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Free Minds & Free Markets

The Dalai Lama Is the Latest Speaker to Cause a Campus Freakout

Chinese UC San Diego students felt the Tibetan spiritual leader "contravened the spirit of respect, tolerance, equality, and earnestness"

*christopher* | Flickr*christopher* | Flickr"UCSD is a place for students to cultivate their minds and and enrich their knowledge. Currently, the various actions undertaken by the university have contravened the spirit of respect, tolerance, equality, and earnestness—the ethos upon which the university is built."

What reads like a standard complaint from campus activists actually contains a surprising twist. Rather than the usual hullabaloo over Charles Murray, Ann Coulter, and Milo Yiannopoulos, the subject of student ire this Saturday at University of California, San Diego, was none other than the Dalai Lama.

Despite the similarity in rhetoric, the protesters weren't liberals offended by a provocative right-wing speaker, but Chinese students—the passage above is from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association—who see the Tibetan spiritual leader as a separatist political figure who threatens their culture and governance.

When the planned commencement address was announced this winter, it drew anger from many Chinese students, who comprise about 14 percent of the student body. Outraged Facebook comments criticized the choice as too divisive, a characterization that flies in the face of the the Dalai Lama's cuddly western image as an exiled martyr.

"The Dalai Lama spent his whole life trying to separate Tibet from the mainland of China, regardless of how much privilege and freedom the government offered the people of Tibet," wrote Chinese-American undergrad Ruixuan Wang in an op-ed for the student newspaper, The Guardian. "His conflict with our government caused property loss, deaths of innocent people, and panic among the general public––even though he claims that he advocates for a nonviolent revolution."

The students are right: Those values are proclaimed by UCSD, and almost every university, in some form. And when speakers come under fire on campuses across the country, students often jump to these stated core values as justification for the idea that they need protection because their treasured learning environments are being sullied by offensive ideas.

The Dalai Lama's language is clearly not meant to incite controversy, and rhetoric centered around world peace is far from incendiary. But college administrators have proven, time and time again, that they're willing to concede to the demands of disgruntled or offended students. If all 14 percent of the Chinese student body were offended, would that be a significant enough number for the administration to take action? When speakers like Charles Murray come to other campuses, disgruntled students likely make up similarly small numbers––the vast majority remain apathetic. So does administrative action hinge on the number of offended students or the content of a speaker's message?

The administrators ultimately chose not to act, and the Dalai Lama gave a thoroughly predictable speech about the value of working together as "one human family" to achieve lasting peace. "You have the opportunity and also the responsibility to create a better world, a happier world. No longer violence. No longer this huge division"—an ironic message, given that his appearance itself was divisive.

Photo Credit: *christopher* | Flickr

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  • ||

    Dalai Lama - hate criminal.

  • Chipper Morning, Now #1||

    Buddha, what a bunch of Tulpas.

  • Half-Virtue, Half-Vice||

    That book changed you, man.

  • CE||

    Right up there with Gandhi, George Washington, Robert E. Lee, William Wallace and Luke Skywalker.
    Why doesn't anyone ever think of the people back at Empire HQ whose grand plans they were trying to wreck?

  • Robbzilla||

    You leave Luke Skywalker out of this! His work with 2 Live Crew was groundbreaking!

  • Radioactive||

    don't forget Sasquatch...

  • Radioactive||

    Dharma bum...

  • Half-Virtue, Half-Vice||

    If they don't want him to exist or speak why don't any of these bitches just nut up for once and kill the living source of their bowl shaking nightmares?

  • American Memer||

    something something reincarnation something something

  • Arcxjo||

    But the Chinese government has a computer to the care of that hiccup.

  • Radioactive||

    coming back as the Rock...then you can smell what the Rock is cooking!!!

  • C. S. P. Schofield||

    Oh, please, don't encourage the little twits. Not that I'd object to principled assassination (see THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU, I'm a shareholder) but the kind of Hobby Protesters that infest campuses these days (stretching back to the 'mid 1960's at least) would miss and hit somebody completely innocent.

  • Radioactive||

    here are no innocents, just the guilty who don't know it yet...

