are a sovereign, independent nation because, in 1776, we said "no" to tyrants.

Speaking of meddling in another nation's internal affairs, did Beijing's invasion and anschluss of Tibet in 1950 and 1951, give Beijing the right to meddle in Tibet's internal affairs?

A Beijing mouthpiece -- cowardly using the Chinese people as human shields -- declared that the Chinese people know better than the Americans as to how to manage Tibetan affairs.

Since when did Beijing allow the Chinese people a say in the matter, or any other matter of consequence? Besides, common sense dictates that the people of Tibet know better than anyone else how to manage Tibetan affairs.

Tens of thousands of Tibetans have celebrated the award for the Dalai Lama. How many have denounced it?

Again using the Chinese as human shields, the Beijing mouthpiece claimed that the award for the Dalai Lama hurt the feelings of the Chinese people. But Beijing and its henchmen are the most prolific mass murderers in human history. Since 1949, they have murdered an estimated 90 million Chinese civilians.

They have enslaved 700 million others. They have placed millions of Chinese in slave labor camps, work camps, and mines, causing them to work under extremely unhealthy and even dangerous conditions.

Beijing's expressions of concern for the feelings of Chinese people are as hypocritical as an undertaker trying to look sad at a US$100,000 funeral.

Once again, Beijing's reaction to the award has shown the fragility of despotic regimes. Just as the darkness flees when one person lights one little candle, the gates of hell tremble when one man with courage speaks the truth.

Jerry Mills

Taipei

"Americans cannot look to the plight of the religiously oppressed and close our eyes or turn away," US President George W Bush said during ceremonies presenting the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Millions of people around the world agree that the Chinese government has no right to interfere with Tibetan Buddhists' right to chant, burn incense or reincarnate.

Would Bush likewise risk Chinese scorn if such religious rights were threatened in Taiwan? We don't know, since in Taiwan the only human rights that are denied today are the right to vote in a referendum, the right to create a national constitution and the right to be represented in the UN.

And Bush is fully on record against Taiwanese exercising any of those fundamental rights.

Michael Falick

Colorado Springs, Colorado
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