The executive director of Student for Free Tibet, Tenzin Dorjee in a recent article in the HuffPost has pointed out 5 reasons for stopping Donald Trump’s policy of cancelling US’s Aid to Tibet. Tenzin Dorjee’s 5 reasons to stop Trump cutting Tibet AID lists out very convincing and relevant points which the world, especially US should read!
Following are the 5 reasons pointed out by Tenzin Dorjee, a Tibetan writer, activist based in New York:
- Tibetans are waging a nonviolent struggle against tyranny and oppression:
“Cutting aid to nonviolent programs is a terrible way of fighting terrorism and violence. The most effective way to promote lasting peace and discourage war is by helping nonviolent movements to survive and succeed.” writes the author.
- Tibet is one of the few bipartisan issues remaining in the polarized American politics of today:
“In these divisive times, we need common ground issues like Tibet to provide the neutral platforms on which Democrats and Republican Members of Congress can rebuild friendship and mutual understanding.”
- The Tibet aid program is not charity, it’s a reparation of sorts:
“When China invaded Tibet, tens of thousands of Tibetans fought against Mao’s army. The Cold War was at its height and Americans knew little about China. So the US decided to use the Tibetans to contain the Communist expansion and to secure intelligence about China, which was largely inaccessible to Westerners. The CIA ran a covert operation to train and finance Tibetan guerrillas. But the agency’s commitment to the operation was half-hearted and the supplies drastically inadequate. For 25,000 Tibetan soldiers in southern Tibet, for instance, the CIA dropped 700 old guns left over from WWII – barely enough to defeat a battalion, much less an army. Nevertheless, the Tibetans carried out a series of raids on Chinese military convoys. One such raid resulted in the capture of 1,500 Chinese documents containing the first concrete evidence of the “failure of Mao’s Great Leap Forward, famine, and discontent within the PLA.”
- India is bolstering its support for Tibet, and so should the US:
“India and the US, to step up and assert their leadership by supporting the nations that are engaged in life-and-death struggles for freedom, democracy and self-determination.”
- Tibetans still believe in America:
“Tibetans are one of the last remaining people on the planet who still believe in America – a rare and endangered species these days – and place their faith in the value of freedom and the virtue of democracy.”