  • buybuydandavis||

    Show me the man, and I'll show you the crime

  • CatoTheChipper||

    "The administrators ultimately chose not to act" because they knew that Chinese students are mostly serious students and were unlikely to initiate violence.

    Once again, college administrators demonstrate that violence, and the threat of violence, is effective.

  • Mickey Rat||

    And were protesting in support of an officially Communist regime, so the admistrators probably thought these protestors msy have had a point.

  • Zeb||

    And that they are racist.

  • ||

    Once again, college administrators demonstrate that violence, and the threat of violence, is effective.

    Uh... my stance would've been pretty much along the lines of "Go ahead and violently protest the Dalai Lama on U.S. soil, see where that gets you."

    I probably would've done it over a microphone so I could walk away humming under my breath;
    "But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
    You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow
    Don't you know it's gonna be
    All right, all right, all right"

  • Half-Virtue, Half-Vice||

  • Chipper Morning, Now #1||

  • ||

    At first, I was disappointed that this wasn't a rick rolling, then I read, "Shoot the threat until it goes away. Only then will his soul find peace."

  • Half-Virtue, Half-Vice||

    +1 Holy Warrior

  • Cynical Asshole||

    Once again, college administrators demonstrate that violence, and the threat of violence, is effective.

    I'm not sure if its the lack of violence or threat of violence or the fact that the college administrators like the Dalai Lama but don't like Ann Coulter or Milo Yiannopoulos.

    Put another way: they give in to violent left-wing protestors when they lose their shit over conservative speakers because they wanted to disinvite them anyway and the violent protests give them an excuse. It's possible that even if the Chinese students had gone violent they still wouldn't have disinvited the Dalai Lama because unlike conservative speakers they like and approve of him.

  • damikesc||

    Why I call for conservatives to adopt the tactics of the antifa movement. They get what they want. They suffer zero repurcussions. This is what colleges are saying they WANT the students to do by their lack of punishment and their giving into every demand.

    If a tactic works, use the tactic.

  • JFree||

    The administrators chose not to act because the Chinese students didn't use their real weapon. They are most likely paying full-freight so represent probably closer to 40% of tuition/fees revenue. But those Chinese students also know that if they stop going to uni here, they have to return to China.

    So they did their duty. Protested as the unofficial channel of the Chinese govt - ensured that they aren't seen as dissidents by the Chinese govt - and now get to remain in the US.

  • Radioactive||

    also almost unlimited replacements...kill them by the thousands and there are still thousands more in the queue...not unlike cockroaches, I'm condoning any comparisons of that nature, just saying

  • Radioactive||

    and that they have a serious lack of any of the characteristics of manhood...i.e. completely lacking in balls of any siz shapr or color...

  • ||

    I'm missing the libertarian angle here. The University invites a speaker who's controversial to some (immigrants?). Said offended group files a complaint with the University and nothing else. The University, at something indistinguishable from it's previous level of discretion, proceeds to allow the not-so-controversial speaker to speak.

    The only two straws I can grasp are, either these students shouldn't be allowed to file written protests against speakers, or they shouldn't be allowed to exercise the agenda of their homeland's government on our soil. Considering we rigorously observe the 1A as libertarians, should this be considered some manner of anti-immigration article from Reason?

  • ToCa81||

    I don't think Liz is trying to advocate any position with this piece. Some articles are just written as a point of interest.

  • C. S. P. Schofield||

    It's always useful to see where the prevailing idiocy (Progressive, Old Southern, Medieval Aristocratic, what-have-your) has leaked into matters not primarily associated with the prime narrative.

    For example, I find it fascinating that a lot of Afrocentrism seems (because of similarities) to be based on pre-Rosetta Stone, Rosicrucian fantasies about Egyptian culture.

  • Hugh Akston||

    I'm baffled too. If only Reason had ever published other articles about student protests against controversial speakers that could form some kind of larger context. But since this is the first and only such article ever, the only conclusion that we can draw is fucking immigants.

  • Chipper Morning, Now #1||

    You have a problem with fucking immigrants? That's some of the best fucking to be had.

  • Half-Virtue, Half-Vice||

    Cheap labor is always good; who doesn't want a literal bang for your buck.

  • Cynical Asshole||

    Especially Asian chicks.

  • ||

    If only Reason had ever published other articles about student protests against controversial speakers that could form some kind of larger context.

    The larger context involved some manner of mob action, confrontation, threats of violence, actual violence, destruction of property, unnecessary or unreasonable occupation of property, etc. Things to which libertarians are decidedly opposed or at least have a significant predisposition against.

    This piece doesn't have any indication of any of that. The only way it fits is if you somehow hold a grudge against the 14% of students who don't like the Dalai Lama and immigrated from a communist regime. Is Reason or it's readership supposed to be opposed to writing op-ed pieces in student newspapers?

    It seems like Reason has run dry of actual violent/excessive campus protests to write about.

  • Half-Virtue, Half-Vice||

    It seems like Reason has run dry of actual violent/excessive campus protests to write about.

    They just ran dry on Robby's hair gel so he left.

  • Zeb||

    Gotta keep interns busy.

  • ||

    Maybe their right and I'm reading too much into this.

    Dalai Lama is scheduled to speak. Chinese students file a complaint. Admins ignore them without denying their right to speak. Dalai Lama speaks. Nothing else happened. Libertarian motherfucking win!

  • Zeb||

    Or there isn't a specifically libertarian angle, and it's just a somewhat interesting story that is related to something they have been reporting on a lot. I'm OK with Reason reporting on interesting cultural trends even if there isn't always an obvious libertarian angle.

  • Hank Phillips||

    There's been a lot of that going around. I noticed a flurry just before the election, then a gale after LP candidates for the top slot alone garnered a whole Virginia's worth of votes. Our candidate snatched away the popular vote victory, leaving an edibles taste in the mouths of God's Own Prohibitionists. If the Dems had any sense they'd be tar-and-feathering their platform committee for not copying our repeal plank. The Greenazi plank to ban electrical generation was what forensics investigators call "hesitation wounds."

  • BYODB||

    When you import students from a murderous Communist dictatorship, don't be surprised when they bring their murderous communist dictatorial impulses to America with them?

    This honestly pisses me off since China's treatment of Tibet was, and is, atrocious. I find the teachings of the Dalai Lama to be beautiful, even if I think they're naïve, and to hear that Chinese bitches at a U.S. college tried to disinvite him just shows how truly disgusting the Chinese people are. Not to hate on their ethnicity, but rather their political ideology.

    TIBET ISN'T CHINESE, ASSHOLES!

  • Hugh Akston||

    These kids aren't sacks of rice or your mom's fleshlight, they weren't 'imported'. They are human agents who chose to travel to the US seeking an education.

  • Chipper Morning, Now #1||

    I read that as "These kids aren't sacks of rice in your mom's fleshlight, they weren't 'imported'."

    I was like, people put rice in their fleshlight??? Do they at least cook it first?

  • Hugh Akston||

    Cooked rice in a fleshlight is impossible to clean out. Raw rice, otoh, is grist for the mill.

  • Chipper Morning, Now #1||

    Needs a "Confucius say."

  • ||

    Raw rice, otoh, is grist for the mill.

    Harden the fuck up!

  • Last of the Shitlords||

    That's some kinky fucking shit right there. Is Hugh saying that's the real reason they came? To spread their kink?

  • BYODB||

    The article doesn't say if they're Chinese nationals or not, so it's difficult to determine if they were imported or born here.

    If they came over from China, and are Chinese citizens, their choices had little to do with it. They are Chinese property.

    If they are U.S. citizens, then they show a disturbing tendency to side with China in disputes that are clearly the fault of the Chinese government and their hostility to smaller border nations.

    Sorry if I triggered you, but I'm really not that sorry at all. These pukes disgust me if they're defending China's treatment of Tibet.

  • ||

    If they came over from China, and are Chinese citizens, their choices had little to do with it. They are Chinese property.

    And, from our side, long gone are the Halcyon days of willy-nilly racism where it would've been easy to distinguish Chinamen, Chinese-Americans, and Americans of Chinese descent or ancestry.

  • JeremyR||

    A ;lot of them are sent by China as agents of China. And those that aren't are strongly nationalistic for China.

