Communist China's New Imperialism
NARAYAN, JAYAPRAKASH
The tragedy of Tibet must be a lesson to all the peoples of Asia COMMUNIST CHINA'S NEW IMPERIALISM By Jayaprakash Narayan PATNA, INDIA THE SITUATION in Tibet must cause serious anxiety to all...
...The Tibetans are not Chinese and there is no evidence in history that they ever wanted to be a part of China...
...In Tibet we see at this moment the workings of a new imperialism, which is far more dangerous than the old because it marches under the banner of so-called revolutionary ideology...
...From the time Communist China decided to gobble up Tibet, our policy in regard to it has been marked by prevarication...
...True friendship indeed, as I am sure some Chinese proverb will have it, requires that when friends go wrong they should be firmly told about it...
...Tibet may be a theocratic rather than a secular state, and backward economically and socially...
...The question is, what can we do to help the Tibetans...
...No one expects India to go to war with Communist China for the sake of Tibet...
...But if the price of friendship is duplicity and condonation of wrong, we must have the courage to refuse to pay the price...
...When the Chinese Communists took over Tibet they promised to respect the unique position of the Dalai Lama and the autonomy of his Government...
...has the right to choose its own way of life...
...Tibet has never been a part of China, except by conquest when Lhasa paid tribute to Peking...
...We have nothing to lose...
...In this respect, one Chinese regime has not differed from another and here Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung stand on the same ground...
...Those who were acquainted with the nature of Communist rule understood even then that national autonomy under Communism was an utter sham, and that it would only be a matter of time for the Chinese to drive the nails deeper into the coffin of Tibetan independence...
...Every nation, small or big...
...The tragedy of Tibet then will not have happened in vain...
...But no nation has the right to impose progress, whatever that may mean, upon another nation...
...But that does not alter the fact that the Tibetans are entitled to their own freedom and, at the least, to the moral support of world opinion...
...We began by describing the Chinese advance on Tibet as aggression, but immediately after recognized Chinese suzerainty over that unfortunate land...
...But every upright person, every freedom-loving individual should be ready to call a spade a spade...
...The tragedy of Tibet must be a lesson to all the peoples of Asia COMMUNIST CHINA'S NEW IMPERIALISM By Jayaprakash Narayan PATNA, INDIA THE SITUATION in Tibet must cause serious anxiety to all the peoples of Asia, and particularly to us in India...
...In their expansionist drives they have always led campaigns against the Tibetans, who, being numerically weak, have sometimes been forced to accept nominal overlordship...
...We are linked with China by bonds of friendship, and I for one am keen that these bonds be kept firm and secure...
...India does not believe in power politics and she should have the courage to stand by the truth in every circumstance...
...We are not serving the cause of peace by slurring over acts of aggression...
...the least we can do is to stand unwaveringly by this right...
...It is true, as Prime Minister Nehru said in Parliament in 1950, that we cannot, like Don Quixote, go about fighting everything...
...The Chinese need our friendship as much as we need theirs...
...The recent statement of Prime Minister Nehru in Parliament is not likely to allay this anxiety...
...We cannot physically prevent the Chinese from annexing Tibet, but we at least can put on record our clear verdict that aggression has been committed and the freedom of a weak nation has been snuffed out by a powerful neighbor...
...The Chinese on their part have been an imperial power...
...Present events are proving the accuracy of this understanding...
...But there was also a period when Peking paid tribute to Lhasa...
...But friendship cannot mean abetment of crime...
Vol. 42 • April 1959 • No. 16
