Comments on: Chinese shoot Tibetan refugees

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 07:58:18 +0000

In fact, drawing public attention to such instances does exert political pressure, and it will make consumers reassess their patterns of investment and trade; such letter-writing therefore is a precursor to economic action.

By: Richard Hall

Richard Hall — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:59:28 +0000

I agree absolutely that western consumers should think much more carefully about the regimes they’re supporting through their purchases. That gets no argument from me at all. But merely boycotting goods (for example) gives no information about the reasons behind it. Letters on their own may be no more than a gesture, but even gestures that we know will be ignored can be worth making.

By: Kellian

Kellian — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:10:32 +0000

Let us all write moving and passionate letters of protest to Zhang Qingli of the TAR, which will promptly be trashed or deleted or just plain never get past the mailroom. Why? I’d say Zhang doesn’t really care what we think about nun-shooting. Call me a cynic for having lived in China too long, but as long as we continue to have them build our widgets for the world’s lowest-cost labour and move our shiny mulinationals here, we can protest away and they will be happy to smile and ignore us and do whatever the hell they want. To them, public opinion is so cute. Why should they care what we think? They don’t need to win the next election. They shoot a couple nuns. We buy a widget… (and darn cheap!) Wonder if this will be allowed to post?

By: ProTibet

ProTibet — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 03:39:39 +0000

Thanks for spreading out the word buddy.