Politics follows Dalai Lama to Seattle

Wendy Liu of Mercer Island grew up in China, hearing about an old Tibet where slaves suffered inhumane treatment. Her teenage son grew up in the U.S., hearing about Tibet's spiritual leader as the voice of peace and compassion.

Liu doesn't object to her son's wish to see the Dalai Lama in Seattle, but she wants him to know the other side.

"I told him it was nice the Dalai Lama now talks about compassion, freedom, peace and democracy, but people should know he's a changed person," said Liu, a writer and consultant. "The class system of old Tibet was really bad, and he was head of that system."

The Dalai Lama's visit, while intended to be nonpolitical, is bringing out strong feelings in the local community, even within families. Like the Beijing Olympics, an event intended to be about sports, the Dalai Lama's trip is inextricably tied to politics — much as its organizers had hoped otherwise.

The five-day event, which begins today, is sponsored by the local nonprofit Seeds of Compassion. It comes after the Olympic torch relay that sparked protests in Europe and San Francisco, much of them about China's human-rights record and policies in Tibet.

Some say that, like the Olympic Games, it may be difficult to distance the event from politics.

"It really cannot totally be separated — the Dalai Lama and the Tibet issue," acknowledged Tashi Namgyal, president of the Tibetan Association of Washington.

Organizers "can do everything themselves nonpolitically," said Albert Shen, a Chinese-American business owner in Seattle. "But they can't control what's going to be around outside the event."

The Dalai Lama seems to have acknowledged as much. Seeds organizers said Thursday he will take part in a news conference, at a time and place to be determined.

Views largely unheard

Some Chinese Americans in particular say that their views, which vary widely, have gone largely unheard in recent weeks.

J. Li, an engineering instructor at the University of Washington, says the highly publicized protests against China in San Francisco galvanized some local Chinese people who normally stay away from politics.

"All the news coverage so far related to Tibet and the Olympic torch relay are one-sided, and our voice has not been taken into account at all," he said.

"In San Francisco, there was a very large turnout from the Chinese community to support and celebrate this torch relay," Li said. "The number of supporters way outnumbered the protesters, but if you look at the headlines it's all about the protests."

Chinese supporters in Seattle began organizing online and plan to march at the UW Monday from Red Square to the Edmundson Pavilion, where the Dalai Lama is speaking.

This week, members of the UW Chinese Students and Scholars Association met with UW officials, urging that the Dalai Lama's appearance there not be turned in to a podium for political posturing.

At the UW, students will get to ask the Dalai Lama about his views on compassion, peace and relationships — but not on politics.

About 60 students had responded when UW officials asked last month for questions for the Dalai Lama. About eight wanted to ask about China or Tibet. But when UW officials picked 14 students to ask questions at the event, politics was deliberately left out.

"This isn't a news conference and it's not a seminar," UW President Mark Emmert said. "We asked students to submit questions related to the event, which is the seeds of compassion — the spiritual and scientific basis for compassionate behavior."

Karma Wangdu, president of the Seattle Tibetan Youth Congress, said he'd like to see the Dalai Lama address politics while at the UW. "I think it's important to tell grown-up students what's really going on in Tibet," he said.

The Youth Congress plans to hold a candlelight vigil Saturday at Westlake Park in honor of Tibetans killed in recent riots in Tibet, but organizers are asking participants to bring only candles and prayer wheels, not banners or posters.

The Chinese government is blaming the Dalai Lama for protests worldwide, Wangdu said, and protesting would only play into that accusation.

Namgyal, the Tibetan Association of Washington president, says local Tibetans don't see a need to demonstrate while the Dalai Lama is in town, since his presence already draws attention to issues inside Tibet.

Namgyal wants China to "look beyond the official position that everything's fine over there. ... If they really treat Tibetans as an inseparate part of China, they should treat them more humanely and more gently than they are now."

Anger "disheartening"

Seeing "the anger and hatred of Tibetan protesters toward the Chinese is disheartening," said Liu, the Mercer Island writer who grew up in Xi'an, China, but has lived in the U.S. for 20 years.

She remembers learning as a schoolgirl about the culture and history of Tibet as an autonomous region of China that benefitted from decades of Chinese investment.

"I feel upset because in the West I have come to realize it's really hard to bring out the truth of history or events," Liu said. "There's always two sides, but nobody is able to put them together."

Shen, the Seattle business owner, said some local Chinese Americans are being careful about their reactions because "a lot of them have Chinese interests abroad and they don't want to upset those interests — business interests primarily."

Shen finds a lack of understanding and some hypocrisy in the uproar surrounding the Olympic Games and the situation in Tibet.

American politicians calling for a boycott of the Olympics' Opening Ceremony don't understand how important China is internationally, he said. It is "now a superpower or becoming a superpower."

What he finds hypocritical is American political leaders making statements about the Tibet situation and human rights in China, when "we are doing worse things in the Middle East."

He's not sure he agrees with China's policy on Tibet. But "that's China's policy and its own decision to make."

Politicizing such events is not necessarily a good thing, said C.C. Tien, a retired Boeing engineer who is managing editor of the Chinese American Forum magazine.

"I think it's really not doing a good service for the Tibetans or the relationship between China and other countries," Tien said. "I don't think this will force China's hand to recognize him [the Dalai Lama]. It will make the situation worse.

"He's old already — what happens when he's gone? China can wait. He cannot."

Liu agreed.

Chinese citizens are so unhappy with the disruption of the Olympic torch relay that "they don't want to hear what Tibetans say," she said. "Tibetans say they need freedom, but they wouldn't want to hear what Chinese have known about Tibet."

Namgyal, the state Tibetan Association president, believes people should try to take "every issue in its own context," he said.

"Today he [the Dalai Lama] is here purely to promote compassion, kindness among the children," he said. "That's the main goal and purpose of his coming here."