Hmmm... I wonder if because of so called global recession the UK no longers considers the US as a big player in the future world stakes.... Whilst China are coming on strong.. gotta kiss the arse of the big player when your just a two bob kingdom
I suspect it's more complicated than that. In order to finance Preznit Junior's wars, the US has basically sold China a controlling interest in their economy by selling dollars to them by the bucketload, and borrowing with interest.
This means (as was pointed out by dear old Rob"ert" Newman a few years back) that the Chinese government have the Western economies' collective balls in a vice. Were they to dump their dollars on the market, all economies underwritten by the dollar (and that includes the UK, Western Europe and much of the Middle East) would sink into a depression that would make the 1930s look like a cakewalk by comparison. China's economy would also go into a depression because the West would no longer be able to afford the goods they manufacture, but since the Chinese government isn't exactly over-worried about the human rights of its citizens, they could weather the hit much better and, being a one-party state, still be in charge of the country no matter how bad things got.
Unfortunately in this instance, cold pragmatism dictates that the national self-determination of Tibet is pretty far down the list of priorities as compared to watching your populace starve (and, with my cynical hat on, boot you out of office), so it really is the proverbial rock/hard place conundrum.
So I put it to you - while I agree that the way China has treated Tibet and its citizens has been atrocious, would you be willing to risk losing your job, your house and potentially the ability to feed yourself for the sake of a free Tibet?
J.
