The Tibet Problem in the Milieu of a Rising China: findings from a survey on Americans' attitudes toward China
2014; Routledge; Volume: 24; Issue: 92 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/10670564.2014.932152
ISSN1469-9400
Autores Tópico(s)China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations
ResumoAbstractThe Lhasa riots in 2008 re-captured the world's attention on the Tibet problem. As China continues to grow as a rising power, it raises a concern over whether the perception of a rising China will affect how American people think about the Tibet problem. In this article, the authors apply public opinion data to evaluate this question. The results show that the perception of China's hard power or soft power has little influence on Americans' view of the Tibet problem, while factors of political values and China's policy stance matter greatly. Our findings suggest that the huge difference in political values between the PRC and the US makes it tough for both sides to agree on a resolution to the Tibet problem. In the long term, China needs to improve its human rights record and present itself as a responsible great power to win over the hearts of foreign publics rather than conduct a public relations campaign according to its own imagination. Notes 1. 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Two alternative questions were included, the only difference between them being the use of 'worsened' or 'jeopardized' to express different degrees of political consequence if Obama were to meet the Dalai Lama. The result of the experiment indicates that there is no significant difference regardless of the verbs used.47. Democrats hold 57 positions in the Senate (out of a total of 100, Republicans hold the remaining 43 positions), and 258 in the House (out of a total of 435); see GuoYonghu, US Congress and the 'Tibet Problem' in Sino–American Relations. The democratic President Clinton became the first to meet the Dalai Lama in the White House in 1995, and made 'improvement of the human rights situation in Tibet a condition for renewal of the privileged trade status'. The Congress, however, went a step further to establish a Voice of America Tibetan, which declared Tibet an 'occupied country' in 1995, forced the appointment of a Special Coordinator for Tibetan Affairs who is responsible for liaising with the TGIE in 1997, and so on and so forth. See, Sautman, 'The Tibet issue in post-summit Sino–American relations'; Guangqiu Xu, 'The United States and the Tibet issue', Asian Survey 37(11), (1997), pp. 1062–1077.48. See James Reilly, 'China's unilateral sanctions', The Washington Quarterly 35(4), (2012), pp. 121–133.49. China's economic sanctions are more bark than bite. For instance, Paris issued a strong statement recognizing Tibet as part of China's integral territory right after Sarkozy had a meeting with the Dalai Lama in December 2008. Nine months later, China put France back on the shopping list again. 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