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China Tries to Thwart News Reports From Tibet •
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Simmering Resentments Led to Tibetan Backlash
By Jim Yardley
The New York Times
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Beijing - Chinese leaders have blamed "splittists" led by the exiled
Dalai Lama for spurring violent protests in Tibet and orchestrating a public
relations sneak attack on the Communist Party, as they gear up to play host
to the Olympics Games this summer.
But to many Tibetans and their sympathizers, the weeklong uprising against
Chinese rule in Lhasa reflects years of simmering resentment over Beijing's
interference in Buddhist religious rites, its tightened political control and
the destruction of the environment across the Himalayan territory the Tibetans
consider sacred. If there is a surprise, it may be that Beijing has managed
to keep things stable for so long.
Since the last big anti-Chinese riots in Tibet two decades ago, Beijing has
sought to smother Tibetan separatism by sparking economic development and by
inserting itself into the metaphysics of Tibetan Buddhism. But an influx of
Han Chinese to Tibet, and a growing sense among Tibetans that China is irreparably
altering their way of life, produced a backlash when Communist Party leaders
most needed stability there, analysts say.
"Why did the unrest take off?" asked Liu Junning, a liberal political
scientist in Beijing. "I think it has something to do with the long-term
policy failure of the central authorities. They failed to earn the respect of
the people there."
Tibetans staged anti-Chinese protests in several parts of China on Monday before
a midnight deadline to surrender or face harsh consequences. Even in Beijing,
Tibetan students held a sit-in to support demonstrators in Lhasa. Around the
world there were sympathy protests outside Chinese diplomatic missions.
The unrest is a blow to President Hu Jintao, who personally directed a crackdown
on Tibetan protests in 1989 and who has considered the Tibetan region part of
his core political base within the Communist Party since then. It will fall
to Mr. Hu to figure out how to restore order in Tibet without undermining the
Olympics coming-out party that China has meticulously planned for years.
For now, Beijing's line on Tibet is likely to harden. Military police
officers are pouring in to stifle new protests. Nor are the demonstrations winning
much public sympathy in a nation where Tibetans are a tiny minority. The state
media has tightly controlled its coverage to focus on Tibetans burning Chinese
businesses or attacking and killing Chinese merchants. No mention is made of
Tibetan grievances or reports that 80 or more Tibetans have died.
Less than five months before the opening of the Olympics, Beijing is acutely
worried about an international reaction and is arguing that its response to
the protests has been reasonable. Qiangba Puncog, the taciturn chairman of Tibet's
government, said during a hurriedly convened news conference on Monday that
the military police and other officers were not carrying lethal weapons and
had not fired a single shot - despite multiple witnesses reporting gunshots.
"What democratic country in the world could tolerate this violent behavior?"
Mr. Puncog asked, framing the crisis as a law-and-order issue.
Yet even if the protests are extinguished soon, China's leaders will
be left with a shattered Tibet. One foreigner who witnessed the violence in
Lhasa said Tibetans were covering the streets in white toilet paper. Traditionally,
Tibetans offer white silk scarves to welcome guests. But the toilet paper was
intended to symbolize that the Chinese were no longer welcome - even though
there was little possibility they would leave.
Beginning in 2002, China tried to soften its image on Tibet by holding reconciliation
talks with emissaries of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama, in turn, has explicitly
stated that he is interested only in greater autonomy for Tibet within China,
not independence.
But some analysts say Mr. Hu ruled out any compromise that would allow the
Dalai Lama to return to Tibet, which he fled after a failed uprising in 1959.
Instead, China appeared to want to keep talking until the Dalai Lama, who is
72, died and left Beijing more firmly in control. Beijing has also infuriated
many Tibetans by trying to monopolize the most sacred rituals of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Communist Party, atheistic by doctrine, has insisted that it has the sole
authority to approve incarnations - the divine process by which a "living
Buddha" is chosen in boyhood. Beijing had already selected a boy as its
own Panchen Lama, the second ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism, and reportedly
jailed a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama.
Last November, the Dalai Lama countered with his own surprise. He proposed
that instead of waiting for senior religious figures to search out his incarnation
following his death, he might choose his own reincarnation - a possibility
that has enraged Beijing. The Dalai Lama proposed a referendum among Tibetan
Buddhists on whether to change the current reincarnation practice, in a way
that could allow him influence in picking his own successor.
Meanwhile, Beijing has steadily been taking a tougher line on religious practices
and cultural expressions of Tibetan pride. In November 2005, Zhang Qingli was
appointed Communist Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Mr. Zhang
came from the Communist Youth League organization, part of the political stronghold
of Mr. Hu. Mr. Zhang has made no attempt to disguise his paternal attitude toward
his charges.
"The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it
is always considerate about what the children need," Mr. Zhang said last
year. He later added: "The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha
for Tibetans."
Robert Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University, said Mr. Zhang had
taken a tough line. Tibetan government employees faced periodic requirements
to write denunciations of the Dalai Lama. Mr. Zhang reintroduced a policy that
forbade Tibetan students and government workers from visiting monasteries or
participating in religious ceremonies or festivals.
By 2006, Mr. Zhang had revived an "anti-Dalai" campaign and intensified
"patriotic education" at Buddhist monasteries. Monks are now required
to attend long sessions listening to recitations of China's interpretation
of Tibetan history and also denounce the Dalai Lama.
"The party must surely know these monks are not going to change their
minds" about the Dalai Lama, said Tsering Wangdu Shakya, a Tibet expert
at the University of British Columbia. "So the whole point of the meetings
is to intimidate the monks."
Mr. Shakya said Chinese leaders must be stunned by the Lhasa riots because
Tibet, under Mr. Zhang's firm hand, had been thought to be pacified. In
2006, China opened the world's highest railway, which cost $4.1 billion
and traverses the Tibetan plateau to connect isolated Lhasa with the rest of
the country. Beijing described the railway as a vital tool in developing the
Tibetan economy, the poorest in China.
But many Tibetans regard the railroad as a threat. China has poured money into
Tibet in hopes that economic development and higher incomes would win over a
younger generation. For many Tibetan families, life has improved. But China
has also encouraged huge numbers of Chinese migrants, whose presence has diluted
the Tibetan majority.
"That is one of the biggest sources of resentment," Mr. Shakya
said of the Chinese migration. He said Tibetans believed Chinese were given
more opportunities for jobs, and Tibetan unemployment is high. Beijing surely
noticed that the younger generation it hoped to entice was rampaging on the
streets of Lhasa.
Economic development also has brought environmental exploitation. The railway
is regarded as a critical spur for China to extract and transport the rich deposits
of copper, iron, lead and other minerals in the large unspoiled Tibetan highlands.
Last year, Tibetans in Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan Province held angry protests
to stop a mining company that was shearing off a mountain considered sacred
by Buddhists. Eleven days ago, just before the Lhasa riots, about 100 monks
and other Tibetans attacked Chinese cars and shops and clashed with the police
there.
Several analysts say China cannot win the hearts of Tibetans if it continues
to demonize the Dalai Lama. But China's rhetoric about a sinister "Dalai
clique" orchestrating the protests from behind the scenes suggests that
its attitude is hardening. Mr. Shakya said restricting the flow of Chinese migrants
would be a major concession. But few analysts believe Beijing is in any mood
to make concessions.
For now, Lhasa will remain in the grip of the military police and soldiers.
And, by one account, covered in white toilet paper.
Go to Original
China Tries to Thwart News Reports From Tibet
The New York Times
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Beijing - The Chinese government is restricting foreign journalists from
entering Tibet and neighboring areas, and blocking some news, video and Internet
reports about the protests there from appearing inside China, according to journalists
working here.
For the past few days, CNN, the BBC, Google News, Yahoo and YouTube have been
blocked or have faced temporary blackouts or service disruptions in some parts
of China. Some foreign journalists also say their e-mail service has been disrupted.
Such measures are not unusual here. China strictly censors news that appears
in the Chinese media and occasionally disrupts the activities of international
news organizations and foreign Web sites operating in China, particularly if
the content they are distributing is deemed politically offensive to the government.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China issued a statement on Monday calling
for China to immediately allow foreign journalists access to Tibet, which is
in far western China. The organization, made up of foreign journalists based
here, said Beijing had failed to honor its promise that before and during the
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, it would allow foreign reporters greater freedoms
to report in China.
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