China's Olympic crackdown on Tibet

Updated 20.28 Mon May 21 2007

Keywords: China, Olympics, Tibet

China has promised to tighten security ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to ensure the Himalayan region remains firmly under Communist control.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule, says he wants greater autonomy, not independence, for his predominantly Buddhist homeland.

"The Dalai Lama clique's pipe dream (of independence) will never prevail... the country's rivers and mountains will remain red" - Zhang Qingli

Referring to the Communist's symbolic colour, China's top official in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, said: "The Dalai Lama clique's pipe dream [of independence] will never prevail... the country's rivers and mountains will remain red."

He added: "From beginning to end... we must deepen patriotic education at temples, comprehensively expose and denounce the Dalai Lama clique's political reactionary nature and religious hypocrisy."

In a speech to party members Mr Zhang claimed a "transitional victory" over the influence of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Mr Zhang pledged to maintain stability to ensure the success of the 17th Communist Party Congress later this year and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China and the Dalai Lama's representatives have been in talks since 2002 driven by fears - analysts say - that if the Buddhist leader dies in exile, it could lead to radicalisation of Tibetan youth and trouble in his homeland.

But hawks like Mr Zhang appear convinced they have the upper hand and regularly denounce the Dalai Lama for trying to split Tibet from the Chinese "motherland".