China Celebrates 60 Years Of Communist Rule

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October 2, 2009

China Celebrates 60 Years of Communist Rule By MICHAEL WINES and SHARON LaFRANIERE BEIJING — China’s leaders marked their nation’s 60th anniversary on Thursday with a precision display of military bravado that included, improbably, a female militia unit toting submachine guns and attired in red miniskirts and white jackboots, and a fleet of floats with representations of a giant fish and Mount Everest. The celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China was immense, powerful and flawless, down to the crystalline skies that, just a day earlier, had been laden with smog. In all that, it was a fitting analogy for how China’s Communist Party leaders wanted their citizens and the world to regard them — and, perhaps, how they might be feeling themselves these days. The last such parade, in 1999, was of interest mainly to foreign military analysts and China hands. This time, the world’s news outlets reported raptly on the significance of every detail, and China’s state-run television network streamed video coverage over the Internet, in English and other languages, to viewers worldwide. Beyond that, however, the Chinese made few concessions to their global audience. The 60th-anniversary celebration was slightly kitschy and indisputably retro, a carbon copy of the prior once-a-decade celebrations. “On one level, they are naturally aware of the international audience, but in the end this is a parade and show for Chinese leaders and the people of China,” Geremie R. Barmé, professor of Chinese history at the Australian National University, said in an interview. “It has always been such a show. It is a display of China’s might and power. When it comes to this kind of parade, international perceptions are just not that important.” A confident President Hu Jintao, clad in a high-collar Mao-style jacket, told the invited guests — the general public was not allowed to attend the parade — that “infinitely bright prospects” lay ahead for the world’s most populous nation. “Today, a socialist China geared to modernization, the world and the future has stood rock-firm in the east of the world,” Mr. Hu said in a brief speech speckled with boilerplate references to Chinese-style socialism. The Chinese people, he said, “cannot be prouder of the development and progress of our great motherland.” Mr. Hu’s review of his troops — made standing in the open sunroof of a Chinese-made 12-cylinder Red Flag limousine — echoed the reviews conducted by his predecessors in decades past. Television images showed Mr. Hu waving stiffly and calling out “Greetings, comrades!” through four large microphones attached to the limousine’s roof. Following tradition, the troops replied in unison, “Serve the people!” The vast display of military power — according to the state-run Xinhua news agency, 52 weapons systems; 151 warplane flyovers; 12 intercontinental-range missiles; and a new missile, the Dongfeng 21-C, that one day could be used to counter American aircraft carriers — received by far the most attention. While China’s military remains well behind that of many developed nations in sophistication and firepower, analysts said, its progress since the last such parade in 1999 was impressive. Analysts said, however, that there was little or nothing unknown in the procession of hardware.

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And some of the most notable changes did not involve the military at all, but the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force that was a bit player in the past. On Thursday, the police had specially outfitted armored personnel carriers, a signal of their growing stature. The group is the government’s main internal security force and played crucial roles in suppressing ethnic disturbances in the Xinjiang region in July and in combating riots in Tibet in March 2008. Its performance in Tibet was widely criticized, and the government has since taken steps to modernize the force and train it to military standards. To foreigners, the show of firepower and Mr. Hu’s bromide-filled speech may have evoked memories of the cold war and the former Soviet Union’s performances at May Day ceremonies. But in China, the National Day ceremony is directed mainly at the Chinese people, and particularly at the 75-million-member Communist Party, which not only runs the government but also has direct control of the armed forces. The military journal People’s Liberation Army News said in February that the parade “is a comprehensive display of the party’s ability to rule.” And the theme of this parade, emphasized in weeks of newspaper articles and television broadcasts, is that the Communist Party has made China strong, increasingly prosperous and respected in the world — and that it is in firm control. Those points were underscored in the procession of floats that followed the military display in the parade, with each float highlighting a Chinese province’s charms or one of China’s accomplishments. One float carrying fish and a sheaf of wheat proclaimed China’s ability to feed itself; another, holding a huge space capsule, celebrated China’s space program; another depicted the bullet trains that are beginning to link a few large cities. Each of four floats bore a huge portrait of a Chinese leader with a trademark slogan: Mao (“The Chinese people have stood up”); Deng Xiaoping (“Pushing reform and opening up”); former President Jiang Zemin (“Adhering to the important thoughts of the Three Represents”); and the current president, Mr. Hu (“Implementing scientific outlook on development”). Sharon LaFraniere contributed reporting.

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Beijing Shows Off Military Weapons to Impress the Chinese and Others By ERIK ECKHOLM Published: Saturday, October 2, 1999

With a Soviet-style procession of goose-stepping troops, tanks, missiles and fighter jets setting the tone for the parade marking its 50 years of Communism, China showed off a formidable armory today, even if few of the weapons could match the latest Western models.

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There were no technological surprises to cause gasps in Taiwan or in Washington. Still, military attaches from foreign embassies here eagerly studied the display through binoculars, viewing some of China's best antiaircraft missiles and other systems for the first time. Yet potential foreign adversaries were not the main intended audience today, Chinese and Western experts said. ''The military parade is intended to show confidence and strength, especially domestically,'' said Zhang Yunding, director of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ''It's to give the people a sense that we have a new China, to let people feel proud of that rather than to focus only on our current problems.'' Any intimidation of Taiwan is an added benefit, Mr. Zhang said.

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Jonathan Pollack, a China specialist at the Rand Corporation in California, said, ''The leadership wants to signal that it's not standing still and that it can display this prowess, at least as much to its own citizens as to the world at large.''

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Today's parade, the first of its kind in 15 years, also served the political ambitions of Jiang Zemin. In a stiff drive-by review of the forces today from an open-roofed limousine, Mr. Jiang imitated Deng Xiaoping's performance in 1984 and also showcased his own positions as chairman of the Central Military Commission, President of China and general secretary of the Communist Party.

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Beijing Shows Off Military Weapons to Impress the Chinese and Others - The New York Times

03/10/09 12:10 AM

If the tanks and jets on display today were a generation or so behind the world's best, the Chinese also displayed mobile short- and medium-range ballistic missiles that are nearly impossible to counter. China still lacks the ability for sustained air and naval operations that would be necessary to invade well-defended Taiwan, 100 miles offshore and the main focus of Chinese military planning. And should the United States be drawn into combat, China would almost certainly be outfought by American ships and planes, which can strike precisely from hundreds of miles away. But the mobile missiles on display today, which are being deployed adjacent to Taiwan in growing numbers, could serve in a sense as equalizers, able to inflict terrible damage on the island as well as on more distant American bases.

