China’s Pre-Olympics PR: Tibetans Are People, not Props for a Photo Opp

You would think George Bush’s massive failure to communicate himself out of the Iraq invasion quagmire would serve as a lesson for other major powers.

The Chinese spin on the Tibetan protests are clear and consistent: the Dalai Lama is a lying, scheming radical fomenting rebellion in an otherwise peaceful part of China.

In an almost unprecedented gesture toward transparency, Chinese officials briefly allowed western journalists into Tibet to see for themselves the deaths and damage caused by radicals.

Faced with almost certain imprisonment, monks interrupted the media tour to express their unhappiness with Chinese rule of Tibet.

The Chinese government can spin all they want, but it won’t change the western conviction that the people of Tibet are being kept in line through force and intimidation, not through open discussion.

You can dress up a crackdown with spin, but photos of bleeding monks and sound bites of Tibetans calling for freedom belie the official party line.