    Just because libertarians don't believe in nationalism and patriotism doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. Chinese mainlanders are often extremely proud of their government and will act on its behalf even when not asked to.

    But you're kidding yourself if you think a communistic government doesn't pick who gets to go overseas to study and doesn't use many of those as its agents.

  • ||

    Chinese mainlanders are often extremely proud of their government and will act on its behalf even when not asked to.

    But you're kidding yourself if you think a communistic government doesn't pick who gets to go overseas to study and doesn't use many of those as its agents.

    Moreover, "the media". There are portions of Russia that still hate The West with the passion of the Cold War largely ignorant of the intervening decades from either side of the curtain. There are portions of Russia that are completely aware of the intervening decades from either side of the curtain and still hate The West. There are portions of America that hate the Russians largely with the passion of the Cold War largely ignorant of the intervening decades from either side of the curtain and there are Americans who hate, fully aware. There's no reason to assume that some or all of these students haven't been fed, since birth, some story about spiteful monks roaming around as some manner of 'Occupy China' movement. If only because their grandparents heard the story once from chairman Mao himself and it's been passed down without question.

  • Zeb||

    That's all true, but "imported" is still a weird word to use.

  • BYODB||

    Well, they aren't staying in the United States so I'm not sure what word to use since they aren't citizens, and aren't going to be here longer than the duration of their student Visa. Import seemed like a good word to use for them since they're only allowed in to receive training from our educational institutions before going on to work within the Chinese Bureaucracy or in one of their state owned enterprises.

    It's not like the United States or China is particularly interested in them as an individual, and it's not like they probably have a lot of choice in the matter although I'm sure they are very happy to have the opportunity to move up in the CCCP.

    The organization mentioned in the article, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, is the Chinese state itself from what I read so...yeah. Again, their position on Tibet isn't surprising at all given that it's a literal mouthpiece for the CCCP.

  • Zeb||

    I don't know. Call them visitors or students or Chinese secret agents. "Import" bugs me. You import goods, not human beings. And when you import stuff, it's usually here to stay.

    I suppose it's not a big deal. Just one of those things that gets under my skin.

  • BYODB||

    When both America and China view them as goods, though, then 'import' seems accurate enough. Insert whatever word that triggers you less than 'import' and you'll still get the idea. I think a more accurate term would be 'temporarily imported financial good' but I shorted it a bit.

    I'm not terribly bothered if my semantics offend since these people are using the American education system to train the future fascists of China.

  • Dan S.||

    The CCCP? Wasn't that the Russian abbreviation for what we called the USSR? (Yeah, I know the "C" and "P" in the Cyrillic alphabet correspond to "S" an "R" in ours.) I'm trying to think of what it could mean with respect to China, but "Chinese Communist Party" is one "C" short.

  • BYODB||

    No, you're right, I mistakenly added the extra 'C' to CCP for the Chinese Communist Party. My brain apparently short-circuited and went back to the Cold War for some reason.

  • Trollificus||

    And that was the best kind of brains back then!

  • BlueStarDragon||

    "Just because libertarians don't believe in nationalism and patriotism"

    Since when ? I've been a member of the Libertarian party since 1989 and I've never heard of this as a party stance. The anarchist are the one who most likely choose that stance. While the Libertarians have anarchist in it not all libertarians in it are.

  • MarkLastname||

    So it's not just the Mexicans but the Chinese too we need to kick out?

    The Chinese are on average probably far more productive than the average native born. If anything we need more Chinese.

    Oh, and you're a moron.

  • Last of the Shitlords||

    The Hell we do! Don't you know that once in position they will play joke, and put pee-pee in our coke? PEE-PEE IN OUR COKE!!!!!!!!!

    Well I don;'t know about you, but as a patriotic American, I am not about to let THAT happen. No on these shores mister!

  • gclancy51||

    As someone who's travelled in Tibet and has met quite a few, I can safely say that the Tibetan regime is a feudal Theocracy where they peasants are denied any entitlement to land ownership, all of that is reserved for the various competing Lamas.

    Every school and hospital I saw was Chinese built.