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The parade also featured the recently tested DF-31 intercontinental ballistic missile, which can reach parts of the United States. Unlike China's existing, vulnerable nuclear forces, this weapon can be moved about, lending it far greater protection from surprise attack.

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The military chest-thumping comes at a time when the long outmoded and underfunded military has gained status in top political circles and, almost certainly, a new boost in money for weapons development and purchases. Many of China's best weapons, including some fighter jets and surface-to-air missiles seen today as well as naval destroyers and submarines, have been purchased from Russia. China's military spending is higher than the published budget shows. But even with recent increases and any new additions, most Western experts say, the total remains a fraction of the American military budget, forcing hard choices.

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The generals' political stock is up these days, experts say, because the modernization of Chinese forces now seems all the more urgent. The Americans' display of precision bombing in the Persian Gulf war of 1991 caused consternation in China's backward military and led to a major overhaul that is still going on. This spring, the long-distance prowess shown by the United States in its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia was, in the words of an army newspaper here, ''a new wake-up call'' to the Chinese military. ''It was a big surprise to the military people,'' Mr. Zhang said. ''There's really pressure now to develop high-tech weapons.'' This summer's war of words with Taiwan, too, heightened the sense of urgency. In the months since Taiwan's President, Lee Teng-hui, declared that relations between Taiwan and China should be conducted ''state to state,'' a statement Beijing took to be a step toward formal independence, the Chinese press has been filled with assertions about China's new capacity to easily vanquish Taiwan. But thus summer's crisis forced China's military and political leaders to confront how limited their military options actually are, especially with the specter of American involvement in Taiwan's defense. Apart from backward technology, the Chinese military is in the throes of multiple transitions, and its leaders appear especially anxious to avoid any conflicts in the next few years, outside experts said. Burdened with a surplus of troops, a legacy of the old doctrine of ''people's war,'' the three-million-strong army is trying to reduce its numbers by another 500,000 after http://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/02/world/beijing-shows-off-military-weapons-to-impress-the-chinese-and-others.html

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Beijing Shows Off Military Weapons to Impress the Chinese and Others - The New York Times

03/10/09 12:10 AM

three-million-strong army is trying to reduce its numbers by another 500,000 after already pruning one million people in recent years. But the dearth of jobs for cashiered soldiers is slowing the process. The military is also supposed to be ending its involvement in the myriad businesses that helped pay its bills in the past. It is revamping the organization of forces and is in the midst of a fundamental rewriting of military doctrine and strategy. Despite all these traumas, the military put on an impressively precise show today, even if it seemed from another era. ''The 50th anniversary was a special occasion,'' Mr. Zhang said. ''I think this is probably the last parade of this type.'' Photo: Mobile missiles rolled past the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing yesterday in a military parade marking the 50th anniversary of Communist rule. (Associated Press) A version of this article appeared in print on Saturday, October 2, 1999, on section A page 6 of the New York edition.

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Hu addresses grand rally

President Hu Jintao (Front),addresses the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on the Tian'anmen Rostrum in central Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2009. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) Photo Gallery>>>

Chinese President calls for unity for nation's development

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President Hu Jintao addresses the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on the Tian'anmen Rostrum in central Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2009. (Xinhua/Fan Rujun) Photo Gallery>>>

BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday called on the Chinese people to unite more closely to build a "rich, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and modernized socialist country." History reveals that China's development has never been a plain sailing, Hu said, adding, "But the people who have their destiny in their own hands and are united will overcome all difficulties and obstacles and continuously make great historic achievements." Full story Chinese full of confidence in national rejuvenation, says President Hu BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- President Hu Jintao said here Thursday morning that all the Chinese people were "full of confidence" in the bright prospects of the great rejuvenation of the nation. The people from all ethnic groups "cannot be prouder of the development and progress of our great motherland," said Hu, addressing a grand rally at the Tian'anmen Square in downtown Beijing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Full story Chinese capable of making due contribution to world, President Hu

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BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- President Hu Jintao said here Thursday morning that the Chinese people were confident in and capable of building their own country and making due contribution to the world. Full story Chinese president vows to continue to strive for national reunification BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday pledged efforts to strive for the country's complete reunification, calling it "the common aspiration of the Chinese nation." "We will unswervingly uphold the principles of 'peaceful reunification' and 'one country, two systems' to maintain long-term prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and Macao and push forward the peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait," Hu said at a rally celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Full story China adheres to peaceful development, says President Hu BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will stick to an independent foreign policy of peace to promote lasting peace and common prosperity of the world, Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Thursday. China will pursue the path of peaceful development and develop friendly relations and cooperation with all countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, Hu said while addressing a celebration marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Full story Chinese President orders armed forces to make new contributions to world peace BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday called on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the People's Armed Police Force (PAPF) to make new contributions to safeguarding national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, as well as to maintaining world peace. "The PLA and PAPF must carry forward their glorious tradition, build up military strength and perform their duties earnestly," he said at a celebration marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China. Full story President Hu appears atop in high-collared Mao suit BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao showed his first appearance in a high-collared dark Mao suit in a grand national ceremony, following the dress code that top Chinese leaders reviewed National Day military parades. Former President Jiang Zemin and Hu's top colleagues, the eight members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, all dressed in Western-styled suits with bright-colored ties. Full story

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Hu Jintao reviews Chinese troops

Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, goes by car inspecting troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to take part in a military parade for celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in central Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2009. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Top Chinese state and military leader Hu Jintao on Thursday inspected the country's defense forces which will also stage a massive parade in Beijing in celebration of the 60th founding anniversary of New China. Related Backgrounder: Arms of services in military parade Backgrounder: New faces in National Day military parade

A black open-roof Red Flag limousine carried Hu, state president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, eastward along Chang'an Avenue from the iconic Tian'anmen Square shortly after the celebration started at 10 a.m.. Tens of thousands of soldiers and militia, together with ranks of camouflaged tanks and missiles, stood along the newly widened boulevard and waited to be inspected. The whole procession stretches some three kilometers.

