China Outraged by US-Tibet Resolution
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN -
BEIJING (AP) -- An indignant China said Friday the U.S. "seriously hurt
the feelings of the Chinese people" when Congress passed a resolution
calling on Beijing to stop cracking down on Tibetan dissent and talk
to the Dalai Lama.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu labeled the resolution anti-
Chinese, saying it misrepresented Tibet's "history and modern
reality."
"The Chinese side expresses its strong indignation and resolute
opposition toward this," Jiang said in a statement posted on the
ministry's Web site.
Meanwhile, state media labeled a group linked to the Dalai Lama's
India-based government-in-exile a "terrorist organization." China
claims that recent anti-Chinese protests were part of a violent
campaign to overthrow Chinese rule and sabotage this summer's Beijing
Olympics.
The resolution in Congress sponsored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
passed on Wednesday called on Beijing to "end its crackdown on
nonviolent Tibetan protesters" and put a stop to cultural, religious,
economic and linguistic "repression."
While noting re****ts of deadly rioting in Lhasa and other Tibetan
areas in March, the resolution called China's response
"dispro****tionate and extreme." It said hundreds of Tibetans had been
killed and thousands detained, but did not say how it obtained its
information.
China says 22 people were killed in the riots, many in arson attacks,
and over 1,000 detained. The Dalai Lama's India-based government-in-
exile says more than 140 people were killed.
The resolution also called on China to begin an unconditional "results-
based dialogue" with the 72-year-old Dalai Lama to address Tibetan
concerns and work toward a long-term solution to the dispute.
China has held six rounds of contacts with representatives of the
Dalai Lama with no apparent result, and has demanded he meet numerous
preconditions before it will talk to him directly.
Jiang said the resolution failed to condemn the "Dalai clique" that
China blames for orchestrating the protests that began peacefully on
March 10 among Buddhist monks in Lhasa before spiraling into violence
four days later. Beijing has called the protests a plot to sabotage
the Beijing Olympic Games and advance the cause of Tibetan
independence.
The resolution "makes willful accusations against the ... lawful
handling of the serious violent criminal incident in Lhasa and crudely
interferes in China's internal affairs," Jiang said.
China has stepped up condemnation of Tibetan protesters following
major demonstrations when the Olympic torch passed through San
Francisco, London and Paris this week on its relay around the world.
Thousands of protesters angry at China's Tibet policies, human rights
record and friendly ties with Sudan have attempted to block the
torch's passage, with some individuals seeking to grab it or
extinguish the flame.
The San Francisco route was changed and shortened to sidestep
demonstrations, but the International Olympic Committee said it had no
plans to cancel the rest of the relay, which was to continue Friday in
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
On Friday, China's official Xinhua News Agency accused the Tibetan
Youth Congress of planning the rioting in Lhasa, saying it "exposed
the terrorist nature" of the group.
The congress organized recent protests in India and elsewhere
overseas, coinciding with the demonstrations that began peacefully
among Buddhist monks in Lhasa before spiraling into violence four days
later.
"The crimes made the organization look like a kin member of al-Qaida,
Chechnyan armed terrorists and 'East Turkistan' separatists," Xinhua
said. East Turkistan is another name for China-controlled Xinjiang,
where separatists among its Muslim Turkic ethnic group have been
staging a low-intensity insurgency.
Xinhua cited alleged statements and speeches by Youth Congress
leaders, as well as a pur****ted plot to smuggle weapons into Tibet to
launch attacks. The allegations were impossible to verify.
"Judging by these criteria, the TYC is a terrorist organization in a
pure sense," Xinhua said.
The accusation was among the strongest against an exile Tibetan group
in the latest round of anti-government protests. Chinese police
earlier this month accused radicals of organizing "suicide squads to
launch violent attacks."
Scholars say the accusations help the government justify its crackdown
and demonize the opposition while driving a wedge between the
government-in-exile and groups like the Tibetan Youth Congress that
have challenged the Dalai Lama's policy of nonviolence.
China plans to carry the Olympic torch over Mount Everest and through
Tibet, but jitters about protests during that leg apparently prompted
a reversal of a decision to reopen Tibet to foreign tourists on May 1,
the start of a three-day national holiday.
Foreigners have not received permits to visit the Himalayan region
since the Lhasa protests. Tour operators said Thursday the Tibetan
Tourism Bureau told them this week to stop arranging trips for
foreigners. They said the bureau cited the need for safe passage for
the torch relay to the summit of Everest, as well as continuing safety
concerns in Lhasa.
On Thursday, the Dalai Lama said he sup****ts China's hosting of the
Olympics but insisted that nobody had the right to tell protesters
demanding freedom for Tibet "to shut up."
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