The Tibet Riots: Hu Jintao is the Biggest Loser

President Hu Jintao and his “Tibet Faction” have turned out to be the biggest losers in the wake of the most horrendous disturbances in Tibet and adjacent provinces since the 1959 Tibet Insurrection.
 By Sunday, March 16, more than 10,000 lamas and other Tibetans had staged rallies and demonstrations – and clashed with Chinese police, soldiers and People’s Armed Police (PAP) officers in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and the nearby provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu. - Have you voted in the poll Jintao Hu (胡锦涛) ? - The Xinhua News Agency and Hong Kong newspapers have quoted authorities, including the Mayor of Lhasa, Duoci Cizhu and Gansu Governor Xu Shousheng, as saying that things are back to normal in these areas. After mass arrests of alleged ringleaders in Lhasa and other cities, virtual martial law has been imposed on the Tibet capital.
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First, as Party Secretary in Tibet from 1988 to 1992, Hu is the party’s leading authority on the region. As chairman of the Central Military Commission, Hu signed orders in mid-2007 to move more soldiers into both Tibet and Xinjiang so as to make sure that “splittists” in both autonomous regions would not make trouble for Beijing in the run-up to the Summer Olympics. He also called up members of the 650,000-strong paramilitary People’s Armed Police. These precautionary measures, however, failed to prevent unrest. Moreover, conditions in Xinjiang have remained restive in the wake of an alleged terrorist incident on board an Urumqi-Beijing flight on March 8. As both party and military chief, Hu cannot shirk his responsibility for failing to, in CCP parlance, “nip the forces of instability at the bud.”
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Diplomatic analysts in Beijing say Hu and his Politburo colleagues have been hamstrung by Olympics-related factors in this effort to suppress the “splittist conspirators.” Talking to reporters Monday morning, Tibetan region Governor Qianba Puncog said that police and PAP officers had used “non-lethal weapons” against the rioters. - Has changed the argument your opinion on Jintao Hu (胡锦涛) ? - “The police have displayed great restraint, and they are doing everything in accordance with the law.” This was despite reports by overseas offices of the Tibet exiled government that PAP officers had shot dead several Tibetan protestors. It is nonetheless true that it is in the interest of Hu and company to steer clear of large-scale bloodshed so as to avoid a possible boycott of the Olympics by some athletes. In any event, the Chinese supremo’s dream of having a spotless Chinese Olympics go down as part of his legacy has already been shattered. The same can be said for the promotion prospects of members of the Chinese strongman’s “Tibet Faction.”

Written by Willy Lam

Monday, 17 March 2008

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