Splendid China is a showcase that aims to lure foreign visitors and foreign investors to China itself.
Cultural understanding is another aim, according to park officials.
But its critics regard the park as a propaganda ploy, using make-believe and entertainment to policy China's image as preferential trade terms with the United States come up for renewal next month. Amnesty International and other human-rights groups charge that the park, which features more than 60 miniature versions of such famous Chinese landmarks as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City , portrays a false picture of social harmony and contentment among China's persecuted religious and ethnic minorities. In China, dissent is quashed. At Splendid China, Buddhist monks and human-rights activists are staging sporadic protests against the theme park and Chinese repression. The International Campaign for Tibet , a Washington-based pressure group, is particularly agitated by the placid scene involving the replica of the Potala Palace , the exiled Dalai Lama's residence in Lhasa, Tibet, which was invaded by China in 1950.