Tibetans Expect Little Help From World
Nearly six decades of struggle against the might of China has taught the Tibetans one thing: Ask the world for little, expect less.
However, on Friday, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi lent her voice, calling China's crackdown "a challenge to the conscience of the world." Pelosi was the first major foreign official to meet the Dalai Lama since the start of the unrest, visiting him in Dharmsala, the hilltop town in northern India where he has his headquarters.
"If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world," Pelosi told thousands of cheering Tibetans, including monks and schoolchildren.
But it is difficult for most countries to do more than call on China to show restraint, finding themselves walking a tightrope between their sympathy for the Tibetans and their very real economic and strategic needs to maintain good relations with Beijing.
So, as we can see, economic concerns outweigh the concerns of human rights.