Backgrounder:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/01/content_12143632.htm

Weapons paraded all Chinese-made Backgrounder: China's past 13 military parades to mark founding anniversaries

Fang Fenghui (L), Beijing Military Zone commander and military parade commander, reports to Hu Jintao (R), general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inviting him to inspect troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to take part in a military parade for celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in central Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2009. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

"Greetings, comrades!" Hu, wearing a high-collared Mao suit, saluted troops through a microphone. "Greetings, leader!" Loudly replied the soldiers in brand new uniforms. Hu then said "Comrades, you are working hard!" And the troops replied: "We serve the people!" Hu's inspection of the troops, the first in the past decade, preluded a full-dress National Day military parade involving about8,000 military personnel. Fourteen phalanxes on feet are composed of the army, navy, air force and the Second Artillery Force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the People's Armed Police Force and reserved force. PLA's young and mysterious Special Forces made their debut for the inspection. A total of 30 phalanxes in wheeled transport displayed more than 50 types of new weapon systems manufactured by China on its own, including the newest model of intercontinental nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. Other cutting-edge weaponry included China's new generation of tanks, sophisticated radar, airborne early warning and control aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellite communication devices. All the weapons are made in China. More than 150 jet-fighters, bombers, helicopters and other aircraft in 12 echelons will fly over the square, packed with some200,000 people.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/01/content_12143632.htm

The parade, the 14th since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, is set to showcase China's newest weaponry and enhanced defense strength.

President Hu begins review of Chinese troops BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- A black open-roof limousine carrying Chinese President Hu Jintao drove eastward along Chang'an Avenue in central Beijing amid the army song of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). This marked the start of his inspection of the Chinese troops. Full story China's Hu appears at Tian'anmen Rostrum BEIJING, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- President Hu Jintao, former President Jiang Zemin and other top leaders and celebrities showed up at the Tian'anmen Rostrum. Full story [1] [2] [3] [4]

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4 October 2009

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DongFeng 21C (CSS-5 Mod-3) Medium-Range Ballistic Missile

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The PLA Second Artillery Corps fielded a new type conventionally-armed, solid-propellant, mobile-launch medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) in 2004~05. Carried and launched from a wheeled 10X10 transporter-erector-launcher (TEL) vehicle, the missile is believed to be capable of delivering a single and multiple conventional warheads weighing 2,000kg and have a maximum range of 1,700km.

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Programme An sketchy image of the new MRBM was first published anonymously on the Chinese Internet in November 2006, followed by a high-resolution photo showing two missiles with different warhead configurations published anonymously in July 2007. The PLA Daily website has also published a photo showing PLA Second Artillery Corps soldiers loading a missile onto a TEL vehicle exactly identical to that shown in previous photos, indicating that the missile system was already in operational use. The exact designation of the missile is unknown. Some reports suggested that the missile might be the DF-25, a conventionally-armed MRBM developed in the late 1980s for export. With no further information on the missile emerging, Western intelligence concluded that the development was cancelled in 1996. However, the project may have been secretly kept alive and the missile was later adopted by the PLA for conventional roles. It is worth noting that this theory was not supported by the latest Pentagon report to the U.S. Congress on the PRC military power published in March 2008, with no mentioning of DF-25’s existence in the report. A second theory is that the missile was an improved conventional version of the

Two types of DongFeng 21C with different warheads in display (Chinese Internet)

nuclear-armed DongFeng 21 MRAM, possibly with a designation DongFeng 21C (NATO reporting name: CSS-5 Mod-3). The two missiles share a similar range (~1,700km), but the DongFeng 21 only has a payload of 600kg, compared to the 2,000kg payload of the DongFeng 21C. The two systems bear no resemblance in appearance. Finally, some suggested that the missile was a totally new design derived by removing the third-stage from the three-stage DF-31 ICBM and substituting a modified second stage.

http://www.sinodefence.com/strategic/missile/df21c.asp

Although the idea of using conventionally-armed ballistic missiles for tactical and strategic roles had been raised since the 1970s, the PRC had no conventional ballistic missile capability until the Second Artillery Corps added conventional strikes to its missions in the early 1990s. At the time of 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, the PLA Second Artillery Corps had only deployed 30~50 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM), but this number had increased to nearly 800 by 2007. The PRC Government outlined in its white paper China’s National Defence in 2006 that “the Second Artillery Force is striving to build a streamlined and effective strategic force with both nuclear and conventional

DongFeng 21C TEL vehicle (Chinese Internet)

capabilities”. The 1980s conflicts with Vietnam over the sovereign of the disputed Nansha (Spratly) Islands in the South China Sea made PRC military planners realise that the PLA was incapable of operating far from the country’s coasts due to its lack of long-range strike aircraft, aerial tanker, and aircraft carrier. However, this deficiency could be partially offset by short- to medium-range ballistic missiles, which could provide an ability to deliver conventional firepower quickly over extended distances.

Design The DongFeng 21C was the second design of solid-propellant MRBM deployed by the PLA, after the DongFeng 21 that entered service in the late 1980s. The missile is mounted on a WS2500 wheeled 10X10 TEL vehicle, with a maximum load capacity of 28 tonnes. Reportedly developed under the assistance of Belarus and resembling the Russian MAZ543 missile TEL vehicle, the WS2500 shows strong off-road travelling ability. The missile is placed inside a cylinder-shape container/launcher, with its nose extending outside of the launcher. The missile container/launcher is in horizontal position when in travelling and vertical position during launch. At the bottom of the container/launcher there are four large hydraulically operated stabilisers, which are lowered in preparation

PLA Second Artillery Corps crew loading a DongFeng 21C missile onto the TEL (PLA Daily)

for the missile launch. It is now known that type of warheads the new MRBM is carrying, but it can be assumed that the possible options for the warhead may include high-explosive (HE), anti-armour submunitions, fuel air explosive (FAE), and electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Like the DF-11 and DF-15 SRBMs, the new MRBM is likely to be equipped with a combined inertial/GPS guidance system, possibly coupled with terminal guidance for increased accuracy. Last update: 3 October 2009

