Via the BBC, in an article about the Chinese government blocking all access to YouTube because the site has videos of Chinese troops and security forces beating peaceful Tibetan monks and protesters:

On Tuesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that China “is not afraid of the internet”.

Right, the Chinese government is simply afraid of the information that is available on the internet.

Yesterday I mentioned that the South African government had caved to pressure from China and blocked the Dalai Lama from attending a peace conference  there. Fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates Archbishop Desmund Tutu and FW De Klerk had announced that they would boycott the conference as a result. Organizers of the South African peace conference have now announced that they are canceling the conference because the Pretoria government’s refusal to allow the Dalai Lama to attend. The government is saying the Dalai Lama will not be granted a visa to South Africa prior to the 2010 World Cup.

The continued cowardice of the South African government is disappointing, but at least the organizers of this conference have the courage of their convictions to stand on the right side of history.

http://media.phayul.com/flvplayer/mediaplayer.swf

Phayul.com has posted a remarkable cell phone video of a peaceful protest in Ragya, Tibet. Students for a Free Tibet, in an email, writes:

On Saturday, March 21st more than a thousand Tibetans protested in Ragya, an Amdo town in eastern Tibet, after a young monk named Tashi Sangpo jumped into the Machu river (Yellow river). When he engaged in this desperate act, Tashi was in police custody for reportedly raising the Tibetan flag atop the monastery and distributing pro-independence leaflets on March 10th. Although Tashi remains missing, Tibetans in the area say it is unlikely he could survive given the strength of the river.

I’ve heard reports that the Ragya protests included over a thousand lay Tibetans and monks.

Pico Iyer has a long piece on the Dalai Lama’s work for Tibet and current thinking about Sino-Tibetan relations in The New York Review of Books. It’s a sober account that deals extensively with the Dalai Lama’s recent move towards recognizing that the Chinese government are not good faith negotiating partners and that the Middle Path — pursuing autonomy over independence — has not brought him any closer to a resolution to the Tibet question. Of note, Iyer starts his essay with these hard-hitting quotes from the Dalai Lama:

“The situation inside Tibet is almost like a military occupation,” I heard the Dalai Lama tell an interviewer last November, when I spent a week traveling with him across Japan. “Everywhere. Everywhere, fear, terror. I cannot remain indifferent.” Just moments before, with equal directness and urgency, he had said, “I have to accept failure. In terms of the Chinese government becoming more lenient [in Chinese-occupied Tibet], my policy has failed. We have to accept reality.”

This isn’t exactly a revelation – this understanding from the Dalai Lama is what precipitated last year’s Special Meeting in Dharmsala –  but it certainly is powerful to see these words come from a man who has practiced such great forebearance in the pursuit of a peaceful resolution to China’s military occupation of Tibet.

Shockingly the Chinese government continues its quixotic campaign to alienate and stigmatize the Dalai Lama. Just today we learn that they have succeeded in getting South Africa’s government to deny him a visa to participate in an international peace conference. Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and FW De Klerk have announced that they will now boycott the conference as a result.

There’s a fine balance between the natural, selfish desire to protect land and resources under their control. I can at least intellectually understand the Chinese government’s desire to maintain their military occupation of Tibet at any cost. They don’t want to lose face internally and externally; the lose of control in Tibet could reasonably spell the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party’s hold on power throughout China. But to actively campaign against a man of peace, known worldwide for his high-minded commitment to nonviolence and dialogue despite the fact that he publicly admits that Tibet is “dying,” makes no sense to me. Their persistent efforts to smear the Dalai Lama only show the Chinese government to be unreasonable, petty children who are incapable of any criticism or critique from the global community. Such a stance surely is an obstacle to China actually being a respected superpower.

By continuing to wage a public smear campaign against the Dalai Lama, the Chinese government risks blowing their last, best opportunity to bring resolution to the Tibet question in a manner that allows them to retain any form of control over Tibet. I believe the Dalai Lama can still usher forward meaningful autonomy for Tibet. But if this has not happened during his lifetime, I do not think autonomy will remain on the table. It will be independence or continued occupation. Obviously the Chinese government thinks occupation is a tenable long-term outcome. I think they will be hard-pressed to find another historical example where, on a long time line, the military occupation and colonization of another nation goes uninterrupted in perpetuity.

Lobsang Sangay has a powerful op-ed in the Boston Globe on Tibet and life for Tibetans in exile and their families back in Tibet.

