Palden Choetso, 35, and a Tibetan Buddhist nun from the Kham Tawo region of Eastern Tibet, set herself on fire today as she called for the long life of the Dalai Lama (story). She has apparently died from her burns.
This news arrives on the heels of learning yesterday that the Confucius Institute, a cultural organization tied directly to the Chinese government, had offered Stanford University $4 million to endow a professorship in Chinese, with one condition: Stanford must refrain from speaking about Tibet in any fashion. Richard Saller, Stanford's Dean of Humanities and Sciences, refused these draconian terms, and China, of course backed down (story).
Good for Dean Saller.
There are currently 75 Confucius Institutes at American schools and universities, and while they are not all set up blatantly to propagandize about Chinese oppression in Tibet, the Chinese government clearly feels that it must address the pro-Tibet feelings that have been growing for years on many American campuses. And the Confucius Institute is one way of doing that.
Besides, eleven Tibetans have now undertaken extreme acts of heroism that the Chinese government cannot control or spin or filter. Eleven nonviolent monks and nuns vs. the Chinese empire . . . and the whole world is watching.
I'm thankful for the role that our universities and our students have played in raising awareness about the current occupation of Tibet by the Chinese government. At a time when American higher education wrestles with enormous problems regarding funding and curricular matters, it is heartening to see that the Chinese government, at least, sees us as a threat to their designs on Tibet.
China, in fact, seems to take us more seriously than many of our legislators.
