Still indulging in its past prejudices, NED insisted on pressurizing some other countries.

In his report for US Congress this year, US specialist in Asian Affairs Thomas Lum wrote that the US foreign assistance to China primarily supported "democracy-related programs" and "Tibetan communities", which had grown from $10 million in 2002 to an estimated $23 million in 2007.

From NED's website, we can see that in 2006 it gave $40,000 to "Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet", $53,000 to "International Tibet Support Network", $30,000 for "Tibetan Women's Association", $15,000 to "Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet", $35,000 to "Voice of Tibet".

The FNF just did the same thing as NED did, reflecting the Western conservative forces' invisible hands behind the Tibetan secessionists. Therefore how can the Tibetan secessionists boast they seek benefits for Tibetan people?

China has maintained cooperation with some mature international NGOs such as International Red Cross and International Olympic Committee, but is not yet good at dealing with the growing number of IONO such as NED and FNF.

Out of the irrational fear about China's development, these IONO and the Western conservative forces behind them didn't grudge abandoning their way of Cold War thinking. They keep trying to contain China by supporting the secessionists.

However, they forget that no Chinese will bear any part to be split from China's territory. And the Chinese government, like any other government, will not turn a blind eye to secession plots.

The author is a lecturer at the School of International Studies in Renmin University of China the article first appeared in the Forum of World Economics & Politics

(China Daily June 20, 2008)