Reports that China’s paramilitary police shot unarmed Tibetans at the weekend, together with hawkish remarks by the country’s most senior official in charge of minorities policy, have undermined hopes that Beijing might adopt a more flexible policy towards Tibet.
Yu Zhengsheng, one of the seven members of the ruling Communist party’s Politburo Standing Committee, pledged on Tuesday to “deepen the struggle against the Dalai clique”, an apparent rejection of a recent appeal by a party scholar for a rethink in Beijing’s approach to the restive Tibetan minority.
The remark came as the International Campaign for Tibet, a rights group, and Phayul, a web portal run by exiled Tibetans, reported that paramilitary police had opened fire on unarmed Tibetans who had gathered to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday on Saturday.