‘Chinese Gulag’ in Tibet

To most readers, reading the Feb. 21 and Feb. 22 editions of The Times can be quite confusing. First you condemn the Chinese government’s handling of Tibet; the next day, on the front page, you show China’s strong Korean minority. Hopefully, your readers can read your opinions and realize the true news.

The position taken by the Chinese government to its 55 minorities should be applauded. These minorities, including the Uigur, Hui, Yi, Manchu, Mongols, Koreans and the Tibetans, compose of less than 6% of the nation’s population. Yet the respect they received from this communist government is more than any minority receives in the democratic United States.

In a country with no NAACP, ACLU, JDL, etc., to help the minorities, China has granted more ethnic and religious freedom to their inhabitants than America ever will. For example, in primary and secondary education, the minority groups are allowed to teach everything in their own language and only one hour of Han Chinese is required. In the United States, minorities are coerced to adopt English in schools. You speak of human rights violations in China, yet isn’t the forced depletion of ethnic identity a blatant permanent violation of human rights? Americans have to preserve their identity after school or on the weekends.

The Chinese government has sealed up Tibet from foreign journalists because many tend to only report one side of the story. I am free to go to Tibet because I make no attempt to brainwash the Tibetans into thinking their ethnic and religious rights have been violated. If you want to report on these topics, look in your own backyard.

TEH-HAN P. CHOW

Northridge