2008 Tibetan Unrest - People's Republic of China Response

People's Republic of China Response

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao blamed supporters of the Dalai Lama for the recent violence in Tibet. "There is ample fact and we also have plenty of evidence proving that this incident was organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," said the Premier; however, the young generation of Tibetans are dissatisfied with the Dalai Lama's insistence on peaceful protest, revealing deep divisions within the Tibetan community. The Dalai Lama denied any involvement in the events, On April 1, 2008, the Chinese government escalated its accusation against supporters of the Dalai Lama, accusing them of planning suicide attacks. The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Samdhong Rinpoche, denied these allegations, saying "Tibetan exiles are 100 percent committed to nonviolence. There is no question of suicide attacks."

On March 31, 2008, the PRC state-owned news agency Xinhua published what it claimed to be an account of the process by which the Dalai Lama allegedly masterminded the riots. Key claims include that five groups associated with the Government-in-Exile recruited agents for the "Tibetan People's Great Uprising" in India in February, that 101 agents sent from Dharamsala were instrumental in organising the protests and riots, that the Government-in-Exile directly funded the protests and that the Tibetan Youth Congress intends to conduct an armed guerilla campaign in China.

The West Australian reported that Chinese forces claimed to have found semi-automatic firearms hidden throughout a temple in Ngawa prefecture, in an ethnic Tibetan area of southwestern China which had been the scene of anti-Chinese riots in recent weeks. Police officers told state television, "they were modified semi-automatic weapons."