Word: lhasa
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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What were the communist party cadres in Beijing feeling as they watched Lhasa burning in mid-March? Anger certainly. And worry about how the staging of the Olympic Games in August could be affected. But they were also surprised, shocked at how Tibetan resentment over Chinese rule had suddenly exploded into widespread rioting - not just in Lhasa but throughout regions with major ethnic Tibetan populations - spoiling what was supposed to be a positive, peaceful run-up to the Games...
...Domestic dissatisfaction reached a crescendo last month with Tibetan protests against Chinese rule. To quell the protests, the Chinese army entered Lhasa, and began firing upon protesters, killing over 80 people. The Dalai Lama has called China’s actions a “cultural genocide...
...Today's China may well understand that 1989 was a long time ago. In those days Beijing could literally pull the plug on CNN and Dan Rather. No longer. Security forces have been working overtime to limit the reporting of the scattered Tibetan protests - preventing foreign journalists from entering Lhasa and other protest-hit areas and even, according to one report, seizing the cameras of tourists. But the efforts have had only mixed success. While their authenticity could not be verified, gruesome photos of Tibetans apparently shot in Aba prefecture in Sichuan province were circulating on the Internet...
...China's leadership, the senior Western diplomat says, appreciates that the world is carefully gauging how it responds to the unrest. He notes that initial reports out of Lhasa had the People's Armed Police, an antiriot squad, responding to the demonstrations - not the potentially much more lethal People's Liberation Army. The government's dilemma is obvious: if Beijing insists publicly (and actually believes) it has been relatively restrained in its response to the unrest so far, what happens if the trouble in Tibet continues, or if something boils up somewhere else? A lot can happen between...
...making that land at the roof of the world one of the most important stories of the year. Chinese enterprise has transformed Tibet in recent years, bringing material benefits to Tibetans but also feeding anxieties about the erosion of their cultural freedoms. Those resentments exploded in the streets of Lhasa and other cities this month, prompting a clampdown by Chinese authorities. That has provoked talk of a partial boycott of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing. But by seeking dialogue with the Dalai Lama, as called for by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, China's rulers...