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July 6, 2009

Riots in Western China Amid Ethnic Tension By EDWARD WONG BEIJING — At least 1,000 rioters clashed with the police on Sunday in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot. The rioting broke out Sunday afternoon in a large market area of Urumqi, the capital of the vast, restive desert region of Xinjiang, and lasted for several hours before riot police officers and paramilitary or military troops locked down the Uighur quarter of the city. The rioters threw stones at the police and set vehicles on fire, sending plumes of smoke into the sky, while police officers used fire hoses and batons to beat back rioters and detain Uighurs who appeared to be leading the protest, witnesses said. At least 3 Han Chinese and one police officer were killed in the rioting and 20 were injured, according to Xinhua, the official news agency. Dozens of Uighur men were led into police stations with their hands behind their backs and shirts pulled over their heads, one witness said. Early Monday, the local government announced a curfew banning all traffic in the city until 8 p.m. The riot was the largest ethnic clash in China since the Tibetan uprising of March 2008, and perhaps the biggest protest in Xinjiang in years. Like the Tibetan unrest, it highlighted the deep-seated frustrations felt by some ethnic minorities in western China over the policies of the Communist Party. Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim group, resent rule by the Han Chinese, and Chinese security forces have tried to keep oil-rich Xinjiang under tight control since the 1990s, when cities there were struck by waves of protests, riots and bombings. Last summer, attacks on security forces took place in several cities in Xinjiang; the Chinese government blamed separatist groups. Early Monday, Chinese officials said the latest riots were started by Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur human rights advocate who had been imprisoned in China and now lives in Washington, Xinhua reported. As with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, Chinese officials often blame Ms. Kadeer for ethnic unrest; she denies the charges. The clashes on Sunday began when the police confronted a protest march held by Uighurs to demand a full government investigation of a brawl between Uighur and Han workers that erupted in Guangdong Province overnight on June 25 and June 26. The brawl took place in a toy factory and left 2 Uighurs dead and 118 people injured. The police later arrested a bitter ex-employee of the factory who had ignited the fight by starting a rumor that 6 Uighur men had raped 2 Han women at the work site, Xinhua reported. There was also a rumor circulating on Sunday in Urumqi that a Han man had killed a Uighur in the city earlier in the day, said Adam Grode, an English teacher living in the neighborhood where the rioting took place. “This is just crazy,” Mr. Grode said by telephone Sunday night. “There was a lot of tear gas in the streets, and I almost couldn’t get back to my apartment. There’s a huge police presence.” Mr. Grode said he saw a few Han civilians being harassed by Uighurs. Rumors of Uighurs attacking Han Chinese spread quickly through parts of Urumqi, adding to the panic. A worker at the Texas Restaurant, a few hundred yards from the site of the rioting, said her manager had urged the restaurant workers to stay inside. Xinhua reported few details of the riot on Sunday night. It said that “an

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unknown number of people gathered Sunday afternoon” in Urumqi, “attacking passers-by and setting fire to vehicles.” Uighurs are the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang but are a minority in Urumqi, where Han Chinese make up more than 70 percent of the population of two million or so. The Chinese government has encouraged Han migration to the city and other parts of Xinjiang, fueling resentment among the Uighurs. Urumqi is a deeply segregated city, with Han Chinese there rarely venturing into the Uighur quarter. The Uighur neighborhood is centered in a warren of narrow alleyways, food markets and a large shopping area called the Grand Bazaar or the Erdaoqiao Market, where the rioting reached its peak on Sunday. Mr. Grode, who lives in an apartment there, said he went outside when he first heard commotion around 6 p.m. He saw hundreds of Uighurs in the streets; that quickly swelled to more than 1,000, he said. Police officers soon arrived. Around 7 p.m., protesters began hurling rocks and vegetables from the market at the police, Mr. Grode said. Traffic had ground to a halt. An hour later, as the riot surged toward the center of the market, troops in green uniforms and full riot gear showed up, as did armored vehicles. Chinese government officials often deploy the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force, to quell riots. By midnight, Mr. Grode said, some of the armored vehicles had begun to leave, but bursts of gunfire could still be heard. Huang Yuanxi contributed research.

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The Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gerz) are a Turkic-speaking Muslim group who number about nine million in Xinjiang, a vast, restive desert region of Western China. Many Uighurs resent rule by the Han Chinese, and Chinese security forces have tried to keep oil-rich Xinjiang under tight control since the 1990s, when cities there were struck by waves of protests, riots and bombings.

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In the summer of 2008, attacks on security forces took place in several cities in Xinjiang; the Chinese government blamed separatist groups. On July 5, 2009 rioting broke out in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, after days of rising tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese. The clashes began when the police confronted a protest march held by Uighurs to demand a full government investigation of a brawl between Uighur and Han workers in a toy factory on June 25 in Shaoguan, 1800 miles from Xinjiang. Two Uighur men were killed and 120 injured in the violence at the toy factory. Many Uighurs believe that the government did too little to investigate the incident, and anger about the government's perceived lack of action was the spark that led to renewed violence in Urumqi on July 5. At least 197 people were killed and 1,721 injured, most of them Han civilians, when Uighurs went on a rampage that night, according to the government. Vengeful Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, then attacked Uighurs over the next few days. Many Uighurs in Urumqi say the government has severely undercounted the Uighur casualties. Even the official casualty toll makes this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years.

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A Communist Party leader from the region pledged to seek the death penalty for anyone behind the strife. Li Zhi, the party boss in Urumqi, said that many suspected instigators of the riots had been arrested and that most were students. His promise to seek the death sentence for those responsible came as China's president, Hu Jintao, cut short his stay in Italy, where he had planned to attend a Group of 8 summit meeting, to deal with aftermath of the riots.

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Many Uighurs say the Chinese government has taken a strict line on issues that go to the heart of Uighur identity. The vast majority of Uighurs are Sunni Muslims, but the practice of Islam is tightly circumscribed. Government workers are not allowed to practice the religion. Imams cannot teach the Koran in private, and study of Arabic is allowed only at designated government schools. Two of Islam's five pillars - the sacred fasting month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj - are also closely managed: students and government workers are compelled to eat during Ramadan, and passports of Uighurs have been confiscated to force them to join official hajj tours.

China Increases Security in Uighur Region Urumqi, in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, settled into tense stillness after three days of deadly ethnic violence.

Economically, too, many Uighurs feel they are treated unfairly. Since the central government adopted a "develop the west" campaign in the past decade, Xinjiang's economy has grown quickly, and living standards on the whole have risen. But many Uighurs complain about high unemployment and the growing income gap with Han Chinese, who control the largest industries in Xinjiang: oil, agriculture and construction. They give many more contracts and jobs to other Han. Two weeks after the July riots, a senior Chinese official said the government's ethnic minority policies were "effective" and were not the root cause of the deadly fighting. Uighurs have also figured prominently in a recent court case concerning the detainees the United States has held at Guantánamo Bay Naval Camp, prompting a long legal fight. A group of Uighurs fled what they called Chinese persecution and spent part of 2001 in Afghanistan at a Uighur encampment. They left the camp, apparently unarmed, when Americans bombed it. After being turned into the authorities by Pakistani villagers in return for an American bounty, the men eventually ended up imprisoned at Guantánamo .

Ethnic Clashes in Western China Hundreds of protesters in Urumqi, China, defied a government-ordered lockdown, a day after deadly clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese.

