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China's hard line wins conformity but not hearts and minds

Date: Friday, 02-July-2010

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Deadly violence in Tibet two years ago has left an occupied city in its wake.
JOHN GARNAUT, LHASA
The Age
June 30, 2010

IN MARCH 2008, after bloody riots erupted acrossthe Tibetan plateau, a group of monks stormed aChinese-government-led tour of foreignjournalists at Jokhang Temple. ''We want freedom? they are telling lies,'' said the monks, sayingthey had been falsely accused of causing the carnage.

Yesterday, on another tightly controlled mediatour, a Jokhang administrator agreed to presentone of those monks. ''I have not been beaten. Ihad to learn more about the law,'' said shy29-year-old Norgye. ''Through law education I realised what I had done.''

Norgye's impromptu testimony, relayed through agovernment interpreter, provided some evidencethat the government's patriotic education blitzis bringing monks to heel. The re-educationcampaign has come with a massive security blitz,which a US congressional report says has led tothe arrest and detention of at least 643 Tibetans since March 10, 2008.

Towards nightfall, clusters of armed police walkthrough crowds of monks, shoppers and occasionaltourists near Jokhang Temple or stand at streetintersections. Some wear riot gear, andplain-clothes police struggle to hold back Germanshepherds. But after dusk in hidden corners ofthe majestic old city, Tibetans occasionally givealternative views of life under hardline rule. A28-year-old illiterate Tibetan says in brokenChinese that the situation remains ''tense'' and ''terrible''.

He says he recently discarded his monk's clothesto reduce the number of searches and identity checks he faced.

After leading The Age to a more secluded room, hesays in a quiet but excited voice that ''theDalai Lama is the No. 1 best person'' and tellshow he and many friends have prohibitedphotographs of the exiled monk stashed away in their home villages.

The Han-Chinese proprietor of a shop sellingposters of Tibetan gods and spiritual leaders,indicates that she, like many migrants fromeastern China who bore the brunt of senselessviolence that killed 18 mainly Han Chinese in2008, is also feeling the pressure of Lhasa'sbarely concealed divisions. ''Of course it'sbetter [in my home town of Wuhan],'' she says,declining to give her name. ''The people here just shit in the streets.''

Beijing has taken some steps to begin normalisingconditions in Tibet, offering discount flightsfor international tourists and inviting in oursmall band of foreign journalists on a tightly scheduled tour.

Officials named rapid development of the economyas the top policy goal. Lhasa has thus become afrenzy of construction, although many Tibetansstill face what may be the most extreme income inequality in China.

Monks are conforming to the new hardlinereligious policies and there have been fewreports of violence this year. But little effortappears to have been expended on ''winning heartsand minds'' or healing racial wounds.

In central Lhasa, armed police standing information, rifles at the ready, look to be adisplay of deliberate intimidation.