    The monks, who are getting very rich these days due to domestic tourism, are mostly overweight, drive BMWs, and almost every one of them has an Iphone (their reason being that their written language is available on Apple products only)

    The peasants flock from all over Tibet to the temples, where they give money to every single god in the temple (sometimes numbering into their 100's). Many are shoeless, and I saw several old women who walked, backs bent, at almost a 90 degree angle.

    And to top it off, human sacrifice was normal until relatively recently (unconfirmed rumors suggest it still might).

    Say what you want about the Chinese, I'll probably agree.

    But seriously, fuck the Dali Lama in his big, lying arse.

  • Last of the Shitlords||

    Aaaaawwwww.....you stopped right when the story was getting hot. What happened next?

  • buybuydandavis||

    When you import students from a murderous Communist dictatorship, don't be surprised when they bring their murderous communist dictatorial impulses to America with them?

    When you import people, you import their politics with them.

    TIBET ISN'T CHINESE, ASSHOLES!

    Give it time.

    Population Transfer Programmes

    One of the greatest threats to Tibetan people, culture, and environment is the massive influx of Chinese civilians and military personnel into Tibet, especially through population transfer programmes.

    so racist!

  • Cynical Asshole||

    You may be thinking too hard on this one.

    Sometimes a cigar vaguely interesting news item is just a cigar vaguely interesting news item.

  • Cynical Asshole||

    After thinking about it some more, it's possible that the author is read a double standard into the administration's decision to not disinvite the Dalai Lama after Chinese students protested, using similar rhetoric to that used by left-wing activists who protest conservative speakers and get them disinvited.

    The parallels aren't perfect though because in this case the Chinese protestors didn't turn to rioting and burning shit. If they had and the administrators refused to cave, then it would be an obvious double standard.

    And as I was getting at above, it's possible they wouldn't have. Presumably they like and approve of the Dalai Lama, but they don't like the conservative speakers the snowflakes are always rioting over, and they just use the violence as an excuse to shut down speech they don't like anyway. Or maybe they would have caved in to violence in this case too. There's no way to know because the Chinese protestors fortunately didn't turn to violence.

  • BYODB||


    ...they just use the violence as an excuse to shut down speech they don't like anyway.


    This. It's obvious when professors are writing editorials in the student newspaper that the administration and faculty are pushing an agenda. It becomes even more clear when faculty use their pet student organizations to incite, and then they point to the riot as proof that they need to uninvited a speaker.


    I'm not saying it happens like that every time, but when it does it's pretty clear. In this case, it doesn't seem there was a faculty drive to uninvited the speaker because the speaker was someone they liked. I can't even determine if CSSA is a University group, or a national group. What I can find is that, apparently, it's a Chinese State organization which is not at all surprising.

  • CE||

    The University's job is to enrich student learning by exposing them to new viewpoints. Some snowflake students want to remain sheltered. The article is just to allow us to continue to mock them, not to make some kind of libertarian point.

  • Brandybuck||

    Not immigrants, foreign students. There are here temporarily on student visas. Immigrants are (or intend to be) permanent residents.

  • Hank Phillips||

    That distinction allows border guards to classify many as "arriving immigrants" and the Bush DHS to swiftly deport them with a minimum of messy rights.

  • ToCa81||

    "His conflict with our government caused property loss, deaths of innocent people, and panic among the general public––even though he claims that he advocates for a nonviolent revolution."

    Funny I don't ever remember him taking up arms. Maybe place the blame where it belongs on said government that actually caused those problems?

  • BYODB||

    They might have become confused and thought that the Chinese soldiers slaughtering defenseless monks inside their own monasteries were actually the Tibetans. That must be it.

  • Mickey Rat||

    Or they are Chinese little Eichmanns.

  • Last of the Shitlords||

    Only Ward Churchill knows.

  • Hank Phillips||

    In People's State ethics, it is criticizing, resisting or (Fuehrer forfend!) retaliating against the initiation of force that is wrong, evil, socially dangerous.

  • DJF||

    But, but, but, Reason kept on telling me that trade would liberalize China. Instead we have the Communist Party of China being the largest business owner in the world and driving actual private business out of business and their children shutting down free speech in the USA

  • Zeb||

    their children shutting down free speech in the USA

    Well, trying and failing to shut down free speech.