Nine Nobel Peace Prize laureates, celebrities, and tens of thousands of people have signed a letter by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Chinese Communist Party Chairman Hu Jintao, voicing concern for human rights and freedom in Tibet.

The Nobel laureates, activists and Hollywood stars have signed a letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressing concern at the deterioration of the human rights situation in Tibet, and the apparent breakdown of talks between the Chinese government and emissaries of the Dalai Lama.

The letter, published on TheCommunity.com, an Internet site for Nobel peace laureates that promotes peace and human rights, was opened to the public for signature on Friday.

Mary Wald, chairman of the site, said when 100,000 people sign the letter it will be hand-delivered to Chinese President Hu Jintao and others.

“This is the time for a massive outpouring of support for the Dalai Lama,” Wald said. “He is making some of the strongest statements he has ever made, because the situation for the Tibetans it that critical.”

Nobel peace laureates Elie Wiesel, John Hume, David Trimble, Jody Williams, F.W. de Klerk, Mairead Maguire, Betty Williams and Adolfo Perez Esquivel signed the letter along with about 40 celebrities and rights activists including Ford, Paltrow, Peter Gabriel, Richard Gere, Mia Farrow, Maria Bello, Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, Ashley Judd, supermodels Christy Turlington and Naomi Campell and Queen Noor of Jordan.

The letter is posted on TheCommunity.com and you can sign it yourself. Here’s an excerpt:

“We the undersigned Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, human rights leaders and concerned individuals wish to express our concern at the current deterioration of the human rights situation in Tibet, and the apparent breakdown of the talks between the Chinese government and emissaries of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We are dismayed at the lack of any concrete progress toward resolving the conflict over the autonomy and religious freedom of the Tibetan people, and urge all parties involved to redouble their effort to achieve this vital goal.

“To our dear friend His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we say: we stand with you. You define non-violence and compassion and goodness. Clearly China does not know you. It is our sincere hope that they will. We call on China’s government to know His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as we and so many others have come to know him during the long decades he has spent in exile.

This is a truly startling revelation about how hard the Chinese government is working to ensure that no news about what they are doing inside Tibet escapes to the outside world. Both the South China Morning Post (subscription) and The Telegraph are reporting that Chinese forces are searching every single house, hotel, and boarding house in Lhasa for non-Tibetans and even Tibetans who live outside of Lhasa. SCMP writes:

Security forces in Lhasa and other Tibetan-populated areas launched a search for “suspicious characters” amid a major security clampdown in the Himalayan region in a pre-emptive bid to prevent any unrest during sensitive anniversaries.

Tensions were high yesterday on the streets of the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region as armed police continued their door-to-door checks for overseas visitors or journalists. Not a single hotel, guesthouse or local home in the city was spared.

Those whose ID cards were not issued by the regional government were taken in for further interrogation and even faced detention, hotel and restaurant owners in Lhasa said.

Apart from people from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, Tibetans from outside Lhasa and other parts of the Himalayan region were also targeted.

…

All Tibetan areas in Sichuan and Qinghai are off-limits to overseas tourists and journalists this week, with communications cut off in the most volatile areas, local travel agencies and other sources said.

In Lhasa, major monasteries have been sealed and armed police patrol the city day and night.

Hundreds of big and small hotels were strictly required to report suspicious figures. Local people are required to produce their residence permits in frequent security checks.

Late-night road blocks were seen in downtown Lhasa. Passengers in taxis and pedestrians carrying bags were subject to identity checks by public security officers or armed police.

Shops and entertainment venues were ordered to shut as early as 10pm.

A resident of Bakhor Street, one of the most sensitive areas near the prestigious Jokhang Monastery, said security forces had been checking the rooftops of every building.

Tibet is a prison that the world is not allowed in. China does not anyone to know what they are doing to Tibetans behind closed doors. This is sickening.

Yesterday the State Department put out a brief statement on Tibet, China, and March 10th. It was not in Secretary of State Clinton’s name and it was very timid.

Today, during the State Department’s daily press briefing, spokesman Robert Wood was questioned intensely by reporters about the statement and the process that lead it to being so weak.

QUESTION: Yeah. Robert, yesterday at almost about exactly this time – I think it was 11:05, at least according to the transcript – you came down and said that the Secretary would be issuing a statement about the 50^th anniversary of the uprising in Tibet. About eight and a half hours later, a statement was, in fact, released, but it was in your name, not in the Secretary’s name. And I’m wondering if you can explain what happened between 11:05 and 7:38.
MR. WOOD: The statement has the full weight of the Secretary and the State Department behind it. Very simple.

