Tibet benifits from Chinses Involvement

I think that its funny that the more dependent we become on China for stabilizing our economy, the farther we go into debt, the more we villanize them. We loaned Europe money knowing that we would benefit from there post-war economy, China has done the same for us and we hate them for it. Now I don't agree with many of China's actions, but then again I don't agree with many of Americas either, but I found an article of China's brutal involvement with Tibet and felt that I needed to post it.

Since 2001, Beijing has spent $45.4 billion on development in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). (That's what the Chinese government calls Tibet, even though many Tibetans live in neighboring provinces, too). The effect: double-digit GDP growth for the past nine years. About a third of the money went to infrastructure investment, including the train connecting Beijing to Lhasa. "A clear benefit of the train was that it makes industrial goods cheaper for Tibetans, who, like everyone else in the world, like household conveniences, but normally had to pay very high prices," said Ben Hillman, a Tibet expert from the Australian National University's China Institute. The train also provides an opportunity for Tibetan goods to be sold outside of the region and for a massive increase in number of tourists, reaching more than 5.5 million in 2009—up from close to 2 million in 2005, the year before the train. The Chinese government's Tibet tourism bureau expects the numbers to keep climbing. While Tibetan independence groups like Free Tibet raise sustainability concerns about the increase in tourism, Hillman points out that "tourism is an important industry that can benefit local Tibetans."

I guess that China's involvement in Tibet had benificial after all to an extent. It shows the other side of things which is always an important angle to look at. I almost want to make a connection to China's involvement in Tibet to America's involvement in Iraq but I know that there would be too much of open broad comparison that I would be attacked. I just hope that even though both conflicts were violent that some good comes out of it.