Chinese leader greeted with US protests

14 Feb 2012, 2:06 pm   -   Source: AAP
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US police arrested activists during a visit by China's vice president, as a teenage monk set himself on fire in Tibet, exile groups said.

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Police in Washington arrested activists during a visit by China's vice president, as a teenage monk set himself on fire to protest China's rule in the nation's southwest, exile groups said.

The Washington activists unfurled a banner on a bridge reading "Tibet Will be Free" during the visit of China's leader-in-waiting, Vice President Xi Jinping.
   
The activists, from the group Students for a Free Tibet, said they were later released after being issued citations with fines of about $250 each for trespassing and disorderly conduct.

The 19-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, identified as Lobsang Gyatso, set  himself ablaze on Monday in Sichuan province's restive Aba county, the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and Free Tibet said.
   