Climbers banned from Everest as China seeks to stop protests on summit

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Title – Climbers banned from Everest as China seeks to stop protests on summit
Source – The Independent
Date – 17th March 2008

For years now the Chinese government has been seeking to ingratiate itself with the rest of the world and the rest of the world has been happy to turn a blind eye to their appalling human rights record and promote all that is good in China; massive economic growth, economic growth prospects that other governments ignore at their peril (after all they we want a cut of the action to come), development at a pace not seen since the industrial revolution and what seemed to be a process of opening up a country that for decades was closed to the rest of the world and marginalised. But no longer; China is no shrinking violet and I have yet to find anyone to contradict the view that China is well on it’s way to becoming the ‘third super-power’. So should we be worried and what can we do?

Well realistically there is nothing much we can do, China is well on the way to being one of the world’s economic super powers and is using this new wealth to build its military power, no one is really in any doubt that its intentions are to become a force to be reckoned with in the world.

What should concern us is not that China is growing, because to a degree that it great for the Chinese people themselves, what should concern us is how it is achieving this massive growth and at what cost? For a few years now the Chinese PR machine has been pumping out good news stories, ever since the Tiananmen square massacre, there have not really been too many headline bad news stories about China and governments are terrified to criticise or highlight those that do come out for fear of China ‘cutting them off’. So the world has not had to deal with its conscience too much, because we have managed to conveniently ignore the millions that have been forcible removed for controversial 3 rivers dam project and the millions that have been forcibly been moved to make way for expanding cities and the million that have been forcibly moved for the Olympics...

The latter however is starting to catch up with the Chinese and questions are staring to be asked about what measures the Chinese government are willing to take to ensure the success of the Games and what measures the opponents to the Chinese government are willing to take to highlight their causes while the worlds media spotlight is firmly pointed in their direction. The first big move in this chess game to really catch the world’s attention is Tibet and the continued struggle that has been playing out there for nearly 50 years since the Chinese annexation of that country. For anyone who thought the Chinese government had changed in that time and anyone who thought that they had liberalised, their action will come as a shock; for those who believe that the communist era was coming to an end and a pseudo dictatorship being established in its place, their actions will be less of a shock.

At the first sign of trouble, in go the troops, out come the guns, out go the cameras and media and out go the outside world’s eyes. As for the Tibetans, they face the full force of the Chinese military that has been slowly building in strength thanks to their new economic power. If the Tibetans faced the horror of their actions in the 80’s now they face an even stronger opponent, an opponent unwilling to change and opponent unwilling to enter into dialogue.

Travellers should take heed, especially this year. The Chinese authorities make no concessions to their own, let alone the outside world; the next 5 or 6 months in the lead up to the Olympics will be ‘interesting’ and unpredictable. For now Tibet has been closed, mount Everest has been all but closed and although China purports to be welcoming visitors in unprecedented numbers this summer, they and they alone will decide where those visitors go and what they do. Travel to China has always been tough, it may yet get tougher and travellers attending our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety and Awareness workshop are urged to plan travel with their own personal safety in mind, but also to examine the need for responsible and ethical travel as well. Travel can be a force for good in some countries, but only where there is an understanding of the problems in the countries you visit and an understanding of how to travel in a manner whereby you make a positive difference not a negative one.
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