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March 15, 2008

Violence in Tibet as Monks Clash With the Police By JIM YARDLEY BEIJING — Violence erupted Friday morning in a busy market area of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans brawled with Chinese security forces in bloody clashes. Witnesses said angry Tibetan crowds burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus. State media said at least 10 people died. The chaotic scene was the latest, and most violent, confrontation in a series of protests that began on Monday and now represent a major challenge to the ruling Communist Party as it prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August. By Saturday morning, Chinese armored vehicles were reportedly patrolling the center of the city. Beijing is facing the most serious and prolonged demonstrations in Tibet since the late 1980s, when it suppressed a rebellion there with lethal force that left scores, and possibly hundreds, of ethnic Tibetans dead. The leadership is clearly alarmed that a wave of negative publicity could disrupt its elaborate plans for the Olympics and its hopes that the games will showcase its rising influence and prosperity rather than domestic turmoil. Thousands of Buddhists in neighboring India and Nepal took to the streets Friday in solidarity. Concerned that the protests might spread elsewhere in China, the authorities appeared to be moving the military police into other regions with large Tibetan populations. Roughly 1,000 special police officers were deployed in the town of Bamei, in Sichuan Province, the site of a temple sacred to Tibetans, witnesses said by telephone on Friday. Residents in Lhasa, reached by telephone, said the authorities had placed much of the city under a curfew by Friday night while military police officers were blocking many city streets. One resident reported seeing armored vehicles in the center of the city. The United States Embassy in Beijing warned American citizens on Friday not to travel to Lhasa. The embassy said it had “received firsthand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence.” In a meeting in Beijing on Friday, the United States ambassador to China, Clark Randt, urged Chinese officials to act with restraint, “and not resort to use of force in dealing with the protesters,” the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, told reporters. The Chinese authorities blamed the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, for the violence and said the government would maintain stability in Lhasa. “The government of Tibet Autonomous Region said Friday there had been enough evidence to prove that the recent sabotage was ‘organized, premeditated and masterminded’ by the Dalai clique,” reported Xinhua, the Chinese government’s official news agency. The Dalai Lama released a statement on Friday calling on both sides to avoid violence and appealing to China’s leaders to “address the long simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people.” A spokesman for the Dalai Lama called China’s accusations “absolutely baseless.” The situation in Lhasa represents a complicated predicament for the Communist Party, which is now holding its annual meeting of

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the National People’s Congress in Beijing. Party leaders are already grappling with growing criticism of China’s domestic human rights record and its ties to Sudan, which the United States has accused of waging a genocidal campaign in its Darfur region. In the past China has not hesitated to crush major protests in Tibet or to jail disobedient monks. President Hu Jintao, who is also the general secretary of the Communist Party, served as party boss in Tibet during a violent crackdown in 1989. His support for the bloody suppression of unrest that year earned him the good will of Deng Xiaoping, then the paramount leader, and led directly to his elevation to the Politburo Standing Committee and eventually to China’s top leadership posts. But Chinese leaders may be more reluctant to order such heavy-handed tactics as Beijing prepares for the Olympics. On Friday, different accounts emerged about how the Chinese military police in Lhasa handled the demonstrations. Radio Free Asia, a nonprofit news agency financed by the United States government, quoted Tibetan witnesses who described police officers firing into crowds of protesters and killing at least two people in the city’s ancient Barkhor area. On Saturday morning, Radio Free Asia quoted witnesses who described seeing dead bodies around Lhasa. Later on Saturday Xinhua reported 10 deaths had been confirmed. A Chinese resident in Lhasa, reached by telephone, said stories were circulating among local Chinese that soldiers had been wounded and had not been allowed to fight back against Tibetans throwing rocks. Another Chinese man living near the Barkhor area said family members had told him that two soldiers died and that Tibetans were beating Chinese residents with iron rods. Friday’s sharp escalation in violence, and the sense of dread described by several residents, came a day after China’s Foreign Ministry told reporters that the situation in Lhasa had stabilized. The protest started Monday when Buddhist monks began peaceful protests against religious restrictions by Chinese authorities. The police arrested 50 or 60 monks, but other protests followed Tuesday and Wednesday as monks in two different monasteries took to the streets. The apparent epicenter of Friday’s protests was the Tromsikhang Market, a large, concrete structure built in the Barkhor area by the Chinese authorities in the early 1990s. “It’s chaos in the streets,” said a person who answered the telephone at a bread shop near the market. What actually set off the violence is unclear, as accounts differed between Chinese and Tibetan residents. Monks from the Ramoche Temple, a short walk from the market, reportedly began to march in the Barkhor area. The Ramoche monks intended to protest the rough treatment of monks who had marched earlier in the week, according to a Tibetan rights advocate in the United States who has communicated with people in Lhasa. When police officers began beating the monks, Tibetans rioted in the Barkhor area, the advocate said. Angry mobs set fire to a police car and a store owned by a Chinese shopkeeper, said the advocate, who refused to be publicly identified for fear of reprisals. But a Chinese travel agent in Lhasa, reached by telephone, said Tibetans had instigated the violence and set fire to an empty tour bus parked outside the Ramoche Temple. Another Chinese resident described 50 or 60 young Tibetans burning stores owned by Chinese merchants as well as two fire trucks and two police cars. “I saw someone who was dead and covered in a sheet,” the Chinese resident said in a telephone interview. “The Tromsikhang market was destroyed, except for the shops owned by Tibetans. I heard a soldier shouting, ‘Please go home and stop fighting!’ ” News agencies also reported clashes between monks from Ramoche Temple and military police officers. “The monks are still protesting,” one witness told The Associated Press. “Police and army cars were burned. There are people crying. Hundreds of people, including monks and civilians, are in the protests.”

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Radio Free Asia reported that Tibetan protesters were waving traditional white scarves and shouting, “Free Tibet.” The agency said the riots began about 10 a.m. and had largely quieted down by 3:30 p.m., after the paramilitary police were mobilized. Meanwhile, anxious tourists stranded in Lhasa posted worried comments on online forums for travelers. “The situation seems to be very nervous and paranoid up here,” wrote one person in broken and misspelled English in a chat room sponsored by the Lonely Planet tour guide. “There is police and military everwher. Suddenly you would see policeman running and rushig somewhere” The ethnic friction evident in Friday’s violence has long simmered just below the surface in Lhasa. For more than two decades, a steady influx of Chinese migrants has transformed and stratified the city. A newer, Chinese section of Lhasa is focused along Beijing Road and is lined with shops and concrete buildings. But the older Tibetan neighborhoods emanate from the Jokhang, the most sacred temple in Tibet, and the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans also have complained that Chinese merchants now control most of the tourist shops in the Barkhor area. The protests in Lhasa coincided with the anniversary of a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule that forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India. Groups that promote Tibetan independence have marked the anniversary with demonstrations around the world, including in India, where a group of advocates tried to march to Tibet. But the unexpected demonstrations in Lhasa are the largest Tibetan protests against Chinese rule since 1989. Military police officers and soldiers are now reportedly surrounding the three monasteries that were at the center of the protests earlier this week. Two monks have reportedly tried to kill themselves, while pro-Tibetan groups say others have started a hunger strike. In its travel warning, the United States Embassy in Beijing advised American tourists in Lhasa to “seek safe havens in hotels and other buildings and remain indoors.” “All care should be taken to avoid unnecessary movement within the city until the situation is under control,” it said. On Friday night, the Chinese resident living in the Barkhor area said his family was huddled at home with the lights turned off. He said he could hear shouting on the streets outside and feared for the safety of his family. Huang Yuanxi, Zhang Jing and Jake Hooker contributed research from Beijing, and Steven Lee Myers and Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York. Somini Sengupta contributed reporting from New Delhi. Huang Yuanxi, Zhang Jing and Jake Hooker contributed research from Beijing, and Steven Lee Myers and Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York. Somini Sengupta contributed reporting from New Delhi.

