Blood Gold: Chinese Shoot and Kill Tibetans Protesting Mines in Their Country

[McCamy Taylor]

"There is no calamity greater than lavish desires. There is no greater guilt than discontent. And there is no greater disaster than greed." ~ Lau Tzu

I. Gold Stained With Blood: Four Dead, 30 Critically Wounded

On Aug. 17, Chinese police fired upon Tibetan protesters, kill 4 and critically wounding 30. China attempted to suppress the story, but word has leaked out.

Beijing (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Police have fired on Tibetans protesting in a peaceful manner, in Palyul (Chinese: Baiyu) County Kardze (Ganzi), Sichuan, against the expansion of a mine that is considered highly detrimental to the environment. At least 4 people are dead and 30 wounded, several seriously, and are now hospitalised in Chengdu. A standoff is still ongoing between the public and police.
The episode dates back to 17 August but has only recently emerged through Tibetans in exile, due to Beijing’s strict censorship on news about Tibet and social unrest.
Drim Gyaltsen, a monk in exile in India, told Radio Free Asia that on August 13 a group of ethnic Tibetans from the village of Sharchu Gyashoe, Tromtar city, led by village leader Tashi Sangpo, protested outside County government buildings against major excavations planned for the local gold mine. The project proposed by Chinese firm Kartin, would devastate arable land, increase pollution and compromise the environment. There is fear that the excavations may also alter the geophysical balance: nearby counties Drukchu (Zhouqu in Gansu) and Gyegudo (Yushu, Qinghai), have suffered recent earthquakes and landslides which locals attribute to mining and excavation for public works. Therefore they have asked for more geological inquiries and tests.
The Tibetans are also asking for compensation for any damage caused by the mine. In response, the authorities arrested the petitioners. Then other residents came who protested for three days before the government buildings. In the early hours of August 17 the police arrived in force, firing gas into the crowd and began arresting people. The crowd "began to scream and protest. Then the police opened fire". In the clashes two policemen were also wounded.

http://www.speroforum.com/a/38909/China--Tibet---Police-fire-on-Tibetans-protesting-against-mine

At this point, the Chinese moles at DU are supposed to write “But…but…Tibet is a monarchy! A theocracy! We are liberating its people!”

Yeah, liberating them from their gold. Looks like the U.S. is not the only world super power that likes to invade other countries in order to plunder their natural resources.

II. China’s Gold Fever

Now that “ communist” China has a large, wealthy upper class, its citizens want a way to invest their money in order to protect its value. Whenever the world economy flounders, people turn to gold.

China, the world's second-largest gold consumer after India, has boosted imports of gold in recent years as the central bank augments its reserves and as domestic interest in investment has grown. Still, with net imports totaling 31 metric tons in 2009 by private-sector estimates, the volumes are still relatively limited.

snip

Gold futures settled $1.80, or 0.2%, higher at $1,185.20 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Analysts say more Chinese demand could keep gold buoyed around record levels above $1,200.
"In part, it reflects a growing class that can afford some gold," said Jon Nadler, a senior analyst with Montreal-based Kitco Metals.
The modernization of China's economy has spurred demand for more complex financial instruments. Expanding the conduit for transactions in gold would benefit local traders and may encourage domestic purchases, a boon for China's miners. China is the world's biggest gold producer.

Hold on a second. China is the world’s biggest gold producer? Shouldn’t that be South Africa? Or the United States? Or Australia? I did not know that China had the kind of gold reserves that these other countries have----

Oh, wait. China is helping itself to some other people’s gold.

III. China Rapes Tibet, Western Countries Including Canada, Great Britain and Australia Help

Today, China Gold International Resources (CGR) announced that it is acquiring a huge mine in Tibet that contains copper, lead, silver and gold.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/7985/china-gold-international-acquires-polymetallic-mine-in-tibet-from-largest-shareholder-7985.html

Note the mine is expected to produce for at least three decades. That means 60 more years (at least) of Chinese occupation.

Here is another story in which China brags about its mines in Tibet. Eventually it hopes to take up to 15,000 tons a a day in the form of copper, gold and molybdenum from a single mine in Llasa.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/7072204.html


China wants its gold (copper, silver and other precious resources) and it does not care what it has to do to get them. Here is a link which describes how China has stolen agricultural water for mines, forced people from their ancestral lands, polluted rivers and jailed (or killed) people who try to protest.

http://www.tibet.ca/en/vancouver

In its May 19, 2009 News Release, Continental Minerals stated "the Xietongmen project can bring long- term benefits to the region." However, the Tibetan people have no say in the use of their land, and mining in this context poses a serious threat to the survival of the people, their culture, and the environment.

Note that despite fierce public pressure in the west, eight Canadian firms were still participating in the rape of Tibet as of June.

Eight Canadian companies are actively mining in Tibetan regions or are poised to begin digging soon (Continental Minerals/Hunter Dickinson, Jinshan Gold Mines Inc., Inter-Citic Minerals Inc., Maxy Gold Corp, Silvercorp Metals Inc., Sterling Group Ventures Inc., Silk Road Resources Inc., and Eldorado Gold Corp.). Five of those companies have head offices in our own backyard here in Vancouver.

IV. We Have Seen This Before…

In the American west, and it will end the same way. Han Chinese settlers will take over all the cities and the best farmland. Native Tibetans will be forced onto reservations on barren land which will not sustain them. They will have to rely upon food aid from China. As their autonomy is chipped away, their culture will be attacked. Extreme poverty will cause social disentegration---and the Chinese occupiers will be there to supply the liquor, tobacco and drugs that will cause further social decline. Once China fails to co-opt the local religion (Buddhism) it will be outlawed and some new religion---say Christianity---will be stealthily introduced to teach the natives to be meek and mild. Children will be taken from their homes and shipped to boarding schools—“For their own good!” exclaim the Chinese moles. "Why should they grow up ignorant?"---



Yes, we have seen it all before and we know how it will end, if we do not do something now to stop it.

What can we do? In addition to putting pressure on western mining companies to stay the hell out of Tibet until it is free again, we can demand that the materials used to make our jewelry, our electronics and our investment gold not come from Tibet. You would not buy a dress made with sweatshop labor, would you? You would not give your wife a blood diamond. If we (or our companies) buy China’s blood gold, we are personally responsible for the destruction of Tibet and its people. I, for one, will not buy an an ounce of investment gold unless its source can be identified and verified.

Make China's "blood gold" too politically toxic to touch, and maybe it will decide that occupying Tibet is not worth all the effort.

[Angry Dragon]

1. China could just get all the gold it wants from beck and goldline

How are the elected officials of this country going to do anything about this gold heist??
We are too busy raping countries for their oil.

[McCamy Taylor]

2. Consumer boycotts. Remember South Africa? Buy no gold that can not prove its origin.

Those who are selling clean gold would quickly corner the market in the west---the well off like to think that they have a conscience. It eases the pain of having so much when others have so little.

If the world really gives a damn---or if it merely wants the chance to bargain with a Tibetan government for the right to mine Tibetan riches---it could institute a blood gold ban similar to the ban of ivory.