A deliberative approach to the Tibet autonomy issue: Promoting mutual trust through dialogue

Asian Survey

Volumn 50, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 709-734

  He, Baocang ^a  

^a DEAKIN UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Conflict resolution; Deliberative approach; Deliberative democracy; Dialogue; Tibet issue

Indexed keywords

AUTONOMY; DEMOCRACY; POLITICAL CONFLICT; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

CHINA; XIZANG;

EID: 77956441668     PISSN: 00044687     EISSN: 1533838X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/as.2010.50.4.709     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. See Joshua Cohen, "Deliberative Democracy and Democratic Legitimacy", in The Good Polity, eds. Alan Hamlin and Philip Pettit (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989), pp. 17-34;
2. John Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond: Liberals, Critics, Contestations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000);
3. Jon Elster, ed., Deliberative Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
4. Ethan Leib and Baogang He, eds., The Search for Deliberative Democracy in China (New York: Palgrave, 2006).
5. Jürgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996).
6. Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright, Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance (London: Verso, 2003).
7. James Fishkin, When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), ch. 6.
8. See Cass R. Sunstein, "Deliberative Trouble? Why Groups Go to Extremes", Yale Law Journal 110:1 (October 2000), pp. 71-119;
9. and idem, "The Law of Group Polarization", in Debating Deliberative Democracy, eds. James S. Fishkin and Peter Laslett (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003).
10. David Miller, "Is Deliberative Democracy Unfair to Disadvantaged Groups?" in Maurizio Passerin d'Entrèves, ed., Democracy as Public Deliberation (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2006), pp. 201-25.
11. See Baogang He, Deliberative Democracy: Theory, Method, and Practice (Beijing: Chinas Social Science Publishers, 2008), ch. 4, on the deliberative democracy and national identity question.
12. Baogang He, "Transnational Civil Society and the National Identity Question in East Asia", Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations 10:2 (May 2004), pp. 227-46;
13. Leib and He, The Search for Deliberative Democracy, chs. 1, 4, 6.
14. Ronald J. Fisher, "Interactive Conflict Resolution", in I, William Zartman, ed., Peacemaking in International Conflict: Methods and Techniques (Washington, D. C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2007), p. 227.
15. Ibid., pp. 229-30.
16. Ibid., p. 242.
17. Ibid., p. 261.
18. Ibid., p. 243.
19. Ian O'Flynn, Deliberative Democracy and Divided Societies (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006).
20. 16, A lot of work on this issue has been done by feminist theorists who argue that the exclusion of "anecdotal" argument from academic discourse has been a way of excluding women's experience. See Kate Millett, Sexual Politics: A Manifesto for Revolution (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000).
21. John S. Dryzek, Deliberative Global Politics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006), pp. 154-57.
22. 18, Fishkin, When the People Speak.
23. Dryzek, "Deliberative Democracy in Divided Societies: Alternatives to Agonism and Analgesia", Political Theory 33:2 (April 2005), p. 235.
24. Ibid., pp. 235-36.
25. Janet Ajzenstat and Curtis Cook, "Constitution Making and the Myth of the People", in Constitutional Predicament: Canada after the Referendum of 1992, ed. Curtis Cook (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994), pp. 112-26.
26. Dryzek, "Deliberative Democracy in Divided Societies", p. 237.
27. Sean Byrne, "Gonsociational and Civic Society Approaches to Peacebuilding in Northern Ireland", Journal of Peace Research 38:3 (May 2001), p. 339.
28. Elliot Sperling, The Tibet-China Conflict: History and Polemics (Washington, D. C.: East-West Center, 2004);
29. Barry Sautman and June Dreyer, eds., Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development, and Society in a Disputed Region (Armonk, N. Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 2006).
30. D. S. Rajan, "Beijing and the Dalai Lama: Ice Melting?" South Asia Analysis Group, New Delhi, no. 1271 (February 28, 2005);
31. "Talks Progressing, Says Tibet's PM-in-Exile", The Nation [Bangkok], March 14, 2005;
32. Tashi Rabgey and Tseten Wangchuk Sharlho, "Sino-Tibetan Dialogue in the Post-Mao Era: Lessons and Prospects", Policy Studies 12 (Washington, D. C.: East West Center, 2004)
33. For a historical explanation of the Tibetan protests, see Tsering Shakya, "Tibetan Questions", New Left Review 51 (May-June 2008), p. 5.
34. Elizabeth C. Economy and Adam Segal, "China's Olympic Nightmare: What the Games Mean for Beijing's Future", Foreign Affairs 87:4 (July-August 2008), p. 47
35. Of course, scholars employ other theoretical approaches found in feminism, sociology, and cultural studies. For example, Lauran R. Hartley, "On the Margins of Tibet: Cultural Survival on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier", History of Religions 48:1 (2008), pp. 77-79;
