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TIBETANS' NEW PROTEST:
Tibetans' antigovernment protests, which spread from Lhasa to other cities and towns in western China over the weekend, underscore Beijing's failure to win over one of its largest minority populations despite more than 50 years' efforts. They also pose a serious challenge to China ahead of the Beijing Olympics, just a few months away.
Much of the escalating violence is pitting Tibetans against ethnic Han Chinese and Muslims. While the events and coverage of them in China have helped stir anger among China's Han majority, to many Tibetans China's government is a heavy-handed presence in Tibet, denying them freedom of expression and interfering with their practice of religion. Beijing's economic-development policies are seen as failing to benefit common Tibetan people. Estimates of the death toll so far have been put as high as 80.
Chinese government officials have blamed the Dalai Lama for masterminding the confrontation, which began with a peaceful protest led by monks last Monday, the anniversary of Tibet's 1959 national uprising against China some nine years after troops invaded and occupied Tibet. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after the 1959 revolt failed, has dismissed the charge as "ridiculous." In 1965, China created a province known as the Tibetan Autonomous Region, with its capital in Lhasa. Many ethnic Tibetans, however, live outside that area, mostly in the nearby provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. China has about 5.4 million Tibetans, according to government statistics.
Read our report on the protests by Shai Oster in Xiahe, China, Gordon Fairclough and James T. Areddy in Shanghai, and Jason Leow in Beijing:
Read Mei Fong's report from Beijing on the violence's impact on Olympics sponsors:
Read Loretta's Chao's report from Beijing on Loretta Chao on the shutdown of tourism in Tibet:
Read our editorial writers' views:
Read Robert Barnett's commentary:
Read Jason Leow's report from Beijing about the elevation of Xi Jinping to the post of vice president of China, a job that will put him one step away from becoming the nation's next top leader:
