To the Honorable governor of California,
Mr. Gray Davis,

I am a concerned California resident writing to you in
regards to the current state legislative proposal that
seeks to establish symbolic sister statehood status
between California and Tibet. This proposal if passed
will put California on the wrong side of history.

It is a known fact that the Tibetans have endured a
brutal 50 year occupation at the hands of the PRC.
Also since 1959 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed
by the Chinese for merely expressing their beliefs.

Furthermore, a number of UN resolutions as well as US
senate sponsored resolutions have been passed since
that occupation and all of those resolutions have
decried China's political and cultural oppression of
Tibetans.

China in regards to Tibet is already in violation of
the United Nations Universal Deceleration of Human
Rights. China has systematically used various forms of
torture including cattle prod torture on monks and
nuns whose sole crime is advocation of their belief in
Buddhism and that the Dalai Lama is the spiritual and
temporal ruler of Tibet.

The United Nations has passed a number of resolutions
decrying the political, cultural and human genocide
that the Tibetans have been forced to endure.

The UN general Assembly passed United Nations G.A.
Resolution 1353 (XIV) on Tibet (1959) [p.7] where it
emphatically deplored Chinese human rights violations
in Tibet. The UN reaffirmed its moral intent with the
passage of UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION1723 (XVI) ON TIBET (1961) [p.10]. The UN general assembly resolution number 1723 also maintained that Tibetan self determination was a fundamental right that was being denied by the PRC. Furthermore, the
assembly noted that respect for human rights and
respect for the UN Charter was a necessary
prerequisite for the maintenance of the rule of law.

In 1965 the United Nations G.A. Resolution 2079 (XX)
on Tibet (1965) [p.11] further reaffirmed that China
was in direct violation of the UN charter and covenant
in regards to that country's state sponsored genocide
of tibetans during the Cultural revolution. During
this time the monasteries of Drepung, Ganden, Sera and
Samye Ling, monasteries that were built in the 9th
century were also obliterated by the Chinese air
force.

In 1992 the United States Senate passed its own
resolution, Senate Resolution 271 (March 1992) [259]
in which it affirmed the notion that Tibet was an
illegally occupied country as so stated in the
resolution: "Whereas in the Foreign Relations
Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993, signed
into law by President Bush on October 28, 1991,
Congress declared Tibet to be an occupied country
whose true representatives are the Dalai Lama and the
Tibetan Government in exile."

Congress also issued its own Congressional Record 119:
Staff Trip Report (August 1992) [261] in which the
fact finding committee, determined that china's Most
Favored Nation status should be linked to its human
rights record in Tibet.

In 1995 Our own California Senator, Diane Feinstein
supported the Senate Resolution S. Res. 169 (1995)
[284] and the passage of that resolution unanimously
confirmed the Tibet had been illegally and coercively
subjugated and conquered by China. The resolution also
reaffirmed its support for Un general assembly
resolution 1723 by stating that:

"Whereas the Tibetan people are entitled to the right
of self-determination as recognized in 1961 by the
United Nations General Assembly in Resolution No.
1723;

Whereas instead of being afforded that right they have
been subjected to repressive actions on the part of
the Government of the People's Republic of China,
which have resulted in the deaths of countless
Tibetans, the destruction of over 6,000 temples and
monasteries as well as much of Tibet 's unique
cultural and spiritual patrimony, the flight of the
Dalai Lama and over 100,000 Tibetans from their
homeland, the establishment in Tibet by the Chinese of
a consistent and well-documented pattern of human
rights abuses including numerous violations of the
United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, and the
settlement of thousands of Chinese in Tibet in an
effort to reduce Tibetans to being a minority in their
own land..."

Political freedom is a requirement for economic,
religious and cultural freedom. The Tibetan Autonomous
Region is not the true government of Tibet, rather it
is a colonial style government that rules Tibet solely
according to the whims of China. China's continued
refusal to obey established international norms in
regards to human rights and political freedom can only
favor those in the PRC and our own China lobby who
together seek to derive benefit from the short term
economic interests of cheap chinese labor at the
expense of increasing our trade deficit with China
and the exportation of American jobs, i.e., our
manufacturing base to China.

The stated proposal that Tibet and California should become sister states is bad for America, and California and it is also equally bad for Tibet. Essentially, we
would be sending the message that all of our current
theories about how free trade promotes democracy is
farcical nonsense and that the ethics of human rights
are bad for business. If this is the true message of
free trade then it is one of hypocrisy, economic
exploitation and dominion over the rights of all who
seek the universally sanctioned right of self
determination and guaranteed respect for the natural
laws of human rights and freedom.

I urgently, request that you do not support this
proposal.

Sincerely,
Thomas J. Wheat
209 Simone Place South
Santa Rosa Ca. 95409