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September 29, 2008

Doubt Arises in Account of an Attack in China By EDWARD WONG KASHGAR, China — Just days before the Olympic Games began in August, a truck plowed into a large group of paramilitary officers jogging in western China, sending bodies flying, Chinese officials said at the time. They described the event as a terrorist attack carried out by two ethnic Uighur separatists aimed at disrupting the Olympics. After running over the officers, the men also attacked them with machetes and homemade explosives, officials said. At least 16 officers were killed, they said, in what appeared to be the deadliest assault in China since the 1990s. But fresh accounts told to The New York Times by three foreign tourists who happened to be in the area challenge central parts of the official Chinese version of the events of Aug. 4 in Kashgar, a former Silk Road post in the western desert. One tourist took 27 photographs. Among other discrepancies, the witnesses said that they heard no loud explosions and that the men wielding the machetes appeared to be paramilitary officers who were attacking other uniformed men. That raises several questions: Why were the police wielding machetes? Were they retaliating against assailants who had managed to obtain official uniforms? Had the attackers infiltrated the police unit, or was this a conflict between police officers? “It seemed that the policeman was fighting with another policeman,” one witness said. All of the witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of running afoul of the Chinese authorities. Chinese officials have declined to say anything more about the event, which was the first in a series of four assaults in August in which officials blamed separatists in the Xinjiang autonomous region. The attacks left at least 22 security officers and one civilian dead, according to official reports. On Aug. 5, the party secretary of Kashgar, Shi Dagang, said that the attack the previous day on the police officers, which also injured 16, was carried out by two Uighur men, a taxi driver and a vegetable seller. The Uighurs are a Turkic Muslim group that calls Xinjiang its homeland and often bridles at Han Chinese rule. One man drove the truck, Mr. Shi said, and the other ran up to the scene with weapons. The attackers, who were arrested, had each tossed an explosive and when they were captured had a total of nine unused explosive devices, machetes, daggers and a homemade gun, he said. He never mentioned attackers in security uniforms. Neither did reports by Xinhua, the state news agency. One publication, the North American edition of a Hong Kong newspaper, Ming Pao, did, citing police officials in Xinjiang, who now refuse to elaborate on the events. Chinese officials have long sought to portray violence in Xinjiang as a black-and-white conflict, with separatist groups collectively known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement carrying out attacks. Officials cite the threat of terrorism when imposing strict security measures on the region.

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But the ambiguities of the scene described by the witnesses suggest that there could be different angles to the violence. When asked whether terrorists were involved, a Uighur man who on Friday drove past the scene of the attack said, “They say one thing, we say something else.” Other Uighurs say the attackers were acting on their own, perhaps out of a personal grievance. The three witnesses said they had seen the events from the Barony Hotel, which sits across the street from a compound of the People’s Armed Police, China’s largest paramilitary force, and another hotel outside of which the attack occurred. One tourist took photographs, three of which were distributed by The Associated Press in August. He showed 24 others to The Times. At around 8 a.m. on Aug. 4, the photographer was packing his bags by the window when he heard a crashing sound, he said. When he looked up, he said, he saw a large truck career into a group of officers across the street after having just hit a short yellow pole. Chinese officials said later that the truck had barreled into 70 officers jogging away from the compound. The photographer said that the truck then hit a telephone or power pole and slammed into the front of the other hotel, the Yiquan, across the street. A man wearing a white short-sleeve shirt tumbled from the driver’s side, he said. “He was pretty injured,” the photographer said. “He fell onto the ground after opening the door. He wasn’t getting up. He was crawling around for four or five seconds.” The photographer raced into the hallway to get his traveling companions, a relative and a friend, from another room. The two others had also heard the crash and were already in the hallway. All three dashed to the window in the photographer’s room. The photographer said he had been gone for about a minute. Back at the window, he said, he saw no sign of the truck driver. The friend said: “The first thing I remember seeing was that truck in the wall in the building across the street. I saw a pile of about 15 people. All their limbs were twisted every which way. There was a gentleman whose head was pressed against the pavement with a big puddle of blood.” “I remember just thinking, ‘It’s surreal,’ ” he said. “I had this surreal feeling: What is really happening?” The tourists said the scene turned even more bizarre. One or two men dressed in green uniforms took out machetes and began hacking away at one or two other men dressed in the same type of uniforms on the ground. “A lot of confusion came when two gentlemen, it looked like they were military officers — they were wearing military uniforms, too — and it looked like they were hitting other military people on the ground with machetes,” the friend said. “That instantly confused us,” he said. “All three of us were wondering: ‘Why are they hitting other military people?’ ” The photographer grabbed a camera for the first time and crouched down by the window. His first photograph has a digital time stamp of 8:04 a.m., and his last is at 8:07 a.m. The first frames are blurry, and the action is mostly obscured by a tree. But it is clear that there are several police officers surrounding one or more figures by the sidewalk. The photographer said that there had been two men in green uniforms on their knees facing his hotel and their hands seemed to be bound behind their backs. Another uniformed man began hitting one of them with a machete, he said. “The guy who was receiving the hack was covered in blood,” he said. “A lot of the policemen were covered in blood. Some were walking around on the street pretty aimlessly. Some were sitting on the curb, in shock I guess. Some were running around holding