QUESTION: You don’t think that a statement in the Secretary’s name is stronger or sends a stronger signal than –

MR. WOOD: What I’m saying to you is that the statement that we issued last night has the full weight of the Secretary. It was cleared by the Secretary and it represents the Secretary’s views.

QUESTION: Okay. At around the time – in the afternoon, or when this was being cleared, it looks like there was a lot of language removed from the –what I’m told was an original draft. The statement that came out doesn’t make reference to a couple things that I’m told were in the original draft, including stressing access to Tibet, to the region, creating conditions for negotiations between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and the Chinese, releasing prisoners, due process – respect for due process of law, and not criminalizing peaceful dissent. None of these things are specifically mentioned in the statement that came out, and I’m wondering why that is.
MR. WOOD: Well, Matt, I’m not going to talk about internal deliberations that we have with regard to statements, but let me just say that this is a statement that we put out yesterday. It reflects our policy. As I’ve said, once again, the Secretary’s full weight was behind the statement, and that’s where we stand.
QUESTION: How would you address criticism from people who – in the human rights community that this is really kind of allowing the Chinese – giving the Chinese a free ride on this?

MR. WOOD: I don’t believe it’s giving the Chinese a free ride on anything. I think we have said time and time again from this podium – you’ve heard it from previous secretaries of state, you’ve heard it from previous presidents – that we are very concerned about the situation in Tibet. We encourage the Chinese to improve the situation on the ground in Tibet. We will continue to do that. That statement that was issued yesterday evening reflects the State Department’s views about the situation. And once again, I just want to be very clear about this: This is a statement that was cleared by the Secretary, has the full weight of the State Department behind it.

It was disappointing to see Secretary of State Clinton not speak out on behalf of freedom, human rights, and the Tibetan people yesterday. It’s disappointing and quite troubling to see that the State Department dramatically walked back their plans in the course of a few hours, presumably under strong pressure from China.  The State Department has not only dodged an opportunity to be a voice for human rights and freedom — something the House of Representatives is again choosing to be on this issue — but actually dodged substantive, important questions about how US-Tibetan policy is being influenced on a day by day basis.

Congress has long been a leader in speaking out for Tibet and the Tibetan people. It’s time the State Department and Secretary of State Clinton step up and at bare minimum match the words and actions of Congress. Of course real leadership would mean dramaticaly charting a course forward that included recognizing that human rights cannot be separated from our dealings with China.

This is actually the finale of Our Nation and it covers the global actions on March 10th for Tibet. This has been a great, informative video series and I’m sorry to see it go, but

Here’s another great Al Jazeera clip from yesterday. In the video are SFT’s deputy director Tenzin Dorjee and SFT Board member Yangchen Lhamo, who deals with some especially tough questions. Yangchen also delivers one of the clearest explanations of how the contemporary Tibetan independence movement has used non-violence in the response to Chinese brutality, as well as an explanation for what advocates for independence like Students for a Free Tibet see as Tibet’s future post-independence.

In Canada, the Globe & Mail has a forceful editorial criticizing China’s anti-Tibetan rhetoric around March 10th. It’s one of the hardest hits I’ve seen the Western press make against the Chinese propaganda machine on behalf of Tibet:

China’s Xinhua news agency responded to the statements with a story saying that, after the rebellion five decades ago failed, China carried out the “long-delayed emancipation of millions of serfs and slaves in Tibet.” The report also describes China’s efforts to modernize Tibet by citing road-building statistics. But if everything is so rosy for Tibet, then how come Chinese authorities have the country under lockdown, with independent journalists and human-rights observers barred from travelling there? Amnesty International this week condemned continuing human rights violations carried out against the general Tibetan population, including arbitrary arrests and prolonged detentions of peaceful protesters and other prisoners of conscience, as well as torture.

Chinese officials have prepared a white paper that pretends that all protest in Tibet is stirred up by Western anti-China forces. This is comical in light of the flaccid response by Western governments to China’s misrule in Tibet and their failure to support Tibetans’ fight for autonomous status for their nation – a status that even China pretends to observe.

Despite all of this, including his strong statements of yesterday, the Dalai Lama said he and the government-in-exile remain committed to what he termed the “path of truth and non-violence” in dealing with the Chinese government. If only China’s masters were so enlightened.

The New York Times also has an editorial which encourages the Chinese government to hold meaningful negotiations with the Dalai Lama.