Spain, which recognizes universal justice — meaning its court magistrates walk eternally with backs bowed under the burden of universal injustice, the weight of sadness — issued a warrant on Tuesday for the arrest of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and four others “as part of a probe into alleged genocide in Tibet,” reports AP and Al Jazeera.
In addition to Jiang, the Chinese politicians wanted by Spain are former Prime Minister Li Peng; former security and police chief Qiao Shi; Chen Kuiyan, a former Communist Party official in Tibet; and Pen Pelyun, an ex-family planning minister. None has been formally charged.
Former Chinese President Hu Jintao is also under investigation, although Spain has not said it seeks his arrest.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, presumably rolled his eyes when told this news and switched into automaton mode to deliver a statement at a Wednesday briefing in Beijing. Something about “severe damage” needing to be repaired, harm to China-Spain relations, blah blah blah.
“China’s position on Tibet-related issues is consistent and clear, and the West understands it,” he said, as reported by AP / Al Jazeera.
Reuters clarifies that this means the “suspects” would be arrrested “when they travel to Spain or other countries which recognize orders signed by Spain.”
If the report is true, Hong said China expresses “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the Tibetan support groups in Spain for “repeatedly manipulating the issue.”
Then Hong beeped and whirred, dropped his chin to his chest, and had to be manually rebooted.
By “genocide,” we can only assume the Spanish court means “cultural genocide,” a phrase that the Dalai Lama has used to describe the ongoing “Sinicization” of Tibet. This is unclear though, as are the arrest warrants. No Chinese leader will stand trial (duh), and we’re guessing Jiang Zemin isn’t currently cursing his inability to visit Spain. In other words, there’s no story here. Sorry.
But this post isn’t a complete waste. Have you ever Google Image-searched “Jiang Zemin”? Prepare to be delighted.
(H/T Alicia)
“this means the “suspects” would be arrrested “when they travel to Spain or other countries which recognize orders signed by Spain”
i.e. all the EU, most of Latin America, and the US. Not too shabby. Vacation destinations of these guys now officially only include, Russia, Albania and Zimbabwe.
Don’t forget Hong Kong…which also allows Mugabe free reign whenever his family goes there to shop and visit his daughter who “studies” there.
You wont like Jiang Zemin when he gets angry…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cmjaptnr6k
Yeah, this is a slightly bigger deal than you’re giving it credit for. It’s a far broader range of countries than just Spain that could take him into custody theoretically, and even if he isn’t planning to travel this is still the kind of thing that really sticks in the CCP’s craw. They just want everyone to shut up about Tibet, including Tibetans, and now someone dares to charge them- not for doing too awesome of a job, but for genocide?! Hong Lei didn’t laugh, he almost certainly joined other cadres in shitting his pants with fury and trying to figure out what Spanish export they could possibly block.
Curious that the Spaniards don’t consider the Canary Islands, Ceuta, or Melilla to be territories which deserve any type of independence, not to mention the Basque and Catalan territories. And then there are also some government bureaucrats who gained their positions during the Franco era through Franco’s patronage. It seems a bit silly to me that Spanish judges would look so far abroad in an attempt to prosecute.
“recognize orders signed by Spain” seems pretty weak, and it seems legally empty. “To recognize” is not the same as “to obey” or “to be obligated.” “Recognizing orders” is a lot less than having and honoring a mutual extradition treaty.
First, what goes on in Tibet (and Xinjiang) is awful, don’t misread me.
But it is what went on in Africa a couple centuries ago. It’s called colonialism. And we (Europeans) did it too. For a long time. That’s how we became “rich and developped”, and that’s why they speak French, English, Spanish and so on in many african countries.
This is also what went on in Australia with aborigens.
This is also what went on in southern and central America, with Spaniards and Portugueses against Mayas, Azteks, etc…
This is also what went on in northern America with Indians.
Everywhere in the world, it happened. A lot. And no one cared about anyone saying anything about it.
Hell, we even tried to fuck up China itself, a few decades ago with our treaties, our drug, etc.
Today, China does it on its own scale (a smaller one actually), and not on countries far far away like we Europeans did, but on territories and cultures historically very close and related to them.
So frankly, who the fuck are we to tell them to stop? What kind of examples were we? What legitimates our judgement? We fucked up so many cultures in the past, so many whole secular civilizations… I think we should cut them some slack with Tibet. As bad as what they are doing can be, we did worse.
As a Chinese Canadian I just find it sad we are committing to the same things that we claim to be victims of ourselves.
I don’t think the Chinese will ever let Tibet go, but at the very least at least Tibetans and the Chinese has had an unbroken line of diplomatic relationship, like most countries in East Asia, Tibet has always managed to survive both as friends and enemies of China. Like the DL said, usually relationships between Central China and Central Tibet are cordial, at this moment it is not so. I can’t really say anything either as a Canadian because we have our own separatism issues.
The biggest cause of the whole ‘cultural genocide’ is actually more broad than just plain racism. The Chinese government was hellbent to destroy anything that was old or deemed un-modern, Han, Tibetan, or whoever it may concern. Not saying there isn’t racism between ethnic groups in China, but not GENOCIDE level racism. It’s more of a question now how to protect/revive cultures in China. Even Han people in China are rediscovering their heritage.