  • Cynical Asshole||

    Maybe next time they'll take a cue from their American born Progressive activists peers and riot and burn shit? /somewhat sarc

  • ||

    Sadly, the China you're looking at is the liberalized China. They've stepped up from being a communist dictatorship to being a capitalist one. The Party now reads Kapital as a how-to, having abandoned the utopian endgame part.

  • BYODB||

    Both the United States and China and approaching the same end point, only from different sides of the coin. We are Janus.

  • BYODB||

    Note to self: stick to one metaphor per idea.

  • ||

    Note to self: stick to one metaphor per idea.

    WWJD? (The 'J' stands for Janus).

  • CE||

    Trade is liberalizing China, and improving living standards. Contrast to North Korea if you want the worse alternative.

  • JWatts||

    "Trade is liberalizing China, and improving living standards."

    It's certainly improving living standards, but is it truly liberalizing China?

  • MarkLastname||

    Haha, you're kidding right? You and the other jingoistic on here must all be millennial a because I apparently remember the 70s better than you all do.

  • Last of the Shitlords||

    Are you sure you really remember the 70's? There was a lot of blow going around back then.

  • JeremyR||

    Basically China is colonizing Tibet, which not surprisingly, the Dalai Lama opposes.

    And Chinese students in the US are often essentially tools of the Chinese government.

    In both cases, they are a great example of how open borders doesn't work very well.

  • ||

    they are a great example of how open borders doesn't work very well.

    China and Tibet had open borders in 1957?

    China forcefully extending its (very closed) border over Tibet is an example of open borders not working very well?

  • BYODB||

    Well, Tibet has open borders now...with China. And I wager they're not very happy about that fact either, since a loss of borders almost universally means a loss of sovereignty. It definitely means exactly that in this situation.

  • ||

    Yeah, but I wouldn't call that a "loss of borders" so much as a "consolidation." Tibet now has an open border with China (for the people on the China side, anyway), but Tibet doesn't have open borders with anyone else at all.

    I think the open borders debate is an interesting one, and I don't dismiss the arguments against them, but this is not one of them.

  • ||

    In fact, given China's long standing policy of surrounding itself with 'buffer zones' consisting of neighboring countries, "open borders" is in certain ways the exact opposite of what China has - they have the thickest borders on the planet.

  • loveconstitution1789||

    China invaded Tibet in 1950 and thru the help of traitors within the Tibet government, seized Tibet.

    Wikipedia barely even covers this even. I guess the Commies run that page of wikipedia.
    "Emerging with control over most of mainland China after the Chinese Civil War, the People's Republic of China incorporated Tibet in 1950 and negotiated the Seventeen Point Agreement with the newly enthroned 14th Dalai Lama's government, affirming the People's Republic of China's sovereignty but granting the area autonomy. Subsequently, on his journey into exile, the 14th Dalai Lama completely repudiated the agreement, which he has repeated on many occasions. The Chinese used the Dalai Lama to be able to have control of the military's training and actions."

    The Tibet army could have held the Chinese army at mountain passes for decades but Chamdo province was surrendered to the People's Liberation Army.

    There are Tibetans who do not want to be part of China and China cannot stand that. Same thing with Taiwan not wanting to be part of Communist China.

  • You're Kidding||

    Strength in numbers. Gotta build those armies.

    We missed our chance. We could have executed MacArthur's plan.

  • Last of the Shitlords||

    Execute his plan? That's brutal. What did that poor plan ever do to you?

  • Hank Phillips||

    That and Johnny Von Neumann's...

  • JeremyR||

    Also what's interesting is that one of the few celebrities to champion the cause of Tibet, Richard Gere, is apparently more or less blacklisted in Hollywood, having to work on fringe and indie projects.

    Because Hollywood won't ever do anything to upset China

  • ||

    Which is sad - "Free Tibet" used to be one of those standard stickers you saw on old beater activist cars. I haven't seen one in probably a decade.

  • You're Kidding||

    Hey. China is the world's largest market. Even for trashy Hollywood movies.

  • Cynical Asshole||

  • livelikearefugee||

    Chinese students must be, at least superficially, catered to because their full out-out-of-state tuitions are paying the bills at state universities and salaries and benefits for the armies of administrators.

