Atrocities abound in the history books concerning treatment of native American Indians during the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Spanish destroyed the Aztec and Inca civilizations with disease and warfare. The Catholic mission system in California enslaved Indians. After the Civil War, the American military pushed west and drove native North American Indians from the land they had lived on for ten thousand years and slaughtered men, women and children. America grabbed Hawaii away from the native Hawaiian people against their will. (There’s a native Hawaiian nonviolent separatist movement asking for freedom from America.)

As a matter of fact, the treatment of American Indians hasn’t changed much. The United States government might not wage brutal war against native American Indians any longer to get their land, but in recent times billions of dollars slated to support native American Indian tribes on reservations went missing, and no one seems to know where all that money went or care, except the Indians. It would appear that the era of lies and broken treaties has not ended. Also, let’s not forget that at one time native children were removed from American Indian families and forced to attend Christian boarding schools. If these children were heard speaking in their native language, they risked beatings. “The Education of Little Tree”, both a novel and a movie, depicts this savage treatment.

On the other hand, how does Communist China treat its minorities compared to the way minorities have been treated in the Americas. Most of us have heard about Tibet and the demands by Tibetans in exile that Tibet be free from China to rule itself. We hear claims of recent brutal human right’s violations taking place without much solid evidence to support the claims. Meanwhile, in the United States, news recently revealed that tens of thousand of illegal aliens (some seeking political asylum) locked up in detention centers are not getting proper medical care and are dying because of it.

Yes, human rights violations did happen in Tibet and there is evidence to support such claims. However, during Mao’s twenty-seven years as the modern emperor of China, almost everyone in China suffered. Most who lived in China during the Cultural Revolution, including my wife, suffered horribly. Tens of millions died all over China including people in Tibet. Since Mao considered Tibet to be part of China (and recorded, nonbiased evidence from primary sources prior the rise of Communism supports that belief), those who suffered in Tibet were treated the same as the rest of China, horribly. Hardly anyone was spared. Monasteries in Tibet were destroyed. Buddhist Monks were killed, but the same was going on everywhere in China.

Soon after Mao died, many of the larger Buddhist Monasteries in Tibet were rebuilt and Buddhist monks wearing saffron colored robes once again inhabit their rooms. We all know that China’s Communist government is capable of reacting harshly when there is criticism of their management of China, but China does not have a Bill of Rights like America does. Chinese law does not permit criticism of the government. We may not like it, but China is not Europe or America. Of course, American and European democracies can say, “Look at how we treat people in our countries as an example of how to treat your own people.” If this tactic is used, it would be wise not to mention how American natives, minorities and illegal aliens have been and are being treated in America.

China has a one child policy due to the fact that more than 1.3 billion people live in that country. What isn’t well known is that the one child policy does not apply to the hundred million people that belong to more than fifty minority groups in China. That means Tibetans may not be able to worship and maintain the feudal, nomadic lifestyle they had before Mao’s brutal reoccupation of Tibet in 1951, but they can have as many children as they want.

When China was ruled by emperors, the theory was that the emperor wanted others to see him as a benevolent ruler embracing every kind of beauty under heaven. To do this, the emperor encouraged minorities to stay where they had always lived. No one forced them off their land with false promises like what happened in the Americas at the hands of European invaders. In China, if a minority king proposed a marriage alliance with the Emperor, the Emperor adopted a Chinese beauty as his daughter and sent her to that king. This is portrayed in the Dream of Red Mansions, a Chinese novel written in the 1800s.

If the minority king became powerful and caused unrest, the emperor proposed that this king marry his real daughter, as if to say, “You will be a member of my family, so stop what you are doing. Since we are soon to be related through marriage, there is no need to fight.” This happened during the Tang Dynasty with Tibet more than a thousand years ago. After that, China and Tibet have had close but sometimes violent ties.

Under the rule of the emperor, minorities were not forced to pay taxes like the Han Chinese. It was believed that minorities were less fortunate and did not have the same advantages.

There are many similarities that exist between the way the emperors of old treated minority groups inside China and the way the Communist government treats minorities today. However, today it is understood that all minorities are part of China. That means the law applies to this hundred million people, including Tibetans, in two areas.

The first law is that an elementary education is mandatory for all children, no exceptions, and children under sixteen are not allowed to work. This is one of the areas that Tibetans have problems with. They don’t’ want mandatory education for their children, because it goes against the way the Buddhist Lamas ruled a feudal Tibet prior to 1951.

The second law is that all civil law must be obeyed. For example, you can’t destroy the forest or sell your children, which was once part of Chinese culture under the emperors. Some minorities may want to keep that outlawed custom. However, the Chinese government refuses to bend in regards to slavery and education.

The Communist government of China also provides financial support to all minority groups. As a matter of fact, money goes toward developing the tourist potential in the minority areas and minority people are paid a stipend to continue living in their traditional lifestyle as long as it does not violate Chinese civil laws. It might be interesting to note that Tibet gets the biggest slice of this minority financial support.

If a minority person decides to leave his minority autonomous region, he receives monthly food coupons to help maintain a decent lifestyle. If another minority person wants to attend college, she is allowed entry over better qualified Han Chinese students and receives financial support to help her succeed.

Mainstream western media seldom reports facts like this about China. Most of the time we only hear recent bad news and horrible accusations without much evidence to support them. A recent series of pieces in American magazines reveals the real China.

If you want to further your education regarding China, I suggest you read the May/June 2008 issue of “Good” magazine; the May/June 2008 issue of “Poets and Writers” magazine’s Beijing Book Report, and May 2008 issue of “National Geographic Magazine”. A recent book by an American photojournalist, “China: Portrait of a People” by Tom Carter, captures the heart and soul China. It is always good to have the facts before jumping to conclusions.

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of “My Splendid Concubine”. More information about China and his historical novel based heavily on historical facts may be found at