36. Charlene E. Makley, "Gendered Boundaries in Motion: Space and Identity on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier", American Ethnologist 30:4 (November 2003), pp. 597-619;
37. Ashild Kolas, "'Class' in Tibet: Creating Social Order before and during the Mao Era", Identities-Global Studies in Culture and Power 10:2 (April 2003), pp. 181-200.
38. See Bryan J. Cuevas and Kurtis R. Schaeffer, eds., Power, Politics, and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 3, Proceedings of the 10th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oxford (2003);
39. Melvyn C. Goldstein, "Tibet, China, and the United States: Reflections on the Tibet Question", Occasional Paper, Adantic Council of the United States (April 1995);
40. and Dibyesh Anand, "Strategic Hypocrisy: The British Imperial Scripting of Tibet's Geopolitical Identity", Journal of Asian Studies 68:1 (February 2009), pp. 227-52.
41. For detailed controversial studies of the topic, see Baogang He and Barry Sautman, "The Politics of the Dalai Lama's New Initiative for Autonomy", Pacific Affairs 78:4 (Winter 2005-2006), pp. 601-29;
42. and Laurence Brahm, "Conciliatory Dalai Lama Expounds on Winds of Change", South China Morning Post (SCMP), March 14, 2005, A4.
43. Dawa Norbu, China's Tibet Policy (New York: Routledge/Curzon, 2002).
44. Robert Thurman, Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World (New York: Atria Book, 2008);
45. Orville Schell, "Chinese Puzzle-Why Won't Beijing Make Peace with the Dalai Lama?" San Francisco Chronicle, June 24, 2001;
46. and John K. Knaus, "China's Opportunity to Resolve Tibet Issue", Boston Globe, December 8, 2003, p. A13.
47. Thierry Mathou, "Tibet and Its Neighbors-Moving toward a New Chinese Strategy in the Himalayan Region", Asian Survey 45:4 (July/August 2005), pp. 503-21.
48. Jing Huang, "The Tibet Issue: An Impasse or Entrapment?" paper presented at the Roundtable on the Tibet Issue, University of Hong Kong, July 29-30, 2009.
49. John B, Roberts, "The Secret War over Tibet", American Spectator 30:12 (1997), p. 34.
50. Michael Davis, "Establishing a Workable Autonomy in Tibet", Human Rights Quarterly 30:2 (2008), pp. 227-58;
51. also see Tibetan Commission on Human Rights and Development (TCHRD), Impoverishing Tibetans: China's Flawed Economic Policy in Tibet (Dharamsala: TCHRD, 2000);
52. Pierre Hassner, "Rights of Man, Nationalism, and Balances of Power: Chechnya, Kosovo, Tibet", Espirit, no. 5 (2008), pp. 24-28.
53. Also see Baogang He, "Minority Rights with Chinese Characteristics", in Multiculturalism in Asia, eds. Will Kymhcka and Baogang He (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 56-79.
54. Justin J. Stein, "Taking the Deliberative Turn in China: International Law, Minority Rights, and the Case of Xinjiang", Journal of Public and International Affairs 14 (2003).
55. Zhang Weiguo, ed., Icebreaking: Dialogue with the Dalai Lama (Washington, D. C.: Foundation for China in the 21st Century, 1999).
56. S, K Bahl, "Chinas Failure in Tibet: Pulls and Pressures in Domestic Politics", China Report 25:3 (1989), p. 286.
57. Rabgey and Sharlho, "Sino-Tibetan Dialogue.
58. This is the personal experience of this author from several workshops and conferences.
59. Baogang He and David Hundt, "A Deliberative Approach to Northeast Asia's Contested History", paper presented at the American Political Science Association Meeting, Boston, Mass., 2008.
60. The questionnaire had six factual questions to test the knowledge level of the participants. Question 8 is "In which year did the Dalai Lama propose the Middle Way policy?" Question 9 is "Did Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping say that apart from the question of independence, all other issues could be discussed and all problems can be resolved?" Question 10 is "Under the Dalai Lama's autonomy proposal, which of the following areas of government would remain the responsibility of the central Chinese government?" Questions 11a, b, c are about the range of autonomy rights in Chinas Law on Regional Autonomy for Minority Nationalities adopted on May 31, 1984
61. The CIA encouraged, trained, and controlled Tibet's resistance movement. See Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison, The CIA's Secret War in Tibet (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002).
62. The source for this is a note taken by Baogang He.
63. 47, Lobsang Yeshl of the pro-independence Tibetan Youth Congress complains that Tibetans are allowed "talks about talks", but when they finally explain their position they are condemned. See M. C. Davis, "Establishing a Workable Autonomy in Tibet", Human Rights Quarterly 30:2 (2008), p. 257.
64. See Baogang He, "Participatory and Deliberative Institutions in China", in Ethan and He, The Search for Deliberative Democracy, pp. 176-96;
65. James Fishkin, Baogang He, Bob Ruskin, and Alice Siu, "Deliberative Democracy in an Unlikely Place", British Journal of Political Science 40:2 (2010), pp. 435-48.
66. Tashi Rabgey, "Newtibet.com: Citizenship as Agency in a Virtual Tibetan Public", conference paper presented at Tibet and Contemporary World, the University of British Columbia, April 18-20, 2004.
67. I was invited to participate in this dialogue forum organized by the University of Hong Kong, July 29-30, 2009.
68. With regard to concrete proposals, see Rabgey and Sharlho, "Sino-Tibetan Dialogue", pp. 46-47.
69. 52, Dryzek, "Deliberative Democracy in Divided Societies