Posted on 03/22/2008 1:58:24 PM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
With restive Tibetan areas swarming with troops and closed to scrutiny from the outside world, China's government turned up efforts Saturday to put its own version of the unrest before the international public.
Information barely trickled out of the Tibetan capital Lhasa and other far-flung Tibetan communities, where foreign media were banned and thousands of troops dispatched to quell the most widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule in nearly five decades.
The Chinese government was attempting to fill the vacuum with its own message. It disseminated footage of Tibetan protesters attacking Chinese and accusations of biased reporting by Western media via TV, the Internet, e-mail and YouTube, which is blocked in China. The communist government's leading newspaper called to "resolutely crush" the Tibetan demonstrations.
(snip)
"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. "There will be no nuances to Tibet coverage."
CNN's bureau in Beijing has been deluged in recent days by a barrage of harassing phone calls and faxes that accuse the organization of unfair coverage. An e-mail to United Nations-based reporters purportedly from China's U.N. mission sent an Internet link to a 15-minute state television program showing Tibetans attacking Chinese in Lhasa.
(snip)
Beijing has released tallies of statements of support from foreign governments — 100 of them, it said, from North Korea to Sudan and Tonga.
"It is a clear proof that the international community is on the side of China", foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said, according to Xinhua.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Sometimes, the date the person signed up will help tell. Otherwise, you are left to your best judgment.
Of course...one relatively long-standing ChiCom troll-FReeper posted that “Tibetian terrorists” were responsible for the genocide taking place in China.
Must be a lonely place for his now that alleged PLA operatives, pganini and gogoman have been banned from this forum for some time now.
Pinging the old ChiCom troll hunter’s list ;)
Hey, I’m not defending the ChiComs in general...
But having said that, everybody knew that Tibet was going to do whatever it took to get into the spotlight right before the Olympics.
Why would China do this? And now? It makes no sense. There is nothing China wanted more than peace before the Olympics.
Now couple this with reports about Tibetans actually overrunning a city for a short while. And the Dalai Lama saying that he had no control over the rioters. And the fact that the Tibetan government in exile has lost faith in the Dalai Lama because he wants an “autonomous region”, not independance. And that, just weeks ago, the US and Western Europe essentially gave Kosovo to the Albanians for acting exactly like the Tibetans are now.
There’s nothing I’d like more than to see China nuked, but I think they’re getting a raw deal on this one.
Well perhaps the Chinese police shouldn’t have started the violence by beating and kicking monks who were only marching and chanting slogans.
On The Ground reports (through Japanese TV tonight).
Two of importance:
a) Troops pouring into Tibet from Communist China, are coming in from the furthermost areas with Red China, away from Tibet. i.e. reporters are noting vehicles coming in as far from as former Manchuria (Heiliungjang, etc). This confirms to the traditional Soviet and China crackdown of sending troops to rebelling areas with ethnics not connected in the remotest way to the area to be suppressed, to be more effective. It will be easy to order troops from Harbin to fire upon citizens in Lhasa in this way.
b) PLA troops are covering over their tanks that have the Chinese PLA marks ("81": 八一) for the 8th Route Army, with newspapers, to avoid coverage from foreign media or others (side and front of the tanks where these normally appear--a Japanese military specialist commented on the photos taken out of Tibet by Japanese tourists today). I saw these photos on Japanese TV just two hours ago.
(9:00 a.m. Eastern, Easter Sunday morning)
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