More news coming out of Tibet this morning pointing to an escalating crisis.
Shops on fire amid Tibet protests
Fires have broken out in the Tibetan city of Lhasa, Chinese state media reports say, as rare street protests in the province appear to gather pace.
Many people have thought that China would start to feel pressure over its human rights abuses as the start of the Olympics in Beijing neared. These thoughts are now turning into reality.
First we had Darfur protests, with the follow through of Spielberg's resignation from Olympic preparation participation .
Now we have Tibet. Soon we will have Xinjiang (Western China).
Tibet first. While past protests have centered around the monks and temples, these protests seem to have quickly spread to the general Tibetan population.
It should be pointed out here that China illegally invaded Tibet in 1951 and has since practiced a policy of flooding Tibet with migrants from the rest of China in an attempt to make Tibetans a minority in their own land.
Chaos in Tibet capital as protests spread
Protesters in Tibet's capital Lhasa burnt shops and vehicles and yelled for independence on Friday as the region was hit by its biggest protests for nearly two decades, testing China's grip months before the Olympics.
Peaceful street marches by Tibetan Buddhist monks over previous days gave way to bigger scenes of violence and resentment in the remote, mountainous region.
"Now it's very chaotic outside," an ethnic Tibetan resident said by telephone. "People have been burning cars and motorbikes and buses. There is smoke everywhere and they have been throwing rocks and breaking windows. We're scared."
Another ethnic Tibetan resident said there were "protests everywhere". "It's no longer just the monks. Now they have been joined by lots of residents," the man said.
We also have some reports from travelers through the LonelyPlanet Thorntree site
I'm in Tibet (Gyantse) on my way to Lhasa at the moment, as part of a group tour. Our guide has just told us that it's not possible to enter Lhasa because of major fights, fires, deaths etc. and that the Chinese government has forced all travel agencies to get their clients to leave Lhasa or not to come to Lhasa.
Marloose, the trouble is pretty serious. There are protests, fires and some injured folks (not sure about deaths yet). Some more info is on this thread.
According to the TCHRD.org: "The police have cordoned off all roads leading in and out of Lhasa with armed paramilitary forces patrolling the streets." Don't know if that actually means they are stopping entry to Lhasa altogether. Ramoche Temple is also affected according to them.
According to CNN News ~ 20 min ago:
Serious troubles in Lhasa and around Ganden-, Sera- and Drepung Monasteries and unconfirmed reports of several other places.
Within China CNN has been shut down, all tourist permits(presume concerning Tibet) have been canceled and ?????
Then there is this report from AFP
Gunshots heard in Tibetan capital: US embassy
Gunfire was heard in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on Friday, according to the US embassy who citied several reports from American citizens.
China's official media previously reported that fires and violent protests had broken out in the Tibetan capital, as demonstrations this week against Chinese rule escalated.
"Shops were set on fire in violence in downtown Lhasa on Friday afternoon," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
We still have Western China. China: Terrorists targeted Olympics
Chinese forces have for years been battling a low-intensity separatist movement among Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim people culturally and ethnically distinct from China's Han majority. Iron-fisted Chinese rule has largely suppressed the violence, however, and no major bombing or shooting incidents have been reported in almost a decade.
Chinese police killed alleged terrorists plotting to attack the Beijing Olympics, while a flight crew managed to prevent an apparent attempt to crash a Chinese jetliner in a separate case just last week, officials said Sunday.
Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the western region of Xinjiang, said materials seized in a January raid in the regional capital, Urumqi, had described a plot with a purpose "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."
"Their goal was very clear," Wang told reporters in Beijing.
It looks like the lead-up to the Olympics may not be as smooth as the Chinese had hoped.