I'm a few days late with this, but found it worth mentioning nevertheless. It would appear that not only is it imperative for Malawians understand the inextricable bond between Tibet and China, but according to the French, it is imperative that all Westerners do as well. Well, maybe.
At the G20 summit last week, China and France agreed to repair what are no doubt very tattered relations. Several days later, Herve Ladsous, the French ambassador in Beijing, issued a statement in China Daily in which he asserted that Tibet had been a "slave society" before the arrival of Mao's liberators sixty years ago, and that many Westerners "do not know enough about the reality of Tibet" (i.e. that it is an inseparable part of the Mainland). Hmmmm. Is this what he really meant to say, or was it merely a slip of the tongue? A faux pas, if you will? There doesn't appear to be word of this anywhere else, but Ladsous did dwell on the matter for quite some time. These are rather bold statements to be coming from the mouth of the French. Either this is a brilliant misrepresentation on the part of the Chinese (which wouldn't be too terribly surprising), or the French have again outdone themselves in the department of making nice.
[HT: James Fallows]