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重要資料
May 7 - Straight Speech - I do not welcome Hu Jintao to Waseda University
http://www.asaho.com/jpn/coverright.html
This article on China's Hu Jintao's visit to Japan's Waseda university was published by asaho mizushima in his website
He is a professor of Waseda university Faculty of law, as well as a Doctor of Law in Constitutional Law.
The history of Japan-China friendship is the history of the cultural and academic communications between Chinese public/intellectual and Waseda University. Since Sigenobu Ohkuma established Waseda, many Chinese key persons have visited or studied in Waseda to represent later a diversity of careers. Among 2,721 foreign students in Waseda in 2007, about 40% are from China. 82 Chinese students are in law faculty, some of whom I am teaching. The cultural and academic communications with China was, is and always be meaningful to Japan. Even though the Chinese system is different from ours, China is still our important neighbor.
Waseda University has claimed to be an open university, especially to Asia, declaring its policy of academic freedom, sprit of enterprising, out of power and academic independence. It has been immune from narrow-minded nationalism. However, a university should not always open to anyone. A university should have their own decision, free from political pressures, who to invite to deliver lecture to its students, based on autonomy in a university.
When a university invites a guest, he/she should be someone who all members of faculty can hail. If the guest is a head of state or politician, it is natural that certain students protest as a university is supposed to be rich in diversity in thoughts and speeches. Many heads of state and politicians have visited Waseda since its establishment, and I have never made a negative comment on each case since 11 years, except this time.
The Chinese President Hu Jintao is delivering lecture in Waseda's lecture hall tomorrow on May 8th. To be frank, I don't welcome him. I believe that executive board of Waseda University should have rejected the plan. However, the board has planned to set up his visit, even a ping-pong match with Ai Fukuhara, an Olympic athlete and a student in Waseda. Media certainly will create friendly mood, which I don't believe helps to lift Fukuda's low cabinet approval rating. I rather feel sad than sorry about the university offering to stage this ludicrous farce.
When a foreign guest gives a lecture, invitations are usually delivered to school staffs in advance. Even when it is a lecture to a limited audience, members of the related subject are to receive invitations. Some are open to students. Meanwhile, the lecture of Hu Jintao has been kept in secrecy, and no information provided even on the official website.
No announce was made to call for participation to the lecture to the students who take Chinese as the second foreign language. Unlike Jiang Zemin's visit in 1998 that was open to public, this lecture is closed, only open to the 40-ish unidentified listeners who have studied in China. They have been warned beforehand not to ask a political question to the president.
200 elite of Communist Youth League in China who are visiting along with Hu Jintao are expected to fill the lecture hall tomorrow. After having a rest in resort in central Japan, they have recovered fully to escort the president. Hu Jintao is also from the 'Communist Youth League', and got to the top of it in 1984. It is the elite training institute of Chinese communist party, and the members are so-called presidential bodyguards. Those confederate will applaud to the president, who on TV seem as Waseda students. As above, before school staffs and students in Waseda realize, the event of Waseda welcoming Hu Jintao will be carried out, which I get suspicious.
Hu Jintao is guarded as heavily as the american presidents. Some civil groups are expected to protest against him tomorrow around the lecture hall. According to the security authorities, some areas will be closed. The front gate are to be closed in the afternoon, so some classes had to change rooms. The reason (for taking a tight security) that is given is 'because of an important event'. The executive board of the university hasn't made any notice in advance, and placed the highest priority on security of the event. I wonder if it is really necessary for Waseda to invite Hu Jintao now.
The Beijing Olympics torch relay was dogged by the protests over the Tibet issue everywhere in the world except China and North Korea. The torch promoting China's propaganda was resented globally. Japan is the first country the Chinese president visits since the recent unrest in Tibet occurred, and Waseda is obviously the first foreign university where he gives a lecture since then. I'm afraid that Hu attempts to use Waseda to justify his position and policy to the world.
Despite the request from Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Waseda should have showed resourcefulness as a university (to reject Hu), while international community is monitoring the Tibet and human-rights issues of China. Now the global society is expecting Japanese government and Waseda University to refer 'human-rights issue' firmly to Hu Jintao, but they don't seem to have gut to do it.
Tibet issue has complex background, but even from the most neutral viewpoint, the China's crackdown in Tibet by force should be criticized. Chinese government is trying to drown out the protests by promoting patriotic feelings of Chinese people chanting 'Go China'.
Today, gap between rich and poor in China is increasing and it produces various issues. China deals with the protests in a harsh repressive way by force.