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their necks.” The friend recalled a slightly different version of the event. He said he had seen two uniformed men with machetes hacking away at two men lying on their backs. “I do kind of remember one of them moving,” he said. “He was definitely injured but still kind of trying to squirm around.” The relative also saw something different. He said a man in a green uniform walked from the direction of the truck. “A policeman who wasn’t injured ran over and started hitting him with a machete,” the relative said. “He hit him a few times, then this guy started fighting him back.” After being hit several times by the machete, the uniformed man fell down, and at least one other police officer came over to kick him, the relative said. It became clear to the tourists that the men with machetes were almost certainly paramilitary officers, and not insurgents, because they mingled freely with other officers on the scene. While all this was happening, the three tourists said, a small bang came from the truck. It sounded like a car backfiring, the friend said. Black smoke billowed from the front of the truck. The machete attack lasted a minute or two, the tourists said. One uniformed man then handed his machete to another uniformed man who had a machete, the friend said. One of the photographs shows a man walking around clutching two machetes in one hand. Another photograph shows a uniformed man carrying a rifle with a bayonet, a rare weapon in China. Other officers were trying to disperse civilian onlookers, the tourists said. One of the officers saw the photographer with his camera in his hotel room window, the tourists said. For about five hours after that, police officers locked down the hotel and went room to room questioning people, the tourists said. They seemed unthreatening, the tourists said, but they kept asking about photographs and checking cameras. “They asked if we took any pictures; we said no,” the relative said. The tourists had stuffed the camera into a bag. “They asked if we sent any e-mails. I said no.” The photographer said that while at breakfast, he saw white body bags on gurneys being wheeled to vans. In the afternoon, when people were finally allowed to leave the hotel, workers were spraying down the street with hoses, he said. The truck was gone. Except for a bent pole across the street, there was no sign that anything had happened.

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Updated March 24, 2009

"I am a simple Buddhist monk -- no more, no less," His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, said in an interview in The Times. Yet his life has been anything but simple. The man who lays claim as the spiritual and state leader of Tibet was born in 1935 to a peasant family in northeast Tibet. At age 2, he was identified after the death of the 13th Dalai Lama as the 14th reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion. That recognition brought a new name; Lhamo Thondup now became Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (Holy Lord, Gentle Glory, Eloquent, Compassionate, Learned Defender of the Faith, Ocean of Wisdom). Taken to Lhasa to be educated, he grew up in a 1,000-room palace, surrounded by doting monks who tutored him in subjects like philosophy, medicine and metaphysics. The People's Liberation Army of China invaded Tibet in 1950, when the 15-year-old Dalai Lama was called upon to assume full powers as head of state. Nine years later, after a Tibetan civilian uprising was brutally suppressed, the Dalai Lama fled to India and set up Dharamsala, the town in the Himalayan foothills of northern India that has served as the capital of the Tibetan exile community since 1960.

Still, he is the first leader of Tibet “to become a world leader, even without a political base -- just on his moral force," says his close friend Robert Thurman, professor of Indo-Tibetan studies at Columbia University. As such, pictures of him with Western celebrities like the actor Richard Gere, who has served as the chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, have become commonplace. The Dalai Lama abjures all violence and considers even hunger strikes and economic sanctions illegitimate means of political protest, even as the Tibetan community becomes more vocal in its protest of Chinese rule. In 1989, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Chinese government has given him another kind of recognition, warning the Bush administration before a planned White House visit and Congressional awards ceremony in October 2007 that such honors could seriously injure diplomatic relations. On March 10, 2009, as Tibetans outside of China and their supporters held rallies around the world to mark the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule, the Dalai Lama delivered one of his harshest attacks on the Chinese government in recent times, saying the Chinese Communist Party had transformed Tibet into a “hell on earth” and that the Chinese authorities regarded Tibetans as “criminals deserving to be put to death.” The furious tone of the speech may have been in reaction to a new clampdown by China on the Tibetan regions. The Dalai Lama may also have adopted an angry approach to placate younger Tibetans who have accused him of being too conciliatory toward China. He advocates genuine autonomy for Tibet and not secession, while more radical Tibetans are urging him to support outright independence. Organizers of a peace conference that was to have been attended by five Nobel laureates in Johannesburg said on March 24 that they had canceled it after the South African government denied a visa to the Dalai Lama. The conference was organized by South African soccer authorities to promote the 2010 soccer World Cup.

Updated July 10, 2009

Hu Jintao is president of the People's Republic of China. He was elected to a second five-year term in March 2008. Mr. Hu is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. He is the first Chinese leader whose party career began after the Communist takeover in 1949. He has presided over a period of remarkable growth, as China has become one of the most powerful economies in the world. Hu Jintao (pronounced who-gin-tow), was born in Shanghai in 1942 to a family of itinerant sesame oil merchants. He grew up in Taizhou, about 160 miles northwest of Shanghai. Mr. Hu's mother died when he was young. He was raised by relatives. Despite a bourgeois family background that might have made him a political target, Mr. Hu earned a spot at Qinghua University in Beijing through his academic performance and received a degree in hydrologic engineering. By the time of his graduation in 1965 he had joined the Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, Mr. Hu, like most educated youths, was sent to labor in poor areas. He worked on a hydroelectric project in Gansu in western China. There he caught the eye of a veteran party stalwart named Song Ping, who was recruiting young talent for senior posts.

By 1982 Mr. Hu had moved to Beijing, and a short time later he was named head of the Communist Youth League. He also came to the attention of the party's top official, General Secretary Hu Yaobang, at the time China's leading liberal. It was Hu Yaobang's death in 1989 that rallied students advocating democracy to stage the mass demonstrations at Tiananmen Square that touched off that year's political turmoil. Hu Yaobang had Hu Jintao -- who is no relation -- appointed to the party's Central Committee at age 39 and made a provincial party secretary at the age of 42, in both cases the youngest person to achieve those milestones. Hu Jintao's career overseeing provincial affairs, first in Guizhou and then Tibet, sent mixed signals. Guizhou became a haven for liberal intellectuals who fell out of a favor during Beijing's political mood swings. In Tibet, though, he proved his willingness to use force. Shortly after he took over responsibility for the region in 1989, followers of the Dalai Lama took to the streets of Lhasa, the capital. China declared martial law, and Mr. Hu oversaw three years of what human rights groups described as brutal oppression. The crackdown appeared to earn him some credit in Beijing. When he joined the Politburo standing committee in 1992, there was already talk that he would succeed Mr. Jiang, who had just consolidated his own power and was soon to add China's presidency to his posts as party and military leader. Mr. Hu became Mr. Jiang's vice president in 1998. He staked out an aggressive foreign policy position two days after the United States bombed China's embassy in Belgrade in 1999, an incident Washington says was an accident. He went on government-run television and pledged to support ''all protest activities in accordance with the law.'' Mr. Hu's address was viewed within the party as a successful maneuver to keep control of surging nationalism.

