China - The Tibet Dilemma
Tibet is back in news and this time not for Beijing-Lhasa Train project, but for the pro-autonomy and Anti-Chinese demonstrations. The current wave of violence happens at a time when China can least afford it and is a renewed wave that takes place after a gap of nearly 20 years. In 2008 Beijing will host the Olympics and the current demonstrations don't augur well with its plan to emerge on the world space as a super power in a otherwise uni-polar world dominated by the US. The Chinese build up for the Olympics has meant that most of the development and investments have been focused on Beijing and a couple of large cities. This development has been at the cost of Rural China. The situation has reached a point where the Communist Party leaders from the provinces surrounding Beijing have started complaining about the water shortage . A case in point being the province of Hebei which has been suffering from a severe drought but has to make arrangements to supply a additional 3