    Even when dealing with commies, it's all about the money.

  • ||

    Yes, it is China and Chinese culture is the threatened party when it comes to Chinese-Tibetan relations...

  • Longtobefree||

    Interesting thought - "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun"
    'we' are now shooting congress members.
    What comes around - - - - - -

  • Longtobefree||

    Speaking of the Chairman and the Dali Lama, this was on Wikiquote:
    He [Chairman Mao] appears to me as a father and he himself considered me as a son. [We had] very good relations. The only problem was that on many occasions, when official dinners were held, Chairman Mao always used to bring me to his side. So, then as Chinese tradition, Chairman Mao himself would use his chopsticks to put some food in my plate. So, in a way it was a great honour, but in a way I feel little fear...he coughing too much, a chain smoker, so I might get some germs [laughing].
    Dalai Lama (June 2012)

  • I am the 0.000000013%||

    Wouldn't a violent asian protest look a great deal like a Bruce Lee movie?

    I mean, TDL has supernatural powers, surely he has golden/spear/fury fist abilities.

  • BYODB||

    +1 Lost Trucker in Little China

  • dpbisme||

    This is why you cannot trust the Chinese, they were probably ordered by their government to complain. The best line in the whole article is the quote from the Chinese Student, "...of China, regardless of how much privilege and freedom the government offered the people of Tibet", this say it all.

    Seems this guy is confused on the concept of Freedom and what the Tibetan people want.

    It does not matter anyway:Tibet is LOST because the Red Chinese (yes, I said Red) force immigrated millions of Chinese in to the country.

    Another atrocity that the LEFT sat on the sidelines and cheered for.

    DPB

  • BYODB||

    The association mentioned in the article is the Chinese government, so you're essentially correct.

  • Last of the Shitlords||

    Is this finally the last straw, so we can have Trump declare martial law in CA? Or do they need to get wackier first?

    I mean, they're pretty fucking ridiculous already.

  • Brandybuck||

    The Dalai Lama is a separatist political leader, But this is California, not China! Protest him in China, but here in California he is free to speak.

  • ||

    I would have gone with "guy who wants the murderous foreign invaders the fuck out of his country," but "separatist political leader" works, too.

  • JunkScienceIsJunk||

    No one said he wasn't free to speak. But a community can certainly voice their opinion over who their money goes to as a guest speaker.

    Also, I see a lot of criticism against China here as default support for the Dalai Lama, but sometimes both warring parties are wrong. Look at... oh, I don't know, nearly every war in the world right now.

  • loveconstitution1789||

    "...it drew anger from many Chinese students, who comprise about 14 percent of the student body."
    I am not even going to get into the issue of 14% of taxpayer funded school having 14% Communists student taking positions of Americans.

    Instead, I would wonder why they are not being expelled for not following college rules, which should prohibit wasting everyone's time with complaints about free speech, since free speech is protected in the USA by the 1st Amendment.

    Why do we keep have to put up with foreigners abusing our welfare state and trying to supplant our constitution?

  • JunkScienceIsJunk||

    Why is protest so severely criticized on this website? Students who protest the invitation of a speaker are not asking for "protection", as Liz puts it. They're criticizing the selection and the allocation of their tuition dollars to the speaker.

  • DFG||

    I think the point of the article was "College kids and even protesting the fucking Dalai Lama, not just right wing bomb throwers!"

  • JunkScienceIsJunk||

    Good. He deserves to be protested. Several libertarian writers have done exactly that, and I doubt you guys even noticed. But as soon as a kid at a college (especially a foreign one) does it, you all get bent out of shape.

  • DFG||

    " wrote Chinese-American undergrad Ruixuan Wang in an op-ed for the student newspaper, The Guardian. "His conflict with our government..."

    He's Chinese American yet complains about the Llama's conflict with the Chinese government as being with "our" government? I don't think he's that enthusiastic an American.

  • You're Kidding||

    He enjoys the life that freedom brings him, but he uses it to support a tyrannical regime that abhors individual freedom.

    That's the state of higher education in the U.S. today!