Hu Jintao took up a post as Communist party leader in Tibet Autonomous Region when he was 46 years old. On March 7th 1989, he declared martial law over Lhasa and had authority as the supreme commander to execute the ironfisted policy to Tibet. He is the very person who flung the army to oppress the Tibetans.
Next year will be 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square incident, the whole picture of which has not been clarified yet. During the incident, Hu placed Tibet under martial law, to prevent the movement to spread to the region. He filled a seat of Vice President of Central Military Commission 10 years after the Tiananmen Square incident.
People's Liberation Army in China is the Army that liberates 'Communist Party' from 'People', namely 'Violent Mechanism' to maintain and secure the one-party system. Therefore, the president of Central Military Commission has an advantage over a supreme commander of army. Hitler did not take (Soviet Union's) commissars as a prisoner, but issued order to shoot them, as he totally knew the particularity of a communist military. People's Liberation Army guards the party from people, as the party's army.
Hu Jintao once commanded the force as Communist party leader in Tibet Autonomous Region, and today as the Chinese President, cracked down the recent Tibetan protests by force. Western countries have condemned China's human-rights record, some of which expressed concerns by deciding to boycott the Olympic ceremony. Meanwhile, Waseda University is used by Chinese government to fend off the global criticism over the Tibet issue. This harms the university's reputation.
A well-known constitutional scholar, who has already retired, had kept refusing invitation from China, as Chinese government showed no sign to reflect on Tiananmen Square incident. I would like to clarify my statement that I do not welcome Hu Jintao's visit to Waseda University.
Tibet: Her Pain, My Shame
Tang Danhong 唐丹鸿，(born in 1965 ) is a poet and documentary filmmaker from Chengdu, Sichuan. She has made several documentaries in and about Tibet since the 1990s. She wrote the following essay this week and published it on her own blog (hosted outside of China), partially translated by CDT:
… For more than a decade, I have frequently entered Tibet and often stayed there for a long time, traveling or working. I have met all kinds of Tibetans, from youngsters on the streets, folk artists, herders on the grasslands, mystic doctors in mountain villages, to ordinary cadres in state agencies, street vendors in Lhasa, monks and cleaners in monasteries, artists and writers…Among those Tibetans I have met, some frankly told me that Tibet was a small country several decades ago, with its own government, religious leader, currency and military; some stay silent, with a sense of helplessness, and avoid talking with me, a Han Chinese, afraid this is an awkward subject. Some think that no matter what happened, it is an historical fact that Chinese and Tibetans had a long history of exchanges with each other, and the relationship must be carefully maintained by both sides. Some were angered by the railway project, and by those roads named “Beijing Road,” “Jiangsu Road,” “Sichuan-Tibet road,” but others accept them happily. Some say that you (Han Chinese) invest millions in Tibet but you also got what you wanted and even more; some say you invest in the development but you also destroy, and what you destroy is exactly what we treasure….. What I want to say here is that no matter how different these people are, they have one thing in common: They have their own view of history, and a profound religious belief.
For anyone who has been to Tibet, he/she should sense such a religious belief among Tibetans. As the matter of fact, many are shocked by it. Such attitude has carried on throughout their history, and is expressed in their daily lives. This is a very different value, especially compared with those Han Chinese who have no beliefs, and now worship the cult of money. This religious belief is what Tibetans care about the most. They project this belief onto the Dalai Lama as a religious persona.
……
For anyone who has been to Tibet, it should not be strange to see the “common Tibetan scene”: Is there any Tibetan who does not worship him (the Dalai Lama)? Is there any Tibetan unwilling to hang up his photo in his own shrine? (These photos are smuggled back in from abroad, secretly copied and enlarged, not like those Mao portraits printed by the government that we Han Chinese once had to hang up.) Is there any Tibetan who wants to verbally disrepect the Dalai Lama? Is there a Tibetan who does not want to see him? Is there any Tibetan who does not want to present Hada [white welcoming scarf] to him?
Other than those voices that the rulers want to hear, have we ever heard the Tibetans’ full, real voices? Those Han Chinese who have been in Tibet, now matter if one is a high official, government cadre, tourist or businessman, have we all heard their real voices, which are silenced, but are still echoing everywhere?
Is this the real reason that all monasteries in Tibet are forbidden from hanging up the Dalai Lama’s picture? Is this the reason that all work units have officials to check in every household and to punish those who hang up his picture? Is this the reason that the government has people to stop those believers on the pilgrimage path on every religious celebration day? Is this the reason for the policy barring government employees from having their children study in Dharamsala; otherwise, they will be fired and their house will be taken away? Is this the reason that at all sensitive times, government officials will hold meetings in monasteries, to force monks to promise to “support the Party’s leadership” and “Have no relations with the Dalai splitist cliques”? Is this the reason we refuse to negotiate, and constantly use dehumanizing language to humiliate him? After all, isn’t this the very reason to reinforce the “common Tibetan scene,” making this symbol of nationality more holy? ……
Why can’t we sit down with the Dalai Lama who has abandoned calls for “independence” and now advocates a “middle way,” and negotiate with him with sincerity, to achieve “stability” and “unity” through him?
