By William Tucker
Chief Correspondent for In Homeland Security
Radio Free Asia is reporting that 4 people have been killed and another 50 wounded when Chinese police fired on a protest in the village of Driru, located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The protest was in response to the arrest of a local leader who had earlier led an anti-government demonstration in defiance of a recent requirement that the Chinese flag be flown in front of homes and businesses. Protests against Chinese rule are frequently carried out by Tibetan nationalists, but don’t always result in violence. The source reporting this incident didn’t give any information on why the police opened fire, and it is unlikely that any rationale for doing so will ever come to light. The police did allegedly accomplish their goal of breaking up the gathering, however. In this case, the sole source of this information comes from a Tibetan exile living in India – the typical method for spreading news from Chinese areas that are restricted to foreign media. Naturally, there isn’t any independent confirmation of this event, but it isn’t rare for Tibetans to gather spontaneously to protest against Chinese rule.
In recent years, China has managed to refine its efforts to end pro-Tibetan demonstrations with minimal casualties. Areas such as Sichuan and Yunnan are frequent venues for these protests and the Chinese do tolerate some demonstrations up to a point. The police have discovered that the gatherings will typically fizzle out if they are left alone, but that’s not always the case when a self immolation is involved, or a resident was arrested in a fashion similar to what sparked this recent demonstration. This isn’t to say that the Chinese authorities haven’t fired upon unarmed protesters in the recent past, but they are looking for ways to end them quickly without violence. Violence can lead to larger protests that can spread to other villages. Beijing and local authorities are astute enough to learn from past actions and adjust policy accordingly, but what doesn’t seem to change is the nonessential policies that start these protests to begin with. China has ruled Tibet for over 50 years now and forcing Chinese nationalism has done little to integrate Tibetans et al into Chinese culture. Until these nonessential policy shifts diminish, Beijing will continue to have its hands full in dealing with Tibetan insurrections.
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