  • JunkScienceIsJunk||

    Right, because if you guys all moved to Europe for work, you would all immediately embrace the French government and would cut all ties with and allegiance to the United States government. Sure.

  • rudehost||

    If my government was a communist totalitarian dictatorship responsible for the murder of 10's of millions of its own citizens I think I would have an easy time cutting ties but that's just me.

  • JunkScienceIsJunk||

    The US government isn't exactly virtuous and innocent.

    You wouldn't cut ties with them. So it's not really about that, is it?

  • Hank Phillips||

    I believe he is making a projection using Climate Modeling warez...

  • Warren||

    Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know... for the effort, you know?

  • bobmac727||

    ...there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

  • You're Kidding||

    You identify the op-ed writer as a Chinese-American undergrad.

    But, he's quoted as saying, "His conflict with our government".

    "Our" government has no conflict with the Dali Lama. So, Mr. Wang is either not American or, he's terribly confused!

  • Dread Pirate Roberts||

    My aunt is an old school Marxist (and the only one I know of who's ever worked for a living). We disagree on almost everything, but to my pleasant surprise she denounced the campus craziness last time I talked to her. It seems that even the Socialist Worker's Party has figured out that if the snowflakes can violently shut down Charles Murray and Ann Coulter, it can happen to anyone.

  • ||

    Immigrant students should not be allowed to run their tyrannical government's agenda on US soil. Next Hindu students might demand beef be banned from school cafeteria.

  • JunkScienceIsJunk||

    When I read his comments, I took his criticism of the Dalai Lama to be more directed at the violence and unrest that resulted from his actions moreso than a "government agenda."

    It would be like an American going to a school in Scandinavia and denouncing one of the US's bogeymen, like Assad for example. Sure, maybe Assad didn't directly attack Scandinavia, but that doesn't mean you suddenly endorse him as soon as you're out of the US. People carry thoughts, opinions, and biased with them. You don't wipe the slate clean just because you moved.

  • ||

    Immigrant students should not be allowed to run their tyrannical government's agenda on US soil. Next Hindu students might demand beef be banned from school cafeteria.

  • JunkScienceIsJunk||

    "should not be allowed"

    Read: they shouldn't have freedom to speak or assemble. Got it.

  • Migrant Log Chipper||

    You can say that again.

  • TGoodchild||

    Perhaps those Chinese students' PRC-funded tuitions came with those strings attached.

  • Agnes||

    "The Dalai Lama is far too controversial....does anyone know if Chuck-E-Cheese is available?"

  • ThomasD||

    The author presents this episode as if it is somehow incongruous from prior episodes when nothing could be further from the truth.

    They all stem from exactly the same totalitarian impulse.

  • buybuydandavis||

    who see the Tibetan spiritual leader as a separatist political figure who threatens their culture and governance

    If they really want to get their undies in a bunch, they should look into the Dalai Lama's characterization of Chinese immigration to Tibet as genocide.

    When Whitey says things like that, they call it White Supremacy.

  • zazoo||

    Well say what you will about Tibetans but have you noticed that there aren't any Tibetan suicide bombers?

    Their culture is repressed. Their language is repressed. Their religion is repressed. Yet they consistently eschew martyrdom operations apart from the odd one setting himself on fire.

    Why is that exactly?

  • Hank Phillips||

    Subsidized fossil fuel industry?

  • la Divina||

    Clearly those Chinese students haven't reviewed what actually happened in Tibet

  • BlueStarDragon||

    For those that do not know the Libertarian candidate for senate in Colorado's 2016 race was a Chinese American born In China. Their is a chance her web page may still be up.

  • Hank Phillips||

    How dare he badmouth the Democratic People's State of Communist Hydrogen Bomb China!

  • mysmartstuffs||

    I don't think Liz is trying to advocate any position with this piece. Some articles are just written as a point of interest.
    My recent post: Viddyoze Live Action Review

    My recent post: Healthy Heart Remedy PLR Review

  • mysmartstuffs||

    I don't think Liz is trying to advocate any position with this piece. Some articles are just written as a point of interest.
    My recent post: Viddyoze Live Action Review

    My recent post: Healthy Heart Remedy PLR Review

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