Because the power difference of the two sides is too big. We are too many people, too powerful: Other than guns and money, and cultural destruction and spiritual rape, we do not know other ways to achieve “harmony.”
……
This group of people who believe in Buddhism because they believe in cause and effect and transmigration of souls, oppose anger and hatred, developed a philosophy that Han nationalists will never be able to understand. Several Tibetan monk friends, just the “troublemaker monk” type that are in the monasteries explained to me their view on “independence”: “actually, we may well have been ethnic Han in a previous incarnation, and in our next incarnation we might well become ethnic Han. And some ethnic Han in a previous life may well have been Tibetan or may become Tibetan in their next life. Foreigners or Chinese, men or women, lovers aand enemies, the souls of the world transmigrate without end. As the wheel turns, states arise and die, so what need is there for independence?” This kind of religion, this kind of believer, can one ever think that they would be easy to control? Yet there is a paradox here: if one wants them to give up the desire for independence, then one must respect and protect their religion.
……
Not long ago, I read some posts by some radical Tibetans on an online forum about Tibet. These posts were roughly saying: “We do not believe in Buddhism, we do not believe in karma. But we have not forgotten that we are Tibetan. We have not forgotten our homeland. Now we believe the philosophy of you Han Chinese: Power comes out of the barrel of a gun! Why did you Han Chinese come to Tibet? Tibet belongs to Tibetans. Get out of Tibet!”
Of course behind those posts, there are an overwhelming number of posts from Han “ patriots.” Almost without exception, those replies are full of words such as “Kill them!” “Wipe them out!” “Wash them with blood!” “Dalai is a liar!” — those “passions” of the worshippers of violence that we are all so familiar with.
When I read these posts, I feel so sad. So this is karma. ……
In the last week, after I put down the phone which cannot reach anyone on the the other end, when I face the information black hole caused by internet blockage, even I believe what Xinhua has said — strangely I do believe this part: There were Tibetans who set fire to shops and killed those poor innocent Han Chinese who were just there to make a living. And I still feel extremely sad. Since when were such seeds planted? During the gunshots of 1959? During the massive destruction during the Cultural Revolution? During the crackdown in 1989? During the time we put their Panchen Lama under house arrest and replaced him with our own puppet? During those countless political meetings and confessions in the monasteries? Or during the time when a seventeen-year-old nun was shot on the magnificent snowy mountain, just because she wanted to see the Dalai Lama? ……..
Or during numerous moments which seem trivial but which make me ashamed: I was ashamed when I saw Tibetans buy live fish from Han fish sellers on the street and put them back in the Lhasa river; I was ashamed when I saw more and more Han beggars on the streets of Lhasa–even beggars know it is easier to beg in Tibet than in Han areas; I felt ashamed when I saw those ugly scars from mines on the sacred mountains in the morning sunlight; I felt ashamed when I heard the Han Chinese elite complain that the Chinese government has invested so many millions of yuan, that economic policy favors Tibetans, and that the GDP has grown so fast, so, “What else do these Tibetans want?”
Why can’t you understand that people have different values? While you believe in brainwashing, the power of a gun and of money, there is a spiritual belief that has been in their minds for thousands of years and cannot be washed away. When you claim yourselves as “saviors of Tibetans from slavery society,” I am ashamed for your arrogance and your delusions. When military police with their guns pass by me in the streets of Lhasa, and each time I am there I can see row upon row of military bases… yes, I, a Han Chinese, feel ashamed.
……
What makes me feel most ashamed is the “patriotic majority”: You people are the decedents of Qinshi Huangdi who knows only conquering by killing; you are the chauvinists who rule the weak by force; you are those cowards who hide behind guns and call for shooting the victims; you suffer from Stockholm Syndrome; you are the blood-thirsty crazies of an “advanced” culture of Slow slicing and Castration. You are the sick minds waving the “patriotic” flag. I look down on you. If you are Han Chinese, I am ashamed to be one of you.
Lhasa is on fire, and there are gunshots in Tibetan areas in Sichuan and Qinghai. Even I believe this — actually, I do believe this part of the facts. In those “patriotic” posts which shout “Kill them!” “Wipe them out!” “Wash them with blood!” “Dalai is a liar!” I saw the mirror image of those Tibetan radicals. Let me say that you people (“patriotic youth”) are Han chauvinists who destroy thousands of years of friendship between Han and Tibetan people; you are the main contributors to the hatred between ethnic groups. You people do not really “highly support” the authority; rather, you people are in effect “highly supporting” “Tibetan independence.”
Tibet is disappearing. The spirit which makes her beautiful and peaceful is disappearing. She is becoming us, becoming what she does not want to become. What other choice does she have when facing the anxiety of being alienated? To hold onto her tradition and culture, and revive her ancient civilization? Or to commit suicidal acts which will only add to Han nationalists’ bloody, shameful glory?
Yes, I love Tibet. I am a Han Chinese who loves Tibet, regardless of whether she is a nation or a province, as long as she is so voluntarily. Personally, I would like to have them (Tibetans) belong to the same big family with me. I embrace relationships which come self-selected and on equal footing, not controlled or forced, both between peoples and nations. I have no interest in feeling “powerful,” to make others fear you and be forced to obey you, both between people and between nations, because what’s behind such a “feeling” is truly disgusting. I have left her (Tibet) several years ago, and missing her has become part of my daily life. I long to go back to Tibet, as a welcomed Han Chinese, to enjoy a real friendship as equal neighbor or a family member.
2008．3．21
(Tang Danhong moved to Israel from Chengdu in 2005, and is currently teaching Chinese language at Tel Aviv University.)
Tibetan Buddhism - Modernity which values a dialogue
By Noriyuki Ueda, Associate Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology
2008. May 1. Asahi morning edition (circulation: 9 million)
URL:
http://www.asahi.com/
I want to point out that there is something missing in the discussion over the Tibet issue. Along with the current affairs, we need to consider the meaning of the issue in the context of the civilization history, especially in the 'Buddhism' perspective.
I had a 2-day long talk with the Dalai Lama 14th in December, 2006*, and I found his Buddhism thoughts simply amazing, which is both traditional and modern, extremely future-oriented and fresh. To treat the issue only from a political viewpoint seems to be caused by a superficial understanding.
(* Details of the talk is described in my book published in NHK books in the year 2007. English version is scheduled for publication)
Dalai Lama's thoughts is siding deeply with the weak and the sufferers. Basically, Great Vehicle Buddhism represents the Bodhisattva's spirit that gives relief to those who suffers. Tibet was established by the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva who listens to every sufferers, whose incarnation is the Dalai Lama, so 'compassion' has been serving as a significant bearing in the Tibetan Buddhism tradition.
Meanwhile, Tibetan Buddhism is also very modern. After the Dalai Lama exiled himself to India, he has been energetically talking with scientists, economists, and others from various fields and countries, to seek for the root of problems the modern world has. As a result of the exile, the local Buddhism in Tibet has grown into the world Buddhism that faces the universal pains.
Tibetan Buddhism, which was still pre-modern 50 years ago, has now developed into the thoughts that inspire the post-modern world.
'People of religions needs to teach lessens to ourselves, otherwise we will easily start exploiting people', 'Probably, I am more left-wing than the Chinese officials today', said Dalai Lama, which was a wicked surprise to me. I could observe his penetrating intelligence in those words, which had been exploring possibilities of compassion in the modern world.
Dalai Lama keeps nonviolence and calls for a resolution by a dialogue against the Chinese oppression since decades and the recent crackdown in Tibet.
Not condemning particular people for the violence and fighting back, but he seeks for causes in the complex background and attempts a solution by a dialogue that internal values of each side are to be discovered. His nonviolent approach based on the Buddhism practice is widely supported by the people in the world.
China invaded Tibet 50 years ago with the justification of saving the inferior.
Today, China, in comparison with the future-oriented Tibetan Buddhism, is revealed to remain in retard. The places have been traded during 50 years.
The whole world is now observing the situation severely, trying to decide which one of them is the one who takes side with the weak and suffering.
What Japanese should do now? First of all, Japan should urge China, who is our neighbor friend isolated from the international community, to refrain from its anachronistic insistence about Tibet and violating human rights and cultural oppression.
Also, Japanese buddhists should develop the Japanese buddhism to the same hight of Tibetan buddhism for the pains of modern society. Japanese traditional Buddhist sects have been failing to do so, but on the other hand, some young monks have began to change it by hosting the local civil activities at the temples, transmitting information actively across the internet and crossing sectarian line to talk about the future of Japanese buddhism, which is welcomed and much-anticipated by the public.
Japan should respond sufficiently to Tibet that keeps giving a compassion to the world even while facing danger of extinct.
最終更新：2008年05月14日 21:06
