China continues its practice of using dog and pony shows guided tours to substitute for real access to Tibet. This time, instead of journalists, the Chinese are bringing a group of foreign diplomats to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The US, UK, and France will have representatives in the tour, though the US doesn’t think this is enough:

US state department spokesman Sean McCormack said the trip was a “step in the right direction”.

“But it’s not a substitute for the ability of our diplomats, as well as others, to travel not only to Lhasa, but into the surrounding area specifically,” he said.

The biggest difference between diplomats and journalists, as I see it, is that diplomats don’t carry video cameras and microphones. On some level, the risks for China of another interruption of their guided tour by Tibetans who want to tell the world what has been done to them are diminished.