By Wang Jiaquan

Somewhere in the world, I guess, there must be a humane way to check violence and terror. Otherwise, how could there be uproar of condemnations and calls for restraint when China quieted down the riot in Lhasa with just limited tear gas and warning gun shots?

But I was surprised, and regretful, to find, when I googled to search for a hint on such an unusual resort, a weapon loaded with humanity so far is yet something beyond reach on this planet, be it in countries that were troubled by suburban youth riots and horrified by underground blasts, or in a utopia claiming the best human rights record which likes to wage wars against terrorism and tyranny.

The google search failure prompted me to another puzzle: Why was China put under such pressure after it did what any other country would do to bring back order on a piece of its own land?

Simply because it's China and it's Tibet, I think.

Some people, organizations and countries seem to be conditioned to opposing anything that China does in Tibet, either because of their ignorance of the whole story about the roof of the world or a habitual cold-war mentality to contain China.

So they jumped out, calling for boycotts and condemnations against the Chinese government, which took legitimate actions to safeguard the security of its people, but turning a blind eye to those rioters, arsonists and killers.

For many years, politicians and pressure groups in western countries play Tibet as a card to win support from a voting and vocal public who are misled by the stereotyped "bad-man-bullies-good-man" media reports, or to serve the good of the interest groups behind them. On the other hand, the Dalai Lama has reaped a third party benefit from foreign interventions into the Tibet issue, expanding the living space for his secession campaign.

The card players must alert themselves to a dangerous prospect:

As their appeasement has groomed a group of radicals among the Dalai Lama clique, the Tibet card will one day become a thorn, instead of a cat's paw, in their hands, as in the case of the formation of some terrorist forces that the world has been confronted with.

If the international community does not contain the radicals, they will sooner or later evolve into a more dangerous force, posing security threats to the region and further afield.

As long as the international community acknowledges Tibet is part of China, as all countries that have diplomatic relations with China actually do, the Tibet issue will remain a card, and only a card but nothing else, in the hands of certain western politicians or pressure groups.

They should also be aware that China, a nation with an inherent determination to safeguard territorial integrity, will never brook any separatist activities.

It's time to end the card games.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 18, 2008)