Ben_Norman's diary

The past two weeks have witnessed violence in Tibet as protestors mount the greatest challenge to Chinese authority in the past twenty years. Whilst the Chinese authorities have strived to crackdown on outside media reporting, partly by refusing foreign journalists into Tibet whilst simultaneously maintaining a stranglehold on reports being broadcast from the state media. This issue is, like so many others in the modern world of international relations, an issue of propaganda, of rhetoric being kept distant from reality as various factions use the protests to extend their own political agenda. It is therefore difficult to get an accurate picture of events on the ground, according to the BBC correspondent in the region “ China has said that 19 people were killed in the Lhasa riots, which later spread to other Tibetan areas. “ However, Tibetan exiles say that nearly 100 have been killed by the Chinese security forces.” Pictures of angry mobs have been shown on screens across China , as have pictures of captured Tibetan “agitators” made to confess on air. Alternatively pictures of severe crackdowns and a strong military presence have been leaking out of isolated province.