Failure in Tibet

Initial reports from Tibet say Chinese soldiers are firing on pro-independence protesters on the streets of the capital, Llasa, and that scores already have been killed, the Reuters international news service said Monday. China denies it, but has refused to allow Western news media to approach Tibet. If it is true, the United States had better think twice about attending the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the Bush administration had better rethink its policy of growing more and more economically dependent on China. If China is slaughtering Tibetan monks and others on the streets of the country it occupied in 1959, the leaders in Beijing are going to have to be subject to consequences, including re-imposition of tariffs on Chinese products. China hasn't been playing by the same monetary rules as everybody else anyway, and now we see the results of letting it slide on human rights, too. China blames the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, for fomenting the unrest, but people know better in the West. No one has forgotten China's deadly attack on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Tienanmen Square in 1989. If China cannot behave like a civilized nation, it should not be treated like one on the world stage.