"That officer out there told me I was dead. I'm not dead, am I?"
Posted on 04/01/2008 10:09:54 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
China alleges Tibetan 'suicide squads'
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer
Tue Apr 1, 2:36 PM ET
China has branded the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes" and his followers the "scum of Buddhism." It stepped up the rhetoric Tuesday, accusing the Nobel Peace laureate and his supporters of planning suicide attacks.
The Tibetan government-in-exile swiftly denied the charge, and the Bush administration rushed to the Tibetan Buddhist leader's defense, calling him "a man of peace."
"There is absolutely no indication that he wants to do anything other than have a dialogue with China on how to discuss the serious issues there," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
Wu Heping, spokesman for China's Ministry of Public Security, claimed searches of monasteries in the Tibetan capital had turned up a large cache of weapons. They included 176 guns, 13,013 bullets, 7,725 pounds of explosives, 19,000 sticks of dynamite and 350 knives, he said.
"To our knowledge, the next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks," Wu told a news conference. "They claimed that they fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice."
Wu provided no details or evidence. He used the term "gan si dui," a rarely used phrase directly translated as "dare-to-die corps." The official English version of his remarks translated the term as "suicide squads."
Wu said police had arrested an individual who he claimed was an operative of the "Dalai Lama clique," responsible for gathering intelligence and distributing pamphlets calling for an uprising.
The suspect admitted to using code words to communicate with his contacts, including "uncle" for the Dalai Lama and "skirts" for the banned Tibetan snow lion flag, Wu said.
Beijing has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of orchestrating violence in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Protests which began peacefully there on the March 10 anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule spiraled out of control four days later.
Chinese officials have put the death toll at 22, most of them Han Chinese; the government-in-exile says 140 Tibetans were killed.
China also says sympathy protests that spread to surrounding provinces are part of a campaign by the Dalai Lama to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and promote Tibetan independence.
The 72-year-old Dalai Lama has condemned the violence and denied any links to it, urging an independent international inquiry into the unrest.
"Tibetan exiles are 100 percent committed to nonviolence. There is no question of suicide attacks," Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India, said Tuesday. "But we fear that Chinese might masquerade as Tibetans and plan such attacks to give bad publicity to Tibetans."
Experts on terrorism and security risks facing Beijing and the Olympics have not cited any Tibet group as a threat.
Scholars said the claim of suicide squads was a calculated move by China allowing it to step up its crackdown in Tibetan areas.
"There is no evidence of support for any kind of violence against China or Chinese," said Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at Westminster University in London.
Instead, Beijing is "portraying to the rest of China and the rest of the world: these people are basically irrational" and that there was no room for compromise, he said.
Tuesday's accusations could also further divide the Tibetan government-in-exile and other groups like the Tibetan Youth Congress, which has challenged the Dalai Lama's policy of nonviolence, Anand said.
"This is a way of pressuring the Dalai Lama to renounce Tibetans who have created violence," he said.
Andrew Fischer, a fellow at the London School of Economics who researches Chinese development policies in Tibetan areas of China, dismissed Wu's warnings as "completely ridiculous."
What China is trying to do "is justify this massive troop deployment, a massive crackdown on Tibetan areas and they're trying to justify intensification of hard-line policies," Fischer said.
Drawing from a deep historical reserve of angry rhetoric, Tibet's tough-talking Chinese Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, recently called the Dalai Lama a "wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face, but the heart of a beast" and deemed the current conflict a "life-and-death battle." State media has denounced protesting monks as the "scum of Buddhism."
The campaign against the Dalai Lama has been underscored in recent days with showings of decades-old propaganda films on state television portraying Tibetan society as cruel and primitive before the 1950 invasion by communist troops.
The escalation of the rhetoric to include claims of possible suicide attacks may also touch upon another sensitive issue for China's communist leadership — unrest in Xinjiang, a predominantly Muslim region to Tibet's north, and Beijing's tight security measures in the area.
Last month, state media reported that a woman had confessed to attempting to hijack and crash a Chinese passenger plane from Xinjiang in what officials say was part of a terror campaign by a radical Islamic independence group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The reports said the woman was from China's Turkic Muslim Uighur minority.
While the United States has labeled the East Turkestan Islamic Movement a terrorist organization, the State Department alleges widespread abuses of the legal and educational systems by the communist authorities to suppress Uighur culture and religion.
Fischer said China has tried to change the "nonviolent, compassionate" image of Tibetans into one of violence and brutality to draw parallels to the pro-independence stance in Xinjiang.
"If they succeed in portraying them that way, then they can treat them the same way they treat Muslims in Xinjiang," he said.
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They may use their own agents to blow up places populated by Han-Chinese in Tibet, creating heavy casualties. Then turn around and claim that it was the work of Tibetan suicide-bombers, and unleash massive crackdown. Concurrently, they can organize widespread anti-Tibetan rallies (dressed up as anti-terrorist rally) of Han Chinese, some of which will lead to mob violences.
A kind of fighting fire with fire. Tibetans showed bloody dead bodies of Tibetan protestors all over the world as the work of brutal Chinese authorities. Now Chinese can show their own and claim them as the work of Tibetan suicide "terrorists," trying to undercut world's sympathy and support toward Tibetans.
Ping!
We are supine at the altar of the lowest cost widget.
Ping. I imagine that the ChiCom fanboys will flock to this thread.
“This remark by the Chinese official could actually provide us with insight into how China may want to resolve this case.”
I think you are right on the target.
Ping
You can't believe what they say about their pop figures, their bank numbers, ANYTHING! They don't have a "Propaganda Department of the Central Committee" for nothing!
They're wholesale liars. They'll tell ANY lie.
I'll believe the Monks in Lhasa before I believe the Communists in Beijing, ANYDAY, ANYTIME!
"That officer out there told me I was dead. I'm not dead, am I?"
The Chinese sure are lousy liars.
They should just get the heck out of Tibet and leave those silly monks and their goof ball of a Dali-lama alone.
If they want to toss down a prayer mat every step and prostrate (moon Buddah) everywhere they go, let them. It was Tibets little corner of the world before the Chinese invaded them for no good reason, and as long as they feed themselves and don’t bother anyone, they should leave them alone.
"Don't make me go Middle Kingdom on your ChiCom @$$!"
LMAO! That's so funny.
As his pic shows, he's a borderline mental retard (mentally challanged).
Every time I see him he's acting like a goofball. He certainly doesn't project that vicious "wolf in monks clothing" the Chinese goofballs are trying to label him as.
remember the hideous bombing of the buddha towers in mecca?
remember the horrific bombing in the cafe in lhasa?
and don't forget the murders of innocents on several trains and buses in rikaze!
religion of buddha alert! /sarc>
Them Tibetans armed with attack prayers now?
Utter hogwash!
Yup, BS. Where’s the evidence China? Boy, oh boy, China’s Olympics are coming to be seen as the ‘36 Berlin Olympics.
Jimmy Shifflett Ping.
REWRITE NEEDED:
China has adopted the well known marketing/democratic technique of branding and labeled the Dalai Lama a “wolf in monk’s robes” and his followers the “scum of Buddhism.”
It added a new talking point Tuesday, accusing the Nobel Peace laureate and his supporters of being stupid enough to get shot for wanting peace.
The Tibetan government-in-exile and President Bush told the Chinese, “hey man, it’s the ‘Dalai Lama’! Don’t you read the NY TIMES?”
“He just wants to sip tea and talk while sitting cross-legged on the floor”, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
Wu Heping, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Public Enslavement, claimed searches of monasteries in the Tibetan capital had turned up a large cache of weapons.
They confiscated 350 ancient swords of untold value. There were security guards, some with guns.
There were about 16 rounds each for 176 guns, which is equal to 7,725 pounds of explosives, which could be used to make 19,000 sticks of dynamite, he said.
“For all we know, those crazy monks will be throwing themselves in front of our rifle practices, which will only end up very bloody and violent.
Wu provided no details or evidence, and armed guards ensured no one in attendance asked, either.
He used the term “mobs of monks,” a rarely used phrase directly translated as “live free or die- corps.” The official English version of his remarks translated the term as “rescue squads.”
Wu said he had police arrest a paperboy who he claimed was an operative of the “Dalai Lama Club,” responsible for gathering intelligence and distributing pamphlets calling for an appeal to the treatment of the monks.
The suspect admitted to using code words to communicate with his contacts, including “father” for the Priest and “old glory” for the flag, Wu said.
Beijing has always blamed the Dalai Lama and his supporters for any violence or bloodshed that comes from the Hit Squads sent to decimate the monks.
Protests which began peacefully take about four days to end, when the military gets tired of just beating on the monks, and declares open fire so they can go home.
I’ve got my asbestos longjohns on, so here goes:
What would Tibet gain, if, by some miracle, it became independent. It has nothing but monks and poverty. No resources, no industry, nothing. It’s only industry would be as a tourist haven for aging western hippies who want to soak up some Nirvana in “Shangri-La.” We’ve seen what happened in the Islamic Middle-East when nations revert to mysticism and superstition. Keep in mind, that the Nationalists who ran China before 1949 did not recognize an independent Tibet either. Also keep in mind that, in 1861-1865, the United States military inflicted horrific losses upon those people in the Southeastern US who wanted independence from Washington, just as the people of Tibet want independence from Beijing. Pot, meet kettle. Maybe the Tibetans should just grow up and be good citizens.
BTW—I fully support a US boycott of the Olympics. Not only is China’s political system repugnant, such a boycott would show that the US is tired of being China’s economic vassal.
The world should, but won’t boycott China. Government is more than willing to kill to ensure they keep their power, which means that they care more about themselves than the people they rule over.
I'm sure Tibet is happy to have sympathetic defenders like you. ;)
Tibet’s version of government and economy should be their own choice and not China’s nor the worlds. It has tons of resources or else China would not want it.
—Tibet’s version of government and economy should be their own choice and not China’s nor the worlds. It has tons of resources or else China would not want it.—
The “Confederate States of America” had “tons” of resources too. IMO it’s deja-vu all over again.
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