China Reform Monitor: No. 950

January 23:

Police in Luhuo and Seda, Sichuan have opened fire on hundreds of Tibetan protesters leaving at least two dead and dozens injured in the worst violence in China’s ethnic Tibetan areas since 2008. There were varied reports on why protesters took to the streets including that they sought the release of Tibetans detained for distributing leaflets calling for greater freedom. A week after the incidents, the official China Daily claimed that the protests were “well planned and instigated by trained separatists” and that “rioters stormed police stations, threw flamed gas bottles and stones at the law enforcement officers.” To slow the dissemination of information, the New York Times reports that authorities cut communication in the area and armed police are searching vehicles. In anticipation of more protests foreigners have been banned from travelling to Tibet from February 20 to March 31.

February 2:

Authorities have ordered stricter controls on ethnic Tibetans traveling into the Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibetans from neighboring provinces are now required to carry their identification documents to enter the autonomous region, said Qi Zhala, Lhasa’s Communist Party Secretary. Han Chinese were not under the ID restrictions, although they still must provide identification for trains, planes and accommodations. Qi has warned that maintaining stability in Lhasa is a top priority and called on local officials and security officers to safeguard entry points into the region’s capital city. Qi was appointed in mid-November amid a spate of reshuffles of top officials overseeing Tibet, including the appointment of Chen Quanguo, Tibet’s new party secretary, South China Morning Post reports.

February 6:

Three Tibetan herders have set themselves on fire to protest political and religious repression. These cases brought the total self-immolations over the last 11 months to 19, an unprecedented wave of self-inflicted violence among the tiny ethnic minority. These were the first self-immolations by lay people, rather than current or former monks or nuns, suggesting that self-immolation may be becoming a more common form of dissent. The incidents took place in Seda, Sichuan but details were scarce because the government cut communications to the area and blocked access to monasteries. One of the three men died and the other two, believed to be about 30 and 60 years old, were severely injured. “There is a lot of frustration in the Tibetan areas,” Robert J. Barnett of Columbia University told The New York Times. “The government didn’t respond constructively to the protests in 2008 and didn’t respond constructively to the whole year we’ve seen of self-immolations.”

February 7:

As ethnic unrest among Tibetans increases the CPC has fired three local officials in Tibet for dereliction of duty and warned others of on-the-spot sacking if they fail to maintain social stability. Huang Fangyong, secretary of the local discipline inspection commission in Najin, Tibet was removed after he was not at his work station when an inspection team from Lhasa visited and did not return despite repeated calls from the team. In Changdu Zhen, Tibet, a township Party chief and government head were sacked for not properly handling a dispute among local villagers over the clearing of forests and allowing the situation to escalate into unrest, the Press Trust of India reports.

February 8:

Chinese security forces attempted but failed to stop two demonstrations, each consisting of about 1,000 Tibetans in Nangqian and Chenduo, Qinghai, Radio Free Asia reports. During the Nangqian protest, Tibetans in traditional dress chanted prayers, shouted “Freedom for Tibet” and “Long live the Dalai Lama,” and flocked to the county stadium under the close watch of security forces. In Chenduo, about 400 monks from the Sekha monastery held a seven-mile “solidarity” march carrying large banners calling for the Dalai Lama’s return and urging authorities to release Tibetan political prisoners. Security forces interceded, angering hundreds locals who then joined the demonstration. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that another monk self-immolated at a school in Ada, Sichuan making him at least the 20th such case since last March.