A documentary by State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has revealed how the Dalai Lama clique manipulated self-immolations in China’s Tibetan-inhabited areas.

The documentary, which was aired on Thursday evening, was created through in-depth research and interviews conducted by CCTV reporters in areas where the incidents took place.

In March, Banmajia, a 26-year-old villager, attempted to carry out a self-immolation in Seda county, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Southwest China’s Sichuan Province, but was stopped by police.

Local police found a suicide note written by him together with dozens of photocopies of the note. Banmajia said he wrote the suicide note in accordance with the so-called Self-immolation Guide, which circulated on the Internet.

[...]CCTV said there is no doubt that the guide is irrefutable evidence of the Dalai clique’s manipulation of self-immolations.

[Source]

Back in February, CCTV aired a report blaming U.S.-government funded Voice of America for “fomenting” Tibetan self-immolations with their broadcasts. By citing Tibetan blogger Woeser and looking to the CCTV special report, The South China Morning Post shows how CCTV’s media campaign is an effort to gain leverage in global perception of the Tibet situation:

The half-hour news feature is part of recent efforts by Chinese state media to change the narrative of Chinese control over Tibet. It is the fifth such video aired over the last year, writes Beijing-based Tibetan activist Tsering Woeser in a tweet.

[...]The report also accuses foreign media of perpetuating the symbolic suicides. “By continuing to speculate about immolations, Radio Free Asia and other foreign media participate in their propagation in Tibetan areas,” it claims.

To back up its claims, it – somewhat bizarrely – quotes a German language lecturer at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

“It’s a problem of the Western media and it’s a problem of the interests of the exiled Tibetans who … it’s a fact, the more trouble there is in Tibet, the more money they get,” says Otto Kölbl.

[Source]

More on the contents of this newest CCTV report and its aspirations to reach a global audience from the BBC:

The documentary, which will also be released in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian, is aimed at letting “the international community recognise the truth about self-immolation incidents”, CCTV says.

A transcript of the documentary outlines how “Dalai clique” members of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India allegedly posted “self-immolation instructions” on the internet to incite Tibetans in China to set themselves alight.

[...]“There is no doubt that this ‘self-immolation guidebook’ is irrefutable evidence on the Dalai clique planning and inciting Tibetan self-immolations,” the documentary asserts.

[Source]

The Dalai Lama himself has made efforts not to comment either for or against the practice of self-immolation, which has been used in Beijing’s campaign to emphasize the spiritual leader’s responsibility. A post from the Council on Foreign Relations “Asia Unbound” blog looks at the politics behind the Dalai Lama’s decision:

If the self-immolations have failed to galvanize international support, why hasn’t Dalai Lama used his moral authority to issue a public statement asking for Tibetans to stop the practice? It is widely believed that self-immolation cases would drop significantly if he makes such a move.  But Dalai Lama is facing a major dilemma over this issue. As a voice of peace and reason, he privately does not support self-immolation. Indeed, from the outset, he was said to be skeptical of how effective this approach would be.  But he has refrained from calling for an end of self-immolation. While he is still the unrivaled spiritual leader among Tibetans, his Middle Way Approach to resolve the Tibetan issue—which does not accept the status quo or political independence—through nonviolent means is increasingly challenged by the young generation, as represented by the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest NGO in the exile community.  They are increasingly frustrated and many have been radicalized by the lack of breakthrough in the negotiation between Dalai Lama’s representative and the Chinese central government that began in 2002.  Against this backdrop, self-immolation has been viewed by some as an extreme form of collective frustration and anger among the Tibetans.  Unless Dalai Lama is able to offer a viable alternative, his call for ending the practice would likely alienate his supporters, even draw backlash from the radical wing of his own constituency.  It’s because of this that he has expressed respect for the courage and motives of the self-immolators, despite his general disapproval of their behavior.[...]

[Source]

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Post tags: CCTV, Dalai Lama, external propaganda, self-immolations, state media, Tibet, tibet politics, Tibet protests
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Has the fact that you are no longer pushing for full separation resulted in any dissatisfaction among Tibetan exiles?

There are some Tibetans who believe independence is our birthright, and historically speaking, they are right. How we deal with that is that we are a democratic society, and we are all entitled to our own views — we try to maintain it as difference of views, but not divisions.

Do you think there will be a solution to the Tibet issue within the lifetime of the current Dalai Lama?

Yes. Otherwise why would I leave my job at Harvard and go to Dharamsala? You have to always walk with hope that tomorrow will be different and better. If that hope disappears, then I think it’s a very lonely place. You have to believe that he will be able to return to Tibet during his lifetime.

[...]It sounds like you were subject to Chinese phishing attempts via email attachments? Does that happen often?

Yes, all the time. They try to monitor me, destroy my computer, make my life difficult.

It’s where the Buddhist philosophy comes in — don’t have attachments!

[Source]

Earlier this month, the Council on Foreign Relations posted video footage of a lengthy conversation between Sangay and NYU law professor and expert on Chinese law Jerome A. Cohen:

Click here to view the embedded video.

In their conversation (0:27:00), Sangay spoke about the constitutional legality of autonomy in the PRC, looking for comparison to the Hong Kong Basic Law that guarantees the “one country, two systems” principle. From the interview transcript:

[...]SANGAY: Because interests of Tibetans inside Tibet is our primary concern. So how to empower them, how to put them in leadership positions so they can administer their own interests, you know, as per the Chinese constitution.

That is — that is what we seek. Now, you raised a very important question, whether Hong Kong be a solution. As per Article 31, a specially administrated region is allowed in the Chinese constitution based on that — basic law was drafted, and one country, two system was allowed. And that is allowed for Macau.

Hence, what I say is that Tibet is not a constitutional challenge for China, because there is already a constitutional provision — Article 31, or even if they want, they can look at Article IV, the minority nationality act or Article XII of the Chinese constitution and be there as a basis of solution.

[Source]

In a recent letter to U.S. Congress appealing for increased pressure on China, Sangay again cited Article 31 of the PRC Constitution and China’s unwillingness to negotiate the Tibet issue as they have other politically sensitive regions:

With foresight and conviction, Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have legislated over the years to help Tibet. This has given political, moral and financial support to the His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s vision of a peaceful solution to the Tibet problem though the “Middle Way” approach that would provide for genuine autonomy for Tibet within the framework of Chinese constitution. Tibet is not a constitutional or an institutional problem for the government of the People’s Republic of China. As per Article 31 of the PRC Constitution, China has created a separate institutional mechanism of one country, two systems for Hong Kong and Macau. The Chinese leadership has also displayed the political will by forming a cabinet level committee to deal with Taiwan. However, when it comes to Tibet, the Chinese leadership has neither employed the available constitutional mechanism at its disposal, nor has it shown the political will to resolve the issue peacefully.

[Source]

Opposition to the Article 31 policy goal does exist among Tibetans due to concerns over the temporary nature of Hong Kong’s status under the Basic Law.

In a recent interview with C-SPAN, Sangay talked about the structure of the Central Tibetan Administration, his own position within, engagement with the international community, and tensions with China (among other topics):

* This post was edited on May 17 to include the opposition to the Article 31 policy goal.

