China's Tibet Crackdown Sparks Global Criticism

The Chinese government’s heavy crackdown on the largest anti-China protest in decades has drawn international condemnation, threatening the success of its highly-anticipated Beijing Olympics.

On Saturday, a group of 30 well-known Chinese intellectuals urged Beijing to admit its policy is crushing dissidents in Tibet and its tactic of blaming violence on the Dalai Lama is failing.

"The one-sided propaganda of the official Chinese media is having the effect of stirring up inter-ethnic animosity and aggravating an already tense situation," the group said in an open letter posted on Boxun.com, a Web site for overseas Chinese, according to the Washington Post.

The letter was the first time a Chinese group had publicly appealed for the government to rethink its response to the two-week protests in Tibet. The Tibetan protest is highly sensitive topic in China and few people are willing to speak publicly on the government’s actions.

The group also urged the government to protect freedom of speech and worship and permit citizens to make suggestions regarding government’s nationality. It also urged open direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

On March 10, anti-government protests by Buddhist monks erupted in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, and anti-Chinese rioting in the city five days later killed a policeman and 18 civilians, authorities said, according to Reuters. China said 94 people have been injured in Tibetan areas, according to Xinhua – China’s official news agency.

China has accused the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and secular leader of Tibet, of orchestrating the protests and violence in Tibet. The Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has called for direct talks with China to negotiate autonomy, but not complete independence, for Tibet.

Tibet has been occupied by Chinese troops since 1950.

China has banned foreign reporters in Tibet and has used its own media mouthpiece to spread propaganda against the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, accused the Dalai Lama Sunday of having continued to plot violence against China after fleeing his homeland in 1959 after a failed revolt against Beijing. The Dalai Lama now lives in India.

"They've successfully managed the messages available to the average Chinese citizen, and this has fueled broad public support for a heavy-handed approach to controlling unrest," said David Bandurski, a Hong Kong University expert on Chinese media, according to CNN. "There will be no nuances to Tibet coverage."

Taiwan’s president-elect Ma Ying-jeou has said that if the situation in Tibet worsens then it would consider the possibility of not sending athletes to the Olympics, according to Reuters.

The United States and the European Union have both opposed boycotting the Beijing Games over the crackdown, but an EU politician published a remark Saturday that European countries should not rule out threatening a boycott if violence continues, according to CNN.

"Beijing must decide itself; it should immediately negotiate with the Dalai Lama," European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering was quoted as saying by Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "If there continue to be no signals of compromise, I see boycott measures as justified."

Earlier this month the U.S. State Department removed China from its human rights blacklist which included rogue states like North Korea and Burma (Myanmar). Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had defended removing China by pointing to renewed dialogue with Beijing on human rights issues.

The Tibet conflict occurred during the same week as the report’s release, confronting the United States’ contention that China has improved its attitude toward human rights.