I thought the ones taken at the site of the butchery did the job just fine.

Technology rip-off is not a topic here, so let’s leave it here. But I have a quick word for it: Chinese companies are learning lessons and will be better and respect the rules.

Tibet

The Dalai Lama speaks with action and not words that he wants independence. This is not a question of fear.

My “slave owner” argument is just to alert you to the fact what the Dalai Lama was. Talking about how Tibet has progressed socially and economically and politically since He left, T.A.R.’s ordinary residents have the right to say, not the Dalai Lama and his government in exile because the two do not represent the Tibetan people. In that case, the government of T.A.R. does. I say Bush is only interested in the crude oil his political sponsors can drill in Iraq, not the welfare of the Iraqi people.

Sorry I have misled you by calling the process “appoint”. The final choice of the Dalai Lama rests with Beijing, no matter who sits there. This shows who the real boss is. This has been the case for centuries.
Migration within our country is not forbidden by law here and needs no one’s permission. T.A.R. is a Chinese territory. And under the current administrative structure, its Tibetan tag doesn’t make it different from the rest of the mainland for that matter. That’s why my parents migrated from Sichuan to Heilongjiang in the late 1970s and why I migrated from Heilongjiang to Beijing in 2002.

I don’t know what the cases are in Canada, the UK, and Czech –Slovakia. In China, its territories cannot decide to go independent on their own. China’s urban areas are owned by the government and rural areas by the collectives. If the government and the collectives as a whole say no to independence, no such things happen. I think the issue of independence is another one that best displays the West’s hypocrisy. I doubt that its capitalists and the bosses of its politicians will be pleased to see their countries cut up.

Chinese media

Talking about journalists’ professionalism, China’s might rank among the worst trained ones. They do funny things every day.

Tibet
It seems to me (At least,) that the West media people follow some kind of sterotypes of China and when they write about China they just put together pieces to reinforce the stereotype.
I agree that many media – both those with a good name and those with less credit – often work this way. By far not every story is well-researched. However, I disagree that high-end commercial media such as “Der Spiegel” have no problem with photos from the wrong place. It does actually do them harm. Besides, the stereotyping frequently affects German politicians in a way that I woudn’t consider justified either. Bad news sells – and if the readers and viewers want to have them, they shall have them. I don’t advocate censorship.
And although I agree with some of your views on Western media, I don’t think that this makes a line like “China represses Tibetan freedom” wrong. If Chinese rule was as good for the Tibetans as your media say, your government would have little to fear from the Dalai Lama, no matter if he tried to speak to them from Dharamsala or from Lhasa.
The “slave owner” argument doesn’t convince me either. If you want to better the lot of a nation by force, you could call president Bush a well-intentioned man for invading Iraq.
I won’t argue about the question if the Chinese central government has the prerogative of installing the Dalai Lamas – I only doubt that the central government plays a role in the Tibetan procedures of finding a Dalai Lama’s successor. Anyway, I see no chance for Tibetans to make choices against the will of the Chinese government anyway, and the movement of Chinese settlers into the territory would make a peaceful path to Tibetan independence unfeasible and undesirable, too.
That said, the Han population within Tibet isn’t something I can blame the Tibetans for – those migrations were permitted by Beijing. If Tibetans want to continue to pursue the idea of independence, I won’t speak out against that. Quebec had two popular votes about leaving Canada since the 1980s; Scotland may soon have one about leaving the United Kingdom, and Slovakia left the union with the Czech Republic in 1993. If the Bavarians decided to break away from Germany, I’d support their right to do so.

Chinese views of German media
I know that many Chinese viewers (most of them, I’d guess) consider the misplacing of the photos intentional. That’s OK with me. I referred to this perception to explain what I found funny in that context, and why I prefer to make fun of that, rather than deploring it. It is for every individual reader to come to his or her own conclusions.

China is a continuum including parts that look like from devastated Africa to wealthy North America. When referring to China, it should be made clear which part of it is being referred to.

As for German media’s mistakes, unprofessionalism or not, Chinese viewers accuse it of intentionally misplacing the photos because they don’t trust German media, as part of the West mdia, which dominates the world opinions.

It seems to me (At least,) that the West media people follow some kind of sterotypes of China and when they write about China they just put together pieces to reinforce the stereotype. in the case of Tibetan riots, “China is bad, China invades Tibet, China represses Tibetan freedom”. To re-prove this, the media guys put together everything they find and it does matter if the photos are taken from a wrong place. To them, the argument is good, evidence is not a problem. Do they know the rioters are mobs who attack both Han and Tibetan Chinese? And, as for their blue-eyed boy the Dalai Lama, do they know that the Dalai Lama had been the biggest SLAVE OWNER in Tibet and RAN TIBET AS ANYTHING BUT Shangri-La until the new Chinese central government inforced the national laws in that region in the 1950s? Do they know that the Dalai Lama had historically been installed as a Tibetan ruler by China’s central government and He was, is and will be appointed by China’s central government?

Obvious mistakes are bound to be pointed out, and that’s not in the interest of the publishers. First of all, they need to sell their stories, and they can’t do that if people doubt their professionalism.

What I think is funny is that the first accusation from Chinese readers was that these mismatches were intentional. Such mistakes aren’t only pointed out by Chinese readers, but also by local readers who are familiar with the issues – which makes the media looking bad.
I could also say it’s sad rather than funny that there are people who are too paranoid to see the likelihood of these causes and results – but I prefer to take things easy if I can’t do much about them. For an even-handed viewer, the likely origins of the Nepal-Tibet confusion should be obvious. As far as German commercial media with some prestige are concerned, no political slant will make them risk becoming their readers’ laughing stock.

One word about media bias in general: yes – media, just like people, are usually biased, and currently, I’d say German media – viewed from my position – are rather biased against China than in its favor. Then again, until some two years ago, I’d say they were biased in China’s favor. Issues like technological rip-offs were no issue at all (and I think it is important that they are an issue), and some German politicians would even avoid meeting the Dalai Lama. Btw – as long as the German medias’ bias favored your country, I didn’t hear Chinese people complain.

Given the age, early 30s (me) and early 40s (JR), I don’t think we will be able to to harmonize each other.

I saw nothing funny about this way of media reporting on our Tibet.

What I know is that people in the West are brought up to believe Tibet was not and should not be part of China.

I would not even attempt at harmonizing JR if I were you. You have no idea how incorrigible he is …