PrairiePundit

Opinion Journal: In nearly nine months in office, President Obama has found time to meet with Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and Vladimir Putin. But this week he won't see the Dalai Lama, a peaceful religious leader who has long been a friend to the U.S. and an advocate of human rights for China's six million Tibetans. Mr. Obama's slight is the first time a sitting president will not meet with the Dalai Lama during a Washington visit since President George H.W. Bush met with him in 1991. No meeting was ever formally on the agenda for this week, but the exiled Tibetan's trip had been planned for years, and earlier this year he had expressed his hope to meet with the President. Last month, White House aide Valerie Jarrett and Maria Otero, undersecretary of state for democracy and global affairs, traveled to Dharamsala to confer with the Dalai Lama. The next day, the Dalai Lama's office announced that he hoped to meet with Mr. Obama only after November, when Mr. Obama wil...

Sunday Times: For all its overwhelming force in the lonely mountain passes, where military convoys toil towards the clouds, or in the dark alleys of Chengdu’s Tibetan quarter, where soldiers stand watch, the sour tang of a debacle for China is in the air. Despite 20 years of iron-fisted security, huge investments and mass migration since the last Tibetan uprising, the roof of the world once again looks like a hostile place to most Chinese. The uneasy sense of psychological defeat emerged from interviews with Chinese citizens and soldiers in Sichuan province, a vast region that includes a swathe of the Tibetan plateau, over the past week. Almost without exception, people said they had lost faith in government propaganda and feared that Tibetans would turn to violence against China. “I believe they can never win their independence, because no big country backs them and they have no army,” said a shop owner, “and I believe we cannot win their hearts.” This might be the most politica...

Bret Stephens: The violent protests in Tibet that began last week and have since spread across (and beyond) China are frequently depicted as a secessionist threat to Beijing. But the regime's deeper problem in the current crisis is neither ethnic nor territorial. It's religious. If there's a template for Beijing's policy on religion, it's the "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In 1995, the regime effectively kidnapped Gendun Choekyi Nyima, a 6-year-old boy named by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, the second-highest ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism. In Nyima's place, Beijing designated its own "official" Panchen Lama, the slightly younger Gyaltsen Norbu. Nyima's whereabouts, assuming he's alive, are unknown. More recently, a new set of "implementation regulations" on Tibetan religious affairs has come into force, drastically curtailing the freedom of monks and nuns to travel within China, and introducing political t...

NY Times: Chinese leaders have blamed “splittists” led by the exiled Dalai Lama for spurring violent protests in Tibet and orchestrating a public relations sneak attack on the Communist Party, as they gear up to play host to the Olympics Games this summer. But to many Tibetans and their sympathizers, the weeklong uprising against Chinese rule in Lhasa reflects years of simmering resentment over Beijing’s interference in Buddhist religious rites, its tightened political control and the destruction of the environment across the Himalayan territory the Tibetans consider sacred. If there is a surprise, it may be that Beijing has managed to keep things stable for so long. Since the last big anti-Chinese riots in Tibet two decades ago, Beijing has sought to smother Tibetan separatism by sparking economic development and by inserting itself into the metaphysics of Tibetan Buddhism. But an influx of Han Chinese to Tibet, and a growing sense among Tibetans that China is irreparably altering t...

CNN: Violent protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa against Chinese rule have left at least 100 people dead, according to unconfirmed reports from exiles in India, while official media put the death toll at 10. ... Quoting the Tibetan government, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said 10 were killed in Lhasa Friday after police blocked a march by monks, sparking the violence. "The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," an official with the regional government told Xinhua. Tibetan exiles in India meanhwile cited unconfirmed reports that at least 100 people were killed and many more injured. Video broadcast on China 's CCTV Saturday showed flames and black smoke rising the market, where hundreds of rioters used hands, feet and sledge hammers to break down doors and shatter windows. Watch CCTV's images of the violence » One of the targets of their violence was a Bank of China branch. Protesters, including some monks dress...

CNN: Opponents of Chinese rule in Tibet set fire to vehicles and shops on Friday as tear gas filled the streets and gunfire rang out in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, according to witnesses and human rights groups. The protests -- initiated by Buddhist monks -- have been growing since Monday, the anniversary of the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule. Tibet, an autonomous province, has long sought independence from China. Roughly 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at security forces and military trucks pushing back riot police, a witness told CNN. A Tibetan guide said armed police backed by armored vehicles were blocking major intersections in the city center and that an entire street in a busy shopping area outside the Jokhang temple "seemed to be on fire." He said he had heard "cannon fire" and had heard reports of tear gas being used against protesters, The Associated Press reported. ... Protesters appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles ...