China fails history test, compares invasion of Tibet to Lincoln's fight to end slavery

Reuters has reported that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang,
today stated that Barack Obama should be especially sympathetic to
China's opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence, due to
his status as a black president who is known to admire Abraham Lincoln
for abolishing slavery. (Reuters article)

Reuters quoted Qin as saying:

"He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition
movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement". Qin
continued: "Lincoln played an incomparable role in protecting the
national unity and territorial integrity of the United States."

Reacting to Qin's comments, Director of Free Tibet, Stephanie Brigden,
said:

"It is an insult for the unelected and authoritarian Chinese government
to suggest that an instinctive democrat such as Abraham Lincoln would
have sided with China in seeking to deny the Tibetan people their
fundamental right to determine their own future. Lincoln would have
interpreted the constant demands by Tibetans in last year's
demonstrations for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet as irrefutable
proof of the legitimacy of the Dalai Lama in representing the Tibetan
people.

But by trying to be clever, and attempting to liken its occupation of
Tibet with Lincoln's fight to abolish slavery while preserving the
Union, China has merely underlined its inability to recognize what true
freedom looks like."

Demonstrations of Tibetan support for the legitimacy of the Dalai Lama
and the Tibetan government in exile, both during last year's
demonstrations and before, have been recognized by the US Congress which
has passed a law on this subject:

"Tibet's true representatives are the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan
Government in exile as recognized by the Tibetan people"

(Section 355, H.R. 1415, FY1992-93 Foreign Relations Authorization Act,
Public Law 102-138)

Qin's comments, coming only four days before President Obama arrives in
Beijing for a US-China Summit, appear to serve as a warning to President
Obama not to speak out against China's ongoing human rights abuses in
Tibet while he is in Beijing and to underline China's opposition to any
future meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama. In a
statement dated October 5, the Dalai Lama's Special Envoy, Lodi Gyari,
stated that "His Holiness agreed to meet the President after the
November US-China Summit."

Ends

For further information:

Matt Whitticase, External Communications: t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44
(0)7515 788456 or email: matt@freetibet.org

Stephanie Brigden, Director: t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7530 528264
or email stephanie@freetibet.org

Matt Whitticase
External Communications

T: 0207 324 4605
M: 07515 788456
S: mattwhitticase
W: www.freetibet.org