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People gather in Urumqi, attack passers-by and burn vehicles

URUMQI, July 5 (Xinhua) -- An unknown number of people gathered Sunday afternoon in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, attacking passers-by and setting fire to vehicles. They also turned over traffic guardrail and interrupted traffic on some roads in the city. Police have rushed to the site to maintain order. Urumqi Riot

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BEIJING — Violence spilled over from Tibet into neighboring provinces Sunday as Tibetans defied a Chinese government crackdown and the Dalai Lama warned that the area faced "cultural genocide" and appealed to the world for help. The violent protests brought more negative publicity for China, which will play host to the Olympics Games in Beijing in August. Demonstrations were reported in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu Provinces. All are home to Tibetan populations. The demonstrations followed five days of protests in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, that escalated into violence Friday, with Buddhist monks and others burning police cars and shops in the fiercest challenge to Beijing's rule in nearly two decades. "Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," the Dalai Lama said at a news conference in India, referring to Beijing's policy of encouraging China's ethnic Han majority to migrate to the region, as well as restrictions on Buddhist temples and re-education programs for monks. He said in Dharmsala, the north Indian town where Tibet's self-declared government in exile is based, that an international body should investigate the government's crackdown on the protests in Lhasa. In a later interview with the BBC, the Dalai Lama said he feared the situation could easily worsen. "It's possible, it's very possible," he said. "It's really desperate. Things become tense as the Tibetan side is determined, the Chinese side also equally determined. So that means the result is killing, most often." Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama's government, said several witnesses inside Tibet had counted at least 80 bodies since the violence broke out Friday. He did not know how many of the bodies were protesters. Xinhua, China's state-run press agency, has said at least 10 civilians were burned to death Friday. The figures could not be independently verified because China restricts foreign access to Tibet. Tibet is one of several potential flash points for the ruling Communist Party at a time of heightened attention on China. The government is concerned about the effect of inflation and wealth gaps on social stability after years of breakneck economic growth, and this month it said it had foiled two terrorist plots prepared by the largely Muslim Uighur minority in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, including an attempt to disrupt the Olympics. The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said at least seven people had been fatally shot in Aba County in Sichuan Province. There was no way of immediately confirming the claim.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/world/asia/16iht-tibet.4.11148124.html?pagewanted=print

Hong Kong Cable TV said about 200 military vehicles, each carrying dozens of soldiers, drove into the center of Lhasa on Sunday. The footage showed streets that were mostly empty except for armored and military vehicles patrolling and soldiers searching buildings. Loudspeakers on the streets repeatedly broadcast slogans urging residents to "discern between enemies and friends, maintain order." Xinhua said most shops in Lhasa's Old Town, where the worst of the violence took place, were still closed Sunday. It said some shops in other parts of the town had reopened. Residents of Lhasa contacted by telephone earlier said they were too scared to leave their homes because of the security clampdown. "We don't dare go out, not for anything. There's too much trouble," one woman said. A woman in contact with a business executive in Lhasa said the streets were teeming with armed police officers in riot gear Sunday after word of renewed clashes overnight, when Hui Muslim Chinese attacked Tibetans in revenge for wrecked homes and property. "The Tibetans were starting to fight back, but then the troops stepped in and restored order," she said. The report of fresh fighting also could not be verified. An American tourist, Chelsea Hockett, 19, who arrived from Chengdu on a flight from Lhasa, told Reuters that there had been "a lot of shooting." "No one can leave the hotels," she said. "It was really bad." In Qinghai Province, 100 monks defied a directive confining them to Rongwo Monastery in Tongren by climbing a hill behind the monastery, where they set off fireworks and burned incense. In Gansu Province, more than 100 students protested at a university in Lanzhou, said Matt Whitticase of the activist group Free Tibet. Witnesses said a curfew was imposed in Xiahe City in the province Sunday, a day after the police fired tear gas at 1,000 protesters, including Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens who had marched from the historic Labrang Monastery. India called for dialogue and an end to the violence. Home to the Dalai Lama, 72, who fled over the Himalayas into exile after a failed uprising in 1959, India is dealing carefully with its giant neighbor, with which it is expanding diplomatic and trade ties after decades of rivalry, including a brief war in 1962. Large communities of ethnic Tibetans live far outside modern Tibet in areas that were the Himalayan region's eastern and northeastern provinces of Amdo and Kham until the Communist takeover in 1951. Those areas were later split off by Beijing to become the Chinese province of Qinghai and part of Sichuan Province. The violence Friday erupted just two weeks before China's Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch

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relay, which will pass through Tibet. The government hopes that by holding the Olympics, its popularity at home and its image abroad will improve. But the event has attracted scrutiny of China's human rights record and its pollution problems. International criticism of the crackdown in Tibet has so far been mild, with no threats of an Olympic boycott or other sanctions. In Paris, however, police used tear gas to repel hundreds of pro-Tibet protesters gathered outside the Chinese Embassy. One protester managed to climb the front of the embassy building and take down the red Chinese flag that hangs there. The man tried to hang a Tibetan flag in its place, but a police officer prevented him from doing so by snapping the flag pole. The unrest in Tibet began March 10, the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet was effectively independent for decades before Communist troops entered in 1950. The protests by Buddhist monks spiraled to include cries for Tibet's independence and turned violent when the police intervened. Pent-up grievances against Chinese rule came to the fore as Tibetans directed their anger against Chinese and their shops, hotels and other businesses. Security officials, speaking on the sidelines of China's annual session of Parliament in Beijing, defended the Tibet crackdown and said there was no cause for alarm. The Dalai Lama said Sunday that he would not instruct his followers inside Tibet to surrender before the Chinese authorities, and described feeling "helpless" in preventing what he feared could be an imminent bloodbath. "I do feel helpless," he said at the emotionally charged news conference in what has served as the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile for nearly 40 years. "I feel very sad, very serious, very anxious. Cannot do anything." His aides said they believed that 80 people had been killed on March 13 and 14 in and around the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, including 26 just outside a prison called Drapchi. Tibetan exiles in India said they had also received news that at least two Buddhist monks had set themselves on fire as acts of protest; that claim could not be independently confirmed. The Dalai Lama called for an independent international inquiry into the latest violence. He endorsed the right to peaceful protest, called violence an "act of suicide" and accused Beijing of carrying out "a rule of terror." Asked if he could stop Tibetan protesters from flouting Beijing's deadline to surrender by midnight Monday, the Dalai Lama replied swiftly: "I have no such power." He added, "Now we really need miracle power," and then laughed, starkly. "But miracle seems unrealistic."

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