Mobilize at Any Time

The Dalai Lama will terminate his current Germany visit without having been received in Berlin's halls of government. On Monday, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD), Minister for Development will meet with the Tibetan exile government's "god-king". This time other direct contact at the federal government level are excluded. The Dalai Lama had meetings with only two state prime ministers (Roland Koch in Hesse and Jürgen Ruettgers in North Rhine-Westphalia) and members of the German Parliament (including its President). Obviously Berlin has scaled back its anti-Chinese provocations that since last fall, have been encountering loud protests from Beijing. This time, the Tibetan religious leader, who is residing in Berlin's luxurious "Adlon" Hotel, will be denied highest state approbation.

100 Billion Euros

The German government has reacted to emphatic complaints from influential business circles in German export, with a relative restraint in its anti-Chinese provocations. Numerous German enterprises have considerably increased their profits from business with China [1] and therefore are sensitive to Chinese threats of a boycott. A continuation of pro-Tibetan agitation appears unwise at the moment because of the state possibly revoking billions in orders. Only for the Chongqing metropolis, in central China, where, last week, German businesses and the foreign ministry wound up eight days of "Germany and China - Moving Ahead Together" PR activities, there is a prospect of up to 100 billion Euros in orders by the year 2010. According to estimates by German export businesses, the chances of further profits are growing, since the Tibetan "god-king" had no photo sessions with the German president or the foreign minister.

Financiers

But in reality, the anti-Chinese provocations were scaled down only at the highest government levels, while the pro-Tibet agitation is continuing unabated at all other levels - including financial aid from several Western governments. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is of particular importance. Founded in the USA in 1988, this organization has received extensive financing from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). NED is a US state-financed organization that became known primarily through its involvement in the overthrow or attempts to overthrow governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia ("color revolutions"). Since 1990, NED furnished large sums for pro-Tibet activities, including organizations in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan "Exile Government". There are obvious parallels: the support of the "Exile Government" and other Tibetan projects through state-financed German party affiliated foundations. Their support for Tibet had also started in the early 1990s and persists still today (german-foreign-policy.com reported [2]).

Lobbying Parliament

Toward the end of the 1990s, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) significantly intensified its activities around the world. In 1999 the organization opened an European branch office in Amsterdam ("ICT Europe") and in September 2006 supplemented it with the founding of a subsidiary in Brussels primarily to lobby the EU. An "ICT Germany" has been in Berlin since 2002. ICT Germany is closely cooperating with the Tibet Discussion Group in the German Bundestag. The ICT executive director was on hand April 7, 2006 at the re-constituent session of the discussion group and held a talk more recently before this parliamentary circle April 8, 2008. This close cooperation corresponds to the close cooperation in the European Parliament, with its "Tibet Intergroup" functioning similar to the Bundestag's Tibet Discussion Group. Headed by a German parliamentarian since 1999, consultations with the Intergroup are mainly being carried out by the ICT office in Brussels. An efficient cross-linking between the US main office, Berlin and Brussels can therefore be assured.

Olympics Campaign

Still another example for the intensive trans-Atlantic Tibet cooperation can be seen in the "International Tibet Support Network" (ITSN), which over the past few months was decisively involved in the anti-Chinese torch relay campaign. ITSN was founded within the framework of the "International Tibet Support Group Conference" held in Berlin in 2000, as a network of the Tibet initiatives around the world. Since the mid-90s the Support Group Conferences have been organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (affiliated to the German Free Democratic Party), to give the Tibet initiatives around the world the opportunity for consultations and coordinating actions. In the aftermath of the Naumann Foundation's Fourth Tibet Support Group Conference, the ITSN established so-called Campaign Working Groups with the tasks of planning and carrying out campaigns.[3] At the Fifth Support Groups Conference, held in May 2007, the ITSN presented not only detailed plans for the "Olympics Campaign," but also introduced Freya Putt of Canada, as the "Olympics Campaign Coordinator" for the period from May 2007 - September 2008. Freya Putt is one of the decisive organizers of the sabotage campaign against the Olympic torch relay.[4]

Training

Without the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's Tibet Support Group Conferences, the ITSN would hardly have been able to carry out the "Olympics Campaign" on a global scale. US finances were also an essential asset. ITSN received, for the period from July 2007 - June 2008, a special grant from Washington - furnished by NED. Beyond the current campaign, ITSN is seeking to insure the political clout of its member organizations for future projects. Training the members in how to raise finances and other politically useful skills are among its fields of work.

Exceptional Attentiveness

As ITSN writes, the current strength of the Tibet Movement can be traced back to a change in trend toward the end of the 80s. At that time "the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Exile Government, Tibetans inside Tibet and less than a dozen smaller Tibet support groups received an exceptional attentiveness from the media and public opinion."[5] The results were an exceptional growth in the movement. But apparently the prerequisites were met at the beginning of the 80s. Just a decade earlier, Washington had frozen, for the time being, its support to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan secessionists, so as not to jeopardize its rapprochement with the People's Republic of China. At the beginning of the 80s, as the rapprochement began to take on forms of a stable cooperation and China's future ascendancy became evident, members of the US Congress renewed their contacts to exile Tibetans. Step by step the contacts were stabilized to the point where Washington's House of Representatives took up the Tibet issue on a large scale, with a resolution of the House and an appearance of the Dalai Lama. That same year, the Tibet Intergroup was convened for the first time in the European Parliament and the Bundestag in Germany had an extensive debate on this West Chinese autonomous region.

Campaign Capable

Just two years later, in 1989, the Dalai Lama was granted the Nobel Peace Prize - an enormous boost to an odd political career, that was maintained with Western government initiatives and public finances for the exile Tibetans from the US (NED) and West Germany (party foundations [6]). This allegedly altruistic humanitarian, human rights network that has formed around the state financed core of Tibet initiatives, has developed a high capability of campaigning. It has stabilized itself with the Dalai Lama's visit to Germany and can mobilize new anti-Chinese attacks with specific financial support at any time.

Please read also: Strategies of Attrition (I), Strategies of Attrition (II), Strategies of Attrition (III), Strategies of Attrition (IV), The Olympic Lever, The Olympic Torch Relay Campaign, Operations Against China, Particularly Manipulative, Tibet ohne Mythos, À la Südtirol and Flexiblere Strategien.

[1] see also Alle Optionen and Spitzenduell
[2] see also Operations Against China
[3] Campaigns; www.tibetnetwork.org
[4] see also The Olympic Torch Relay Campaign. See also "Es werden wieder Tibeter sterben"; Die Zeit 15.04.2008. Finanzstarke Verbündete der Tibeter; Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger 28.04.2008.
[5] History of ITSN; www.tibetnetwork.org
[6] see also "The Most Effective Instruments of German Foreign Policy"