Tibet and Han Chinese Colonialism

This last week or so has been very hard to stomach. The Tibetan people, victims of colonialism in it's most brutal form at the hands of the Chinese has tried to protest their position to no avail. As a result they have been brutally repressed.

I've covered Chinese racism on this blog extensively before, and I have also touched on the subject of Chinese colonialism, as China is one of the worlds largest and most successful colonial powers the world has ever seen. It is right up there with the Mongols, the Indonesians, the Russians (in the guise of the USSR) and to a lesser extent, the Japanese.

I think it's a crying shame that so much inter-ethnic violence happens inside China (again, covered before) and is not reported, examined or discussed to develop more effective solutions other than violence and the suppression of language, culture and peoples based on difference.

Just like Malaysia has religious 're-education' camps for people who wish to convert from Islam to another religion, China needs to 'deepen' it's 'nationalistic education' . In other words, we need to BRAINWASH our non-Chinese population more.

Media tell of Chinese police threats over Tibet

Chinese police have threatened or blocked foreign journalists from reporting on unrest in Tibet on 30 occasions since deadly riots erupted there last week, reporters said today.

The Foreign Correspondents Club of China said journalists had experienced interference in the cities of Beijing, Chengdu and Xining, as well as in Lhasa.

"You don't want to know what will happen if you don't show us the footage,'' the club quoted police telling Finnish reporter Katri Makkonen, who was detained yesterday in Gansu province, where Tibetan monks held protests against Chinese rule.

In several other locations, police barred reporters from carrying out their work and escorted them out of areas where forces were reportedly quelling unrest.

Tibetan regions erupted last week in the most serious anti-China riots in nearly 20 years. The exiled government of the Dalai Lama in the India town of Dharamshala has said hundreds of Tibetan protesters were killed in the crackdown on unrest.

Hundreds have also been detained in the regional capital of Lhasa, according to activists.

The interference comes after the club this week demanded that the government respect new regulations issued for the period up to and during the Beijing Olympics, allowing greater press freedoms for foreign journalists.

On Monday, the US State Department spokesman Tom Casey decried China's expulsion of foreign journalists from Tibet, calling it "disturbing and disappointing''.

Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders strongly condemned yesterday what it called steps taken by Beijing to prevent media coverage of demonstrations and an ongoing crackdown in Tibet.

China warns of 'life and death' struggle

China warned of a "life and death'' struggle with the Dalai Lama today, as it sought to end a wave of protests in its Tibetan regions with arrests and tightened political control.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has accused the Tibetan spiritual leader of masterminding the protests - which culminated in a riot on Friday in Tibet's capital, Lhasa - from his base in the Indian town of Dharamsala, where he lives in exile.

"We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life and death struggle with the Dalai clique,'' Tibet's Communist Party secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of the region's government and Party leaders.

"Leaders of the whole country must deeply understand the arduousness, complexity and long-term nature of the struggle,'' he said in remarks carried online by the China Tibet News.

Zhang also suggested greater political control in the region.

"We must continue to deepen our nationalist education and practically strengthen the building of political power at the grassroots,'' he said.

'Rioters' surrender, says China

Chinese authorities say 105 "rioters" involved in protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa had surrendered, the official Xinhua news agency reported today.

The 105 people gave themselves up to authorities by 11pm yesterday, (0200 AEDT Wednesday) - 23 hours after a deadline set by the government for those involved in last week's unrest to surrender, Xinhua said.

Chinese authorities said rioters killed 13 "innocent civilians" in Friday's unrest, when a week of protests by Tibetans against China's rule of their homeland erupted into violence in Lhasa.

Authorities have insisted that they did not use any lethal force to quell the protests, however Tibetan exiled leaders have said possibly hundreds of people were killed in the ensuing Chinese crackdown.

Tibetan government vice chairman Baema Chilain said the people who gave themselves in to police had been directly involved in "the beating, smashing, looting and arson" on Friday, according to Xinhua.

"Some have turned in the money they looted," Xinhua quoted Baema as saying.

Lhasa has been sealed off to foreign journalists, making it impossible to determine the real situation.

Xinhua's report quoted one Tibetan who surrendered, Doje Cering, 25, as saying he was drunk at home when he heard the unrest and decided to join in.

Xinhua said it had spoken to the protester after he surrendered.

AFP