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Post tags: constitution, Dalai Lama, hong kong basic law, Lobsang Sangay, one country two systems, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibet independence, Tibetan exiles
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[…] For nearly two decades after the 1950 Chinese takeover of Tibet, the CIA ran a covert operation designed to train Tibetan insurgents and gather intelligence about the Chinese, as part of its efforts to contain the spread of communism around the world. Though little known today, the program produced at least one spectacular intelligence coup and provided a source of support for the Dalai Lama. On the eve of Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 meeting with Mao, the program was abruptly cancelled, thus returning the US to its traditional arms-length policy toward Tibet. But this did not end the long legacy of mistrust that continues to color Chinese-American relations. Not only was the Chinese government aware of the CIA program; in 1992 it published a white paper on the subject. The paper included information drawn from reliable Western sources about the agency’s activities, but laid the primary blame for the insurgency on the “Dalai Lama clique,” a phrase Beijing still uses today.

[…] While the CIA effort never produced a mass uprising against the Chinese occupiers, it did provide one of the greatest intelligence successes of the Cold War, in the form of a vast trove of Chinese army documents captured by Tibetan fighters and turned over to the CIA in 1961. These revealed the loss of morale among Chinese soldiers, who had learned of the vast famine that was wracking China during The Great Leap Forward. Over the next decade, however, there was growing disagreement in Washington over the CIA’s activities in Tibet, and in 1971, as Henry Kissinger prepared for Nixon’s meeting with Mao, the program was wound down.

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Exile groups said police seized and cremated Kunchok Wangmo’s body and handed her husband Dolma Kyab the ashes. They detained him only after he refused to blame the self-immolation on domestic problems.

Alistair Currie, spokesman for the Free Tibet campaign, said it was seeking further information but remained sceptical about police claims.

“We have no reason to trust Chinese authorities and experience shows they are actively seeking to denigrate those who conduct these protests … This would fit in with that,” he said.

Police in central China are denying that Kunchok Wangmo set herself on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet. From The Voice of America:

Tuesday’s Communist Party-controlled Global Times quotes a police official in Aba as saying the husband, Dolma Kyab, strangled his wife, following a fight about his alcohol addiction.

The official says the man burned her gasoline-drenched body a day later, adding he was “certain the case was not a protest against Chinese policy,” as earlier reported by several international news outlets and Tibetan exile groups.

Both the Britain-based Free Tibet and the U.S.-based International Campaign for Tibet quoted local sources as saying Kunchoek Wangmo set herself on fire on March 13, in the latest in an intensifying wave of politically motivated self-immolation protests.

Both organizations said the husband had been arrested, as the Global Times confirmed. But they said he was only arrested after refusing to blame his wife’s self-immolation on family problems.

Amid continuing tensions between the Chinese government and ethnic Tibetans, Radio Free Asia reports Chinese police have removed a prayer written on a cliff calling for the long life of the Dalai Lama:

The prayer, which covered a large area of the rock face and was placed above carved and painted mantras, was inscribed on March 10 by residents of Khangmar village in the Dzatoe township of Yulshul prefecture’s Tridu (in Chinese, Chenduo) county, Lobsang Sangye, a Tibetan living in India, told RFA’s Tibetan Service on Monday.

The prayer was put up to commemorate the 54th anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day, a failed 1959 national rebellion against Chinese rule, Sangye said, citing information received from sources in the region, which has been marked by frequent anti-China protests.

“On learning about this, Chinese officials labeled the act a ‘political incident’ and sent security forces to erase the prayer,” Sangye said.

Details concerning when the Chinese action was taken, or on the possible detention of Tibetans held responsible for writing the prayer, were not immediately available.

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Tsezung Kyab, 27, torched himself in front of the main prayer hall of the Shitsang Monastery in Luchu region of eastern Tibet at around 1:30 pm (local time). He passed away at his protest site, the same place where his cousin Pema Dorjee, 23, passed away in his self-immolation protest on December 8, 2012.

[…] This is the second self-immolation protest in Tibet in as many days. [On Sunday], Phagmo Dhondup, a Tibetan in his 20’s set himself ablaze near the Jhakhyung Monastery in Palung region of eastern Tibet. His condition and whereabouts are not known.

On Tuesday, news emerged of another case on Monday, in Ngaba. From Phayul:

Sangdag, a monk of the Dhiphu Monastery, set himself ablaze on a main road in Ngaba district at around 10 am (local time).

According to the exile base of Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, Sangdag’s present condition is unknown.

“Soon after Sangdag carried out his fiery protest, Chinese security personnel arrived at the scene and doused the flames on his body,” Kirti Monastery said in a release today. “He was taken a hospital in Ngaba but shortly after that the Chinese police bundled him away to another place.”

These protests brought the total number of Tibetan self-immolations within China to 107 since the start of 2009. Six other cases have occurred in India and Nepal, while two further incidents in Sichuan province are disputed on the grounds that they may have been accidental. The International Campaign for Tibet publishes perhaps the clearest and most comprehensive list of Tibetan self-immolations, though at time of writing it has not yet been updated to include Sangdag’s.

Another report from Phayul last week illustrated the risks faced by anyone suspected of sharing information about the protests. A 20-year-old Tibetan man was reportedly sentenced to two years in prison after two photographs of self-immolations were found on his phone, along with other images:

“He was apprehended by Chinese security personnel during a routine check near the city mosque,” the release cited a Tibetan source as saying. “Upon checking his mobile phone, the Chinese police found two photos of self-immolation protests, images of Tibetan national flag, and other photos showing Chinese atrocities on Tibetans.”

The release added that he was kept in various prisons for over a week during which he was constantly interrogated. Topden was later sentenced to two years in prison on charges of being a “reactionary, inciting the public, and threatening social stability.” He is currently being kept in a prison in Toelung region.

[…] In December last, four Tibetans were arrested in Rebkong region of eastern Tibet on similar charges of storing “reactionary” materials in the phone after they were found keeping photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in their phones.

This is just the latest in a string of sentences passed on people accused of involvement in the protests. The crackdown is also said to have included confiscation of TV equipment, restrictions on travel, withdrawal of government benefits from families of self-immolators, and beatings and arrests.

Over the longer term, China has attempted to secure its rule over Tibetan areas with economic development. Xinhua’s China View reported the official removal of 130,000 people from poverty in the Tibetan Autonomous Region last year, pointing to long-distance trucking as a key driver of prosperity:

At The New York Times’ Latitude blog, Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore acknowledged that Tibet has seen some material gains. But the settlement of nomadic herders has been a core policy to “raise living standards”, and this, she writes, has left many with government stipends and alcohol in place of traditional livelihoods and communities.

The Chinese government has […] undermined Tibetan nomads’ claim to land by ordering the fencing of private pastures and resettling populations, often forcibly. Since that campaign started in the 1990s — accelerating over the last decade — more than one million Tibetan herders across the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated regions of western China have been resettled. According to the state-run China Daily, the government spent almost $550 million from 2009 to 2012 on the resettlement of Tibetan nomads in Qinghai.

Herders have traded their livestock and their lifestyle for a small annual stipend. They often relocate to compounds in town — like the colorful ones I saw — where local officials can monitor their activities more easily. “People who live in these houses look at it like a jail,” one young Tibetan told me. “The community is gone.”

What’s left of it is being turned into a social underclass. Many older Tibetan nomads are illiterate, and aside from irregular construction work there is little they can find to support themselves once their stipend runs out. Those who cannot speak Chinese complain of being treated with contempt; they say shopkeepers of ethnic Han origin order them not to touch produce.

NPR’s Talk of the Nation (via CDT) recently hosted a discussion of past and present self-immolations with Columbia University’s Robert Barnett, Oxford University’s Michael Biggs and the International Campaign for Tibet’s Bhuchung Tsering. A blog post translated at High Peaks Pure Earth, on the other hand, offers a glimpse of the ongoing debate on the Tibetan web. Its author, Naktsang Nulo, dismisses the accusation that any but the youngest and most impressionable self-immolators could have been fooled into committing such an act, but implores others not to follow their lead and urges the Dalai Lama to issue a similar appeal.

What I want to state and request again and again from my heart and mind with deep sadness is that no matter what savage and brutal rule you may have to endure, please do not resort to self-immolation. You may come up with any other methods of resistance and struggle, but please do not set yourself on fire. I want to request again that no matter how pure your aims and hopes are, please do not resort to self-immolation.

[…] There are many ways to fight for freedom, to fulfill one’s aspirations and to struggle against the government. At a time when there is a so-called good leadership of the Communist Party, good governance from the administration, good economic development and good livelihood for the people, it seems that an individual, a group of people or a nationality can demand rights from the government, regional authorities or even the Communist Party by submitting appeals and through legal channels. It appears that one may not necessarily have to resort to self-immolation. Perhaps these are just the words of someone like me who does not know much. But what I want to request again is that no matter what savage and brutal rule you may have to endure, please do not set yourself on fire. Whatever methods of struggle and resistance one must adopt, do not resort to self-immolation. No matter how pure and incomparable your hopes and faiths are please do not set yourself on fire. I particularly want to request our root guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to pray for the sea of suffering in Tibet and kindly make a statement to ask the brave Tibetans not to self-immolate.

In an iSunAffairs Weekly article translated and republished at Phayul, New York-based political science professor Ming Xia examined the question of whether such a call would be effective or desirable. Xia’s primary focus, however, was the lack of support for Tibetans among Han intellectuals in China, which Andrew Jacobs also examined at The New York Times in November. The two groups face shared obstacles, Xia argued, but many Chinese fail to recognize this because of state propaganda or revulsion at the act of self-immolation viewed from a non-Buddhist perspective.

First as intellectuals living in the free world, we must be aware of the fact that the Chinese intellectuals and Tibetans are victims of the same authoritarian rule and that they are both facing a profound identity crisis. It raises a fundamental question for Tibetans, which is whether Tibetans would continue to be Tibetans if there were no Buddhism. And as for the Chinese intellectuals, the question is whether they would still be “intellectuals” if they do not have the right to free and independent thinking and the right to pursue truth. Since the two challenges are closely interlinked, it is therefore incumbent upon the Chinese intellectuals to pay close attention and support the demand of the Tibetan people.

[…] No doubt, resorting to self-immolation is not a good option. Tibetans today, however, do not have the luxury to choose between “good” and “bad”. Tibetans can only chose between “bad” and “worse.” Losing their religious faith is worse than self-immolation for Tibetans. The Chinese Communist regime wantonly insult the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, ban his portrait to be hung in the temples, expel the monks devoted to the Dalai Lama from their monasteries, establish “Temple Management Authority” and “Work Units” in the monasteries, and send millions of copies of the so-called “four leaders” (Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao) to the temples. All of this represents a serious threat to the religious freedom of the Tibetan people.

[This post was edited to remove a link to an outdated NPR story.]

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Post tags: Dalai Lama, economic development, intellectuals, journalists conditions, Kirti monastery, ngaba, nomads, poverty, poverty alleviation, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibetan protests
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As Oscar fever grows around the world with the 85th Academy Awards set to begin in Los Angeles just hours from now, excitement is building in China, even though it has no films in competition. There is also a sense of frustration here about why China’s movies aren’t nominated for the world’s biggest awards?

[…] The most popular answer to the question, held by ordinary Chinese and film experts alike, is: “Too few good films. That’s the real reason in recent years Chinese films have moved further and further away from the Oscars dream,” wrote The International Herald Leader newspaper, in a story carried on the country’s popular Tencent entertainment site.

An article by The Economic Daily, carried on People’s Daily Web site, gave another interpretation: “The Oscars have never been a communal forum, the films taken seriously have only the responsibility to portray the North American world view and the lives they’re willing to see.”

The Oscars’ presence in China is almost as thin as China’s at the Oscars, according to The Los Angeles Times’ Barbara Demick. Only one of this year’s Best Picture nominee has so far reached Chinese theaters: Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, which as a co-production with China enjoyed exemption from tight import quotas in exchange for compliance with the whims of the State Administration for Radio, Film and Television.

As for Oscar viewing parties? Unimaginable. The ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m. Monday in China, will be broadcast only in much-redacted form hours later by state-owned CCTV. (Last year, it didn’t air until 10:40 p.m. Monday.) […]

[…] “Nobody even has the live stream in China,” complained Raymond Zhou, film critic for the English-language China Daily. “The government won’t allow it. They are afraid somebody will say something against China.”

Chinese television used to broadcast the ceremony live, but stopped after Richard Gere, as a presenter in 1993, called on then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping to remove troops from Tibet.

“The Chinese translators didn’t know what to do, so they just tried to ignore the sentences. After that, they were afraid of the Oscars,” said Wu Renchu, a Shanghai film critic. “It is regrettable. There are many Chinese movie fans, students and white-collar workers who really would like to watch the ceremonies.”

[Update: CCTV6's M1905.com (via Bill Bishop) is streaming the awards ceremony.]

Gere’s outspokenness earned him a twenty-year ban from the awards, ending tonight with a musical performance to mark Chicago‘s six-Oscar haul in 2003. “Apparently, I’ve been rehabilitated,” he told HuffPost UK. “It seems if you stay around long enough, they forget they’ve banned you.” Despite this punishment, Gere became a symbol of Hollywood’s defiance of Chinese authoritarianism, before hunger for Chinese funding and market access made this a disposable luxury. From Damien Ma at Foreign Policy:

In Hollywood in the 1990s, China was an oppressive place. Red Corner opens with Gere gazing up at security cameras in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, ground zero of the infamous bloodshed of early June, 1989, seared into many Americans’ memories. Brad Pitt, too, had been blacklisted from China, ostensibly for starring in the 1997 feature Seven Years in Tibet, in which his character becomes friends with the young Dalai Lama.

[… But t]he era in which China could still be a menacing villain and stir political passions from the Spielbergs and the Geres appears to be ending. Even Brangelina are reportedly studying Mandarin. And the political drama surrounding disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai, ripe for Hollywoodification, will never see the light of day. Too bad, because the Bo Ultimatum is the Chinese Godfather waiting to be made. As Hollywood gathers for its biggest awards night Sunday, the industry seems to be biting its tongue. After all, the future, as Jeff Daniels quips in Looper, is in China.

From The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos:

[… T]hese days, Hollywood directors find themselves in the curious position of being more compliant than some of their Chinese counterparts. When censors ordered the Chinese director Lou Ye to make additional cuts to his movie “Mystery” just over a month before the film’s release date, Lou took the unusual steps of publicly tweeting the censors’ demands and then removing his name from the credits. Online, he explained his decision to break the taboo of discussing censorship in the hope that the system would “become more transparent and eventually be cancelled.” He was not willing to comply in silence. “We are all responsible for this unreasonable movie-censorship program,” he wrote.

[…] By comparison, Hollywood has been less vocal on the subject of censorship. When James Cameron released “Titanic” in 3-D last year—having agreed to censor Kate Winslet’s breasts—the Times asked him about the compromises of working in China. He said, “As an artist, I’m always against censorship… [But] this is an important market for me. And so I’m going to do what’s necessary to continue having this be an important market for my films. And I’m going to play by the rules that are internal to this market. Because you have to. You know, I can stomp my feet and hold my breath but I’m not going to change people’s minds that way.”

Transparency might be a more constructive approach than either foot-stomping or meek compliance. While there may be no end in sight for Chinese film censorship, Osnos suggests that the industry could formally and publicly catalogue cuts made at SARFT’s behest. Lou’s defiance, meanwhile, together with changes recently imposed on imports such as Cloud Atlas and Skyfall, has prompted calls for a more codified and less capriciously restrictive system. From Kristie Lu Stout at CNN:

[…] Lu Chuan is calling for change in the censorship system, hoping that Chinese filmmakers can be governed less by guesswork and more by a transparent rating system.

Lu says there must be change for the sake of his craft and also because his audience demands it.

“In an American movie, you can blow up the White House. We cannot blow up (Tiananmen) Square. It’s different. But the audience wants to see a lot of exciting visual things. So I think the leadership will think about that.”

He’s asking for the freedom to film China’s own “Independence Day,” the freedom to blow up anything without fear of political blowback.

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Post tags: Academy Awards, Dalai Lama, Evan Osnos, film censorship, film distribution, film industry, hollywood, Lou Ye, Lu Chuan, oscars, Richard Gere, SARFT, Tiananmen Square, Tibet, Titanic
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Two Tibetan teenagers set themselves on fire in Kyangtsa region of Zoege, eastern Tibet on February 19, protesting China’s continued occupation and repressive policies in Tibet.

Rinchen, 17 and Sonam Dhargey, 18 have succumbed to their burns.

[… Kirti Monastery said in a release that] “The families of the two teenagers are in possession of their bodies and are hoping to carry out their final rites without any interference from the Chinese authorities.”

The 102nd self-immolation is said to have occurred on Sunday. From Phayul.com:

Namlha Tsering, 49, carried out his fiery protest at around 5:40 pm (local time) in Sangchu region of Labrang. His current condition is not known although sources say chances of his survival are minimal.

Photos received by Phayul show Namlha Tsering sitting cross-legged in the middle of a street even as high flames are rising from his body. In another photo he is seen fallen on his back with fire still leaping from his body.

[…] Chinese security personnel arrived at the scene of the protest, doused the flames and bundled him away.

The 101st reportedly took place on the same symbolic date on which the hundredth was revealed after a 10-day delay. Another Tibetan also set fire to himself that day in Kathmandu, Nepal, and later died. From Phayul.com:

A Tibetan father of three set himself on fire in Amchok region of eastern Tibet on February 13, a day observed by Tibetans as the centenary celebrations of His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama’s Proclamation of Tibetan Independence.

Drugpa Khar, 26, set himself on fire in Amchok town in Sangchu region of Kanlho at around 1 pm (local time). He reportedly succumbed to his injuries.

[…] According to exile sources, Drugpa Khar is survived by his parents Tamding Tsering and Tamding Tso. His youngest child is one year old and the eldest is aged six.

At least six other self-immolations have taken place beside these 104, including two in Nepal and four in India. Another two possible cases within China’s borders are disputed on the grounds that they may have been accidental. Joshua Eaton has examined these and other reasons for discrepancies.

On NPR’s Talk of the Nation on Wednesday, Oxford University’s Michael Biggs, Columbia University’s Robert Barnett and the International Campaign for Tibet’s Bhuchung Tsering discussed the protests with host Neal Conan. Their conversation covers the history and potency of self-immolation protests globally, and their causes and effects within Tibet. Asked whether suicide bombings might replace suicide protests, Biggs argued that these are fundamentally different phenomena rather than points on the same spectrum. Bhuchung Tsering, though, suggested that goading Tibetans into just such an escalation may be one of the Chinese authorities’ aims, as it could be used to justify an even harsher crackdown. Perhaps the key question, however, is whether the protests might be having more of an effect than meets the eye.

CONAN: Let me turn back to Robert Barnet. Bhuchung Tsering just said that he thinks behind the scenes the Chinese government is debating this issue. Is there any evidence of that?

BARNETT: Well, I do have some evidence of that, actually. (Unintelligible) internal, you know, but we have sources, and they have been – you know, people have been sent to tell us about this. And I think it’s probably true. I think there’s been a major change in the Chinese view that whether these things are really caused by the Dalai Lama and the exiles, I think they now recognize they are caused by these mishandled, grossly mishandled religious policies and a whole raft of other policies over many years.

But the problem is not whether that change has happened. I think Bhuchung’s right. But I think the problem is whether the new leadership in China is able to push forward any change. It faces a very resistant bureaucracy. It faces a whole industry of people in security forces, in various offices, in local governments, whose whole careers depend on having a security threat, that they’re the hard men who are sent there to control it, and they’re going to go on pushing very hard for a tough policy.

[… O]ne of the questions is we don’t really know whether the new leadership is running these things yet. A lot of decisions are made at the local level. Some decisions are made by incumbents who are still there from the previous leadership. It doesn’t, as you say, fully change until March. We don’t yet know when this leadership can step forward and stamp its new ideas on the situation. Maybe it doesn’t have any new ideas. Maybe it’s going to be very careful. They can’t bring them in for another couple of years. I think all the bets are off on this. China is a black box in terms of leadership thinking.

At The Wall Street Journal, Brian Spegele and Deborah Kan also discussed the protests and the resulting crackdown:

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Post tags: central government, Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, Kirti monastery, local government, Robert Barnett, security crackdown, self-immolations, suicide bombing, Tibet
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In the wake of the recent Bo Xilai scandal and the resulting crisis of CPC rule, many had anticipated that party leaders would adopt certain election mechanisms—what the Chinese authorities call “intra-party democracy”—to restore the party’s much-damaged legitimacy and to generate a sense that the new top leaders do indeed have an election-based new mandate to rule. For example, some analysts had anticipated that the CPC Central Committee might use competitive (though limited) multiple-candidate elections to select members of its leadership bodies, such as the twenty-five-member politburo or even the PSC. Such high-level elections, however, did not take place. The selection of elites at this congress continued to be done the old fashioned way—through the “black box” of manipulation, deal-cutting, and trade-offs that occur behind the scenes among a handful of politicians (e.g., outgoing PSC members and retired heavyweight figures—most noticeably the 86-year old Jiang).

What is even more troubling is the fact that four out of the seven PSC members are princelings—leaders who come from families of either veteran revolutionaries or high-ranking officials. It has been widely noted that large numbers of prominent party leaders and families have used their political power to convert state assets into their own private wealth. The unprecedentedly strong presence of princelings in the new PSC is likely to reinforce public resentment of how power and wealth continue to converge in China.

Chinese politics thus seem to be entering a new era characterized by the concentration of princeling power at the top. This gives rise to important questions regarding the nature and implications of the new leadership. What caused the dramatic defeat of the Hu camp in this political succession? Does the six-to-one split of the PSC mean a shift from factional power-sharing to a new “winner takes all” mode of Chinese elite politics? Will the factional imbalance at the top seriously undermine leadership unity and elite cohesion, thus potentially threatening the sociopolitical stability of the country at large? What are the main characteristics of this new princeling elite? What should we expect in terms of economic policies, political reforms, and foreign relations under the Xi Jinping administration? And can the identities of newly promoted leaders help us understand where China is headed?

The issue also includes a Pico Iyer essay about the Dalai Lama, an article about the South China Sea disputes, and interview with Orville Schell, and a review of two recent e-books about the fall of Bo Xilai, written by CDT’s Translation Coordinator, Anne Henochowicz.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, CCP 5th generation, Dalai Lama, Orville Schell, princelings, South China Sea, Xi Jinping
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In the past few months, the government has begun a new tactic to discourage the protests, detaining and jailing people it deems to have incited the burnings.

The latest detentions took place in the northwestern province of Qinghai, where police detained 70 “criminal suspects”, 12 of whom were formally arrested, meaning they will be charged, the official Xinhua news agency said.

“Police will exert more efforts to thoroughly investigate the cases and seriously punish those who incite innocent people to commit self-immolation,” it quoted Lu Benqian, Qinghai’s deputy police chief, as saying.

China has repeatedly denounced exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and overseas Tibetan groups for fomenting the self-immolations.

Among those overseas groups blamed for “fomenting” self-immolations is VOA. NBC reports on a recent CCTV documentary which portrayed self-immolators who had been inspired by VOA coverage of the deaths:

The 25-minute documentary, roughly translated as, “Outside Tibetan Separatist Cliques and the Southern Gansu self-immolations,” ran on the CCTV show, “Focus Today” and showed a Tibetan man in a hospital bed who allegedly attempted to self-immolate.

Seemingly prompted to explain why he had attempted to light himself on fire, the man says, “I did it after watching VOA, I saw the photographs of self-immolators being commemorated. They were treated like heroes.”

The documentary coincides with a story printed earlier this week in the English language government newspaper, China Daily, which also suggested that the American government broadcaster was influencing Tibetans’ decision to set themselves alight.

Citing the example of one 18-year old Tibetan named Sangdegye, who attempted to self-immolate last December, the China Daily noted that he “adored the self-immolators VOA reported on,” citing them as “heroes.”

The CCTV documentary can be viewed here:

A China Daily article also pointed a finger at VOA and other foreign media, talking to family members of self-immolators:

His son, 31-year-old Tsekho, did not get along well with his wife before his death. He wanted to start a business and make money and asked his father for start-up funds. However, Chirarab refused and scolded him, as he was worried his alcoholic son would squander the money on excessive gambling and drinking.

After hearing that self-immolation could make him a “hero”, Tsekho told his friends, “I would rather burn myself than live like this”.

He set himself on fire beside a bridge in his village on Nov 29, 2012. Two of his friends fed the fire by pouring gasoline onto a woolen blanket and throwing the blanket to Tsekho. Another two villagers sent photos of his self-immolation overseas, along with his detailed personal information.

Some foreign media later branded Tsekho a “Tibetan martyr” protesting the growing influence of Han Chinese on the Tibetan plateau. They also used his story as an excuse to attract international attention to the so-called Tibet issue and the ultimate pursuit of “Tibetan independence,” a campaign spearheaded by the Tibetan government-in-exile, with the Dalai Lama as its spiritual leader.

VOA has denied the allegations:

VOA Director David Ensor called the allegations “absurd” and “totally false.” He called on the Chinese media to retract their stories.

Both VOA’s English-language and Tibetan-language programs have provided extensive coverage of the nearly 100 Tibetans who have self-immolated since 2009 to protest alleged Chinese repression in their region.

Ensor called the self-immolation stories “tragic” and a sign of distress in Tibet.

“We report about them, but do not encourage them, absolutely not.”

Almost 100 Tibetans have self-immolated over the past three years, and many of them have died. In response, government authorities have cracked down on families of the immolators as well as the villages where they lived by denying development assistance. Writer Wang Lixiong conducted an analysis of the last words of self-immolators in an attempt to understand their motives.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, self-immolations, tibet politics, Tibet protests, Voice of America
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On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal revealed that it, too, has suffered attacks focused on its coverage of China. From Siobhan Gorman, Devlin Barrett and Danny Yadron:

In the most recent incident, the Journal was notified by the FBI of a potential breach in the middle of last year, when the FBI came across data that apparently had come from the computer network in the Journal’s Beijing bureau, people familiar with the incident said.

[…] Among the targets were a handful of journalists in the Beijing bureau, including Jeremy Page, who wrote articles about the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in a scandal that helped bring down Chinese politician Bo Xilai, people familiar with the matter said. Beijing Bureau Chief Andrew Browne also was a target, they said.

[…] “Evidence shows that infiltration efforts target the monitoring of the Journal’s coverage of China and are not an attempt to gain commercial advantage or to misappropriate customer information,” Paula Keve, a spokeswoman for Journal publisher Dow Jones, said in a written statement Thursday. Dow Jones is a unit of News Corp.

The Times noted that Bloomberg News had also been attacked following its investigation of Xi Jinping’s family last year, and that security firm Mandiant had compiled a list of other targeted journalists. The Globe and Mail’s Mark MacKinnon added on Twitter that a 2011 intrusion into his own computer had also been aimed at “specific China-related files”. Numerous other targets have been identified elsewhere; in fact, wrote Adam Segal of the Council on Foreign Relations, the “sweeping cyber espionage campaign […] appears endemic”. From Foreign Policy:

As with many cases of cyber espionage, the break-in is assumed to have started with a spear-phishing email, a socially engineered message containing malware attachments or links to hostile websites. In the case of the attack on the security firm RSA in 2011, for example, an email with the subject line “2011 Recruitment Plan” was sent with an attached Excel file. Opening the file downloaded software that allowed attackers to gain control of the user’s computers. They then gradually expanded their access and moved into different computers and networks.

[…] Evidence that the hackers are China-based in all of these cases is suggestive, but not conclusive. Some of the code used in the attacks was developed by Chinese hacker groups and the command and control nodes have been traced back to Chinese IP addresses. Hackers are said to clock in in the morning Beijing time, clock out in the afternoon, and often take vacation on Chinese New Year and other national holidays. But attacks can be routed through many computers, malware is bought and sold on the black market, groups share techniques, and one of the cherished clichés of hackers is that they work weird hours.

Perhaps the most compelling evidence has been the type of information targeted. The emails and documents of the office of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan activists, defense industries, foreign embassies, journalists, and think tanks are not easily monetized and so would apparently have little attraction to criminal hackers. The information contained in them would be of much greater interest to the Chinese government.

Graham Cluley at Sophos’ Naked Security blog summed up the attribution debate:

Security experts brought in by the newspaper have pointed the finger of blame at China. And, in all likelihood, they’re right.

However, it must be remembered that it is extremely difficult to prove who is behind an internet attack like this. That’s because it’s so easy to use compromised computers around the world to route attacks through – disguising the true origin.

Of course, even if China is identified as the starting point of an attack – it doesn’t necessarily prove that it the operation is backed by the Chinese government or intelligence services. It could just as easily be a patriotic group of skilled, independent Chinese hackers upset with how the Western media is portraying their country’s rulers.

But let’s not be too naive… In all probability, the New York Times’s conclusion is correct, and this attack was sanctioned by the powers that be in Beijing.

NPR’s Neal Conan raised a third possibility: that the campaign might have been initiated privately by a member of Wen’s family, to investigate the investigation.

According to The Times report, the organization’s Symantec anti-virus software detected only one of 45 pieces of intruding malware. Symantec would not comment for the article itself, but in a later statement suggested that the newspaper had simply not bought enough of its products:

“Advanced attacks like the ones the New York Times described in the following article, (http://nyti.ms/TZtr5z), underscore how important it is for companies, countries and consumers to make sure they are using the full capability of security solutions. The advanced capabilities in our endpoint offerings, including our unique reputation-based technology and behavior-based blocking, specifically target sophisticated attacks. Turning on only the signature-based anti-virus components of endpoint solutions alone are not enough in a world that is changing daily from attacks and threats. We encourage customers to be very aggressive in deploying solutions that offer a combined approach to security. Anti-virus software alone is not enough.”

While some dissected the NYT attack itself, others pondered its broader significance. The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos viewed it in light of Xi Jinping’s professed crusade against official corruption:

The timing of all this is significant for anyone interested in the prospect of reform: this attack has unfolded at the very moment that the new Chinese leadership, under Xi Jinping, has pledged to root out corruption before it destroys the Party. Xi has been making so many gestures of reform that he has persuaded some longtime China-watchers to take him seriously.

[…] The renewed commitment to combating corruption isn’t looking as sincere. On the contrary, this case feels like déjà vu for the Times: in 2004, the Chinese government detained the Times researcher Zhao Yan, accusing him of leaking state secrets. As evidence, the investigators cited a photocopy of one of Zhao’s handwritten notes; the Times pointedly noted, “questions remain about how security agents obtained a copy of the note. One possibility is that agents entered The Times’s Beijing bureau without permission.”

This time, the newspaper claims, the intruders have been exorcised, and no sensitive data was taken. The Times has always maintained that the Wen exposé was based on public records, not human sources. Nevertheless, some feared, the recent episode might raise doubts about its ability to protect such sources in future. At Slate, Farhad Manjoo suggested that a deterrent effect might even have been one of the attackers’ goals:

The most important outcome here might be the chilling effect: Now that a Chinese attack on the New York Times is international news, any dissident or potential whistle-blower in China will be wary of talking to journalists at the paper—or, for that matter, all journalists.

In other words, the hack worked. […]

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bo Xilai, computer security, cyberattacks, cybersecurity, Dalai Lama, hackers, hacking, journalism, Neil Heywood, new york times, news media, newspapers, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping
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Losang Gyaltsen, 55, was elected at the end of the annual meeting of Tibet’s largely rubber stamp regional assembly, and replaces previous governor Padma Choling, according to an announcement by the official Xinhua news agency.

Losang Gyaltsen is a former mayor of Tibetan capital Lhasa and once taught Marxist theory, according to his official biography. His name is also spelled Losang Jamcan in English.

He reports to Tibet’s top official, Communist Party chief Chen Quanguo, a position which traditionally has always been held by a Han Chinese rather than an ethnic Tibetan.

“He’s rather hardline, but all officials at that level are the same,” said prominent Tibetan writer Woeser. “There will be no real change in Tibet.”

China Daily reported that Losang Gyaltsen will focus on the economic reform and development of Tibet , while also maintaining the CCP’s hard line against the Dalai Lama and his supporters:

“Without reform and opening up, there will be no today’s Tibet, nor the prosperity and development of tomorrow’s Tibet,” Losang Jamcan told reporters after his election.

He said the regional government will deepen reform and opening up for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

“Harmony and stability is an essential guarantee for Tibet’s development and prosperity,” he said. “We should cherish the harmonious and stable situation in our region in the same way that we cherish our very sight.”

He urged maintaining vigilance in times of peace as well as taking a firm political stand and acting consistently to resolutely battling against the 14th Dalai Lama clique and unswervingly safeguarding the unification of the motherland and national unity.

Ethnic Tibetans, including many of those who self-immolate, have protested Beijing’s harsh stance against the Dalai Lama as well as economic development and cultural policies which, in their view, harm their communities. With self-immolations continuing this year, albeit at a slower pace than late 2012, the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile has asked Tibetans to refrain from celebrating the New Year next month. From Bloomberg:

“I request my fellow Tibetans to not celebrate Losar with our usual festivities,” Lobsang Sangay, prime minister in the exiled administration, said in the statement referring to the region’s new year festival. “Instead, when this year’s holiday falls on February 11, I ask you to perform only the customary religious rituals like visiting temples and making offerings.”

Tibetans say China is attacking their culture, religion and environment with policies that have moved thousands of ethnic Han Chinese into Tibet in the name of economic development.

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Post tags: Dalai Lama, self-immolations, tibet politics
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Growing unrest in Qinghai province in recent months apparently is worrying local leaders. Earlier self-immolations had been largely concentrated in the adjacent province of Sichuan. The uptick in tensions in Tibetan portions of Qinghai suggests deepening distrust of local party leaders. Tibetans activists lament what they describe as forced cultural assimilation, political and religious repression and environmental degradation as some of the problems that underlay the self-immolations and wider unrest across the region.

Authorities in Huangnan are also pledging to “block harmful outside information,” according to Thursday’s state media report. It said authorities had already begun dismantling satellite and other equipment used to broadcast overseas programming. Authorities described the programming—much of it produced with the backing of Western governments—as “anti-Chinese” and vowed to increase access to Chinese state-backed programming instead.

Reuters reports that 300 monasteries have been affected by the TV seizures:

The government in Huangnan said its approach in tackling self-immolations comprised of “guiding public opinion on the Dalai issue”, increasing patrols and “blocking outside harmful information”, according to the news agency, which is managed by the Qinghai government.

“At this critical moment for maintaining social stability in Huangnan prefecture … (we must) strengthen measures and fully fight the special battle against self-immolations,” the article said.

“We do not know anything about it,” an official from the Huangnan prefecture government told Reuters by telephone, when asked to confirm the report, before hanging up.

The efforts to guide public opinion have included a series of articles and videos distributed abroad through blocked services like Twitter and YouTube. A representative China Daily article, ‘Monks vent anger at self-immolation‘, stressed the effects of self-immolations on local businesses, shocked passers-by, and scarred and reportedly repentant survivors, whom it portrayed as innocent dupes of the Dalai Lama and his manipulative and villainous agents:

People used to gather and watch the acts of self-immolation, but now the act has been disguised, said Ngarnang, director of Aba county’s information office. “We have seen a trend whereby the location of these acts has moved from the county seat to the countryside, because it is less public. After all, the Dalai Lama and his followers just need the photographs and videos to use in their propaganda campaign. They know they won’t get any support from the local people.”

[…] Lorang Konchok took advantage of his position as a Geshe, a name given to monks who hold an exclusive degree in Buddhist studies. He told local monks and followers that self-immolation was not against Buddhist doctrine and that those who performed the act were “heroes”.

However, he admitted that he had no intention of becoming a “hero” himself. “I won’t self-immolate because I am scared of the pain,” said Lorang Konchok at the detention center in Aba prefecture in early December. “I didn’t regard them (self-immolators) as heroes until two other monks, Samdam and Dorah, told me so. They also told me they could help publicize those who set themselves on fire.”

[…] Police later discovered that Lorang Konchok was behind five other acts of self-immolation this year, including that of a young man who also took his own life in March. Two people were also forced to flee their hometown to avoid Lorang Konchok, who harassed them and urged them to commit self-immolation. They did not return to their homes until Lorang Konchok and Lorang Tsering were apprehended by the police.

Facts about the self-immolations in Tibetan Areas of Ngapayoutube.com/watch?v=ID1hI5…

— Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) December 26, 2012

See more on Tibetan self-immolations via CDT.

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Post tags: China Daily, Dalai Lama, qinghai, self-immolations, state media, Tibet, Tibetan protests, Xinhua
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In recent weeks, hundreds of members of the Almighty God group have clashed with police, sometimes outside government buildings, in central Henan, northern Shaanxi and southwestern Gansu provinces, according to photos on popular microblogs.

The government says it is a cult calling for a “decisive battle” to slay the “Red Dragon” Communist Party, and which has been spreading doomsday alerts related an old Mayan calendar seen by some as predicting “the end of the world” on December 21.

Police have now detained around 1,000 members the Almighty God group across some seven provinces, the People’s Daily reported on its website on Thursday, saying about 400 of them had been detained in the remote western province of Qinghai.

The group is also accused, according to Global Times, of “encouraging people to donate all of their belongings” to its leaders before the end arrived, a strategy also suggested by sceptical astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

At The New York Review of Books, Ian Johnson argued that the crackdown reflects the Beijing’s growing uncertainty in the face of a broader religious resurgence.

It would be easy to see this as just a Chinese version of the global Mayan craze. And given the problems facing Xi Jinping, China’s new leader—among them a slowing economy and escalating tensions with maritime neighbors—groups like the Almighty God might seem like a sideshow.

But this would be a mistake. Following decades of suppression, religious movements have become a potent force in China, attracting hundreds of millions of Chinese. This has made groups like Almighty God a growing challenge for the new government. Above all, Beijing is struggling with the question of social control—how much it can continue to wield over an increasingly wealthy, educated, and assertive population.

Religion has become a focus for these tensions because China is undergoing a religious revival driven in part by widespread concern that age-old Chinese values have been eroded by “getting rich is glorious” economic modernization. Organized religion and other spiritual movements, such as Confucianism and efforts to protect traditional culture, are rapidly gaining traction. Many religious groups have decided they can’t wait for government approval and are simply organizing and seeing how the chips fall. To a surprising degree, they have succeeded: unregistered churches, lay Buddhist organizations, and clan-based charities have all developed under the government’s radar screen.

Much of the government’s unease arises from fear of foreign agitation, illustrated repeatedly by its insistence that the Dalai Lama is behind Tibetan self-immolations, and again this week by a set of leaked instructions on dealing with foreign missionary activity. From William Wan at The Washington Post:

The 16-page notice — obtained this month by a U.S.-based Christian group — uses language from the cold war era to depict a conspiracy by “overseas hostile forces” to infiltrate Chinese campuses under the guise of academic exchanges while their real intent is to use religion in “westernizing and dividing China.”

[…] The document talks about infiltration by religion as a whole, but it singles out Christianity as particularly dangerous and the United States as leading the effort. No other country or religion is mentioned by name.

[…] In the document, authorities warn that foreigners are using academic research, study abroad, English-language instruction and charitable work as pretexts to spread religion among China’s youths. “The intensity of infiltration is increasing,” the document reads. “You must not underestimate the current harm and the long-term effect of such phenomenon and you must take forceful measures.”

Religious groups were also described as a U.S.-backed threat in an essay which provoked fierce criticism after appearing in the overseas edition of People’s Daily in July. But discussing the leaked document on his Sinostand blog, the Economic Observer’s Eric Fish suggested that the authorities have mistaken the goals of missionary activity in China.

As the document suggests, there are indeed thousands of these people in China; many of whom conduct activities that would raise legal issues even in Western democracies. I heard stories of teachers requiring students to attend Bible studies in order to pass their class. Many used Christian teaching materials and held English classes based on Biblical themes. I even heard about a teacher requiring his students to put on a play about the seven deadly sins that featured Jesus lugging a crucifix.

But a few things jumped out at me from this document. The first was how the government still fundamentally misunderstands what motivates Christian missionaries. To some degree, this is understandable. Chinese officials tend to be pragmatic worldly people with little exposure to religion. The idea that someone would spend so much time and resources changing others’ beliefs for no tangible reason makes no sense. That these missionaries feel duty-bound to a supernatural deity and believe they’re literally saving their converts just doesn’t register. Clearly, there must be some devious political agenda beneath that pious surface.

There are indeed those like Bob Fu who have explicit regime-change goals, but they seem to be a small minority. Most seem to consciously avoid even mentioning politics. They may expend disproportionate effort on students with political ambitions, but this is more in hopes of getting religious policy relaxed, not overthrowing the entire system.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Christianity, Dalai Lama, ian johnson, religion, religious freedom, self-immolations, United States, Xi Jinping
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Janphel Yeshi set himself on fire and ran through the streets of New Delhi in March before Hu Jintao’s visit to India. His image appears on the cover of the latest edition of iSun Affairs.

Soon after announcing that “inciting” self-immolation would be prosecuted as murder, Chinese authorities arrested a monk and his nephew in Sichuan Province for “goading” people to set themselves alight. Global Times Chief Editor Hu Xijin condemned these “murderers,” and the Dalai Lama, on Weibo:

HuXijin: Sichuan has cracked the case of Tibetan lamas inciting self-immolation. Instigated by the Dalai clique, two culprits have incited and goaded eight people to self-immolate since 2009, resulting in three deaths. This truly is an unforgivable evil. How vicious does one have to be to use religious ecstasy to engineer self-immolations, and thus exert political pressure? I say it’s right to classify this as intentional homicide. Life is above politics–it is above all else.

胡锡进：四川破了煽动藏人喇嘛自焚的案子，两名罪犯受达赖集团指使，从09年后先后煽动唆使8人自焚，致3人死亡。这真是十恶不赦。利用宗教迷醉制造自焚，以此施加政治压力，这要多么恶毒才干得出来。把这定为故意杀人罪，我看没错。生命高于政治，高于一切。

Dazed netizens complained that Hu’s comments came out of nowhere–before last week, the Chinese press had been silent on the violence in Tibet. Many couldn’t believe that people could be simply “incited” to set themselves on fire. They also called Hu’s bluff on his proclamation that “life is above politics,” since he tows the Party line for a state-run newspaper. Some of the comments:

zhaochu1962: Almost none of these cases of self-immolation were allowed to be reported. When people go from ignorance to awareness, of course they will suspect this kind of case-cracking. Burning yourself to death because you were goaded–sounds like a fantasy story. Suicide is not a crime. The evolution of the situation in Tibet to today’s tragic state requires consideration of policy, not dubious victories to anesthetize the public. If we are to maintain unity [of the country], we must face this issue head-on.

赵楚: 当这些自焚案件几乎不让报道，人们也从无知晓时，这种破案必定会令人生疑。因为教唆就会去自焚，这样的话听来彷佛天方夜谭。自杀不是一种罪行，藏区局势演化到今日可悲的地步要做政策的反思，不要用这些可疑的胜利消息来麻醉公众，要维护统一必须正视问题。

AuthorTianYou-: Any mishap among the Tibetans is the one of the Dalai Lama’s conspiracies, and any mishap among the Xinjiang people [Uyghurs] is one of Rebiya Kadeer’s tricks.

作家天佑–:凡是藏人出事都是达赖的阴谋，凡是疆人出事全是热比娅的诡计。

Iamyuqianqiansmother: If you’re going to write a fiction, at least provide some decent details. What’s truly vicious is framing people groundlessly like this. 96 people have self-immolated, but there’s not one word about it in domestically. The U.S. Congress has already stated it is watching the situation closely, so you all, @HuXijin, go and frame the Dalai Lama. You’re playing like gangsters.

我是遇谦谦她妈：编段子也该编出点像样的细节，这种莫须有的栽赃才是真恶毒。已经96人自焚了，国内毫无报道，美国国会已经表示严重关注，所以你们 @胡锡进 就栽赃给达赖。真是耍流氓。

smallhateforbooks: In this instance, Editor Hu says life is above politics, but in every other case he’ll say politics is above life.

读书恨少：胡编对此事说生命高于政治，而对其他事就会说政治高于生命。

freeCrow: What a load of crap. Why would someone self-immolate just because they were “goaded”?

自由的乌鸦：扯淡。为何一“教唆”，就有人去自焚？

yangdingzhi: I’m in favor of Chief Hu self-immolating. I’ll donate 20 for funeral arrangements. //@TujiaWildman: I’d like to goad Chief Hu to self-immolate, then turn myself in. Is that doable?

澎湃在这：支持胡总自焚，我捐20善后 //@土家野夫: 我想唆使胡总自焚并领罪。可能乎？

shileimemeda: When I go to Tibet, it’s crawling with armed police and real guns. There are military checkpoints all over. So-called “national unity,” heh heh. If it was real unity, you would respect their gods. Some Party would mold itself into the saviors of the people, but in reality manufactured so many cases of murder. Economic development is gained in exchange for the resources of countless generations and the happiness of the people. I think this type of united celebration comes only from goading.

石磊么么哒：我去西藏处处武警，真枪，到处安检查岗，所谓的民族团结，呵呵。真正的团结是你真正信奉他的神，某些党把自己塑造成人民的拯救者，殊不知你制造了多少累累血案，经济的发展是用绵延子孙的资源和人民的幸福换来的，这样的普天同庆我看就是教唆才能来的吧

jiaxuTalktomyself: Oh Hu Xijin, you are a great, glorious, and correct, fair and selfless Communist Party member! You devote everything to the world’s most worthy causes! You ought to give your life for such lofty goals. If you go die today, it will be a powerful testament to the crimes of the old monks! This testament ought only come from you, and can only come from you! Now go die!!!–Did my goading work?

jiaxu自语：胡锡进啊，您是一名伟大光荣正确的大公无私的一切交给世界上最崇高事业的共产党员！你应该为这样的伟大事业献身吧，今天你如果去死，会给老和尚的罪恶作出有力的证明！这个证明应该而且只能你做了！你去死吧！！！—————我的教唆有用吗？

Anthony: Funny, I’d never heard of this case, and all of the sudden it’s been solved… Chief Hu, could you please post a little shout-out to freedom of the press and abolishing media censorship?

安淘泥：奇怪了，从来没有听过案件，现在忽然冒出来来个破案……胡总，麻烦您，发一条微博，先忽悠一下新闻自由，取消媒体审查制。

CitizenMarshalSYuan: Life is above politics? (Human rights are above sovereign rights?) God, this is a blatant declaration of leaving the Party! Editor Hu moves us once again.

公民MarshalSYuan: 生命高於政治？（人權高於主權？）天哪，這是赤裸裸的退黨宣言啊！胡編又讓人感動了一回

LajiesSky: Who will believe you? You didn’t say a word when these things were happening. I guess the pressure [of the situation] has forced you to make up something.

拉杰的天空：谁还会相信你们呢。在发生时你们没有一字的报道。迫于压力你们编吧。

Read more about Tibetan self-immolations from CDT.

Via CDT Chinese.

Netizen Voices is an original CDT series. If you would like to reuse this content, please follow the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 agreement.

Note: This figure, which @yuqianqian first cited on December 3, includes an unconfirmed case. The International Campaign for Tibet and the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy both count 95 victims of self-immolation as of December 13, 2012. The Hong Kong magazine iSun Affairs lists 96 victims in its latest edition, but gives 97 on its website [zh]. Back.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, Hu xijin, iSun Affairs, Netizen Voices, self-immolations, Tibet
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Not only could they search for a range of Chinese leaders on the microblogging network, they were free to write criticism.

One comment called Mr Xi a “hypocrite” for suggesting that Communist Party officials should not enter politics for wealth or prestige. “Hasn’t he won wealth and prestige through politics?” asked the poster. Elsewhere, Li Keqiang, the incoming prime minister, was accused of covering up an Aids outbreak linked to infected blood in Henan province for five years. “Now he makes speeches [about Aids], but he is just making a show,” the comment said. The names of some leaders were still blocked. Wen Jiabao, the outgoing prime minister, was unsearchable.

The name of Ling Jihua, the former close aide to Hu Jintao whose son died in a Ferrari crash in March, was also blocked.

Bo Xilai, the disgraced former Politburo member, showed up in searches, as did Zhou Yongkang, the outgoing security tsar.

Moore notes that not everything turned up in a search, as Liu Xiaobo, the Dalai Lama and Tiananmen Square searches remained blocked by China’s Internet censors.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, Great Firewall, Internet censorship, Li Keqiang, Liu Xiaobo, microblogs, netizens, sina weibo, Tiananmen Square, Wen Jiabao
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