There is an ancient Chinese wisdom: “Would be wiser if you were informed from more sources, would be more absurd if you were biased.” Mr. Ryan Bergman said (“Proving a country’s innocence”, Daily, Apr. 3) that he had stacks of reports from Tibetan groups who seek independence for Tibet. I also found a handful Web sites which declare the goal of Hawaii independence. They said most Hawaiians support independence. I will not agree to it unless I know more from any other sources, including from Mr. Ryan Bergman and Ms. Bliss Newton.

I have several discoveries which directly challenge what you think of Tibet:

(1) Tibet became a part of China in early thirteenth century when China was in Yuan dynasty — at that time America Indian people still freely sang and danced in their homeland and had no fear of the coming infamous genocide. From then on, every Dalai Lama was appointed by the Chinese emperor or lately the Chinese government. The current Dalai Lama was appointed in 1939. He was born in Qinghai Provincem (not Tibet) in a Chinese-speaking family.

(2) According to the 1990 census, the total Han ethnic population in Tibet was 81,217, versus 2,096,346 Tibetans. Most Han ethnic people are not accustomed to the fewer oxygen ratio in the air in Tibet area, so that is why people are unwilling to emigrant to Tibet. It is really ridiculous to assert that the Han ethnic population outnumbers that of Tibetan in six years.

(3) Ms. Bliss Newton said in her article (Daily, Mar. 28) that Chinese government has killed 1.2 million Tibetans. I have no way to know whether she was a liar, but at least I believe she might had been misled by some liars. I have to tell her here: IT IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE! She might have basic knowledge about Nazis’ holocaust and Auschwitz in World War II. Did Nazis open their notorious Concentration camps to the tourists?

(4) Nowadays, most mayors and congress representatives in Tibet are Tibetans. The dual-language education has also been prevailed in this area. I was confused when Ms. Bliss Newton and Mr. Ryan Bergman cautioned us that the Tibet culture will be totally destroyed in some years. I then recalled that I once saw some utensils used by the Dalai Lama exhibited in the museum. They were made from human bones, not bone fossils, but the bones of Tibetan serfs executed by their masters. Before 1950, the social structure was like the following: Nobility: 5%, Clergy: 15%, Nomads: 20%, Serfs: 60%. Most senior Serfs lost their nose or ear because they once violated the law. There are tons of pictures showing many serfs without legs, arms or eyes. There is a picture in an non-communist book “Tibet and the Tibetans” by Shen&Liu (ISU Library) showing that three boys were miserably in foot-binding. If Ms. Bliss Newton and Mr. Ryan Bergman referred to this kind of “Tibet culture,” you guys should be informed now: the so-called “Tibet culture” has been extinguished since 1950, just after Dalai Lama exiled. If you admire Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King, please teach some human rights lessons to Dalai Lama when he comes to Washington this month.

(5) Mr. Ryan Bergman said he would “challenge” China to leave its door open to any human right delegation. I think he can get a visa from the Chinese Embassy at any time, but no anti-Chinese guys or foreign army would be allowed. Unfortunately, China is not Panama, it is so far away that you cannot drive your advanced B-52 bombers on there and probe the truth immediately.

(6) You can notice that I don’t distinguish Chinese from Tibetans in this article, because China is a multi-ethnic nation just like the U.S.A. is a multi-state nation. To tell you the truth, Chinese people now consist of 56 ethnic groups. I cannot say Texans are not Americans, even though they joined the American family not long ago. It is the same reason that you cannot say that Tibetans are not Chinese, actually they have joined the Chinese family for nearly six hundred years, two times of history of the United States.

(7) Finally, I would like to suggest Ms. Bliss Newton and Mr. Ryan Bergman: If you are students, ISU is a good place to study diversity of culture. First, be well-informed, then be a respective scholar. If you are willing to be professional politicians of the United States, please be serious to your mission: world peace, not world chaos or conflict. You can challenge any person, or government, but saying “challenge China,” a country in the world, is undoubtedly not an appropriate post. From my personal point of view: “Free Tibet” is not a good starting point for you to learn “how to walk.”

Xiangdong Li

Graduate Student

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering