While the world was pre­oc­cu­pied with the finan­cial cri­sis, the UK Gov­ern­ment took advan­tage of pub­lic inat­ten­tion to write off Tibet. In a lit­tle pub­li­cized par­lia­men­tary state­ment on Octo­ber 29, For­eign Sec­re­tary David Miliband claimed that Tibet has actu­al­ly “always been a part of Chi­na, and that it has no claim what­so­ev­er to be viewed in any­way dif­fer­ent­ly from the rest of Chi­na.” Every­one under­stands that the elect­ed gov­ern­ments of Europe and North Amer­i­can have nev­er had any seri­ous inten­tion of sup­port­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic reform in Chi­na, or of giv­ing any tan­gi­ble sup­port to the con­quered and colo­nialised Tibetan peo­ple. But, until now, a nudge-nudge-wink-wink pre­tense of con­cern for human rights has been con­sid­ered good pub­lic rela­tions. Appar­ent­ly, it is no longer de rigeur. Gor­don Brown’s gov­ern­ment in Lon­don seized on the dis­trac­tion of the glob­al finan­cial melt­down to sig­nal to Bei­jing that its impe­ri­al­ist con­quests are a‑okay, and gave it carte-blanche to pro­ceed with any human rights vio­la­tions it wants, against its own peo­ple, or oth­ers. Read more »