Then there’s Nepal which seems perfectly content to resort to its historical status of being a Chinese client state. They too have sent riot police to violently disperse pro-Tibet protests without any official explanation.

And the West is no better. The US has just taken China off the top 10 list of violaters of human rights. Everyone’s calling for restraint etc but making sure to placate the Chinese by acknowledging their stance that Tibet is part of China. Is China really so insecure that they need a verbal confirmation from Western governments each week that they don’t support an independent Tibet/Taiwan?

Ultimately we have so much tied up in China that we can’t afford to mess them about. Britain says they always raise the topic of human rights when they meet with the Chinese – I can imagine how that conversation goes…

“We are concerned about human rights practices in China…”
“Human rights are the internal affairs of China and we are making steady improvements in the field.”
“Great, let’s talk business and investment.”

We have come to the point where China thinks it can just throw its weight around and be counted as a credible member of the international community. They actively threaten other sovereign nations with disruption in business and co-operation over international issues if their heads of state meet the Dalai Lama. That’s China actively telling us which world religious leaders we can and cannot see. We also ask China to provide assistance in Darfur and Burma since they fund these regimes but ultimately it look like China simply used Burma as a case study. A protest started by monks which grew to involve everyday people. It needs to be stopped but can’t involve a Tiananmen-style massacre.

The international community should take a stand on this and show some backbone instead of kowtowing to a country which for centuries has held the belief that they are the most civilized people in the world and is only encouraged when global criticism to their actions amounts to the current whisper.

What I am most interested in is what Lee Myung-bak’s reaction is going to be. If there is a country in the world that knows about unwanted occupations it is the Koreans. However will Lee have the moral courage to speak out against the unwanted occupation of Tibet?

With all of Lee’s rhetoric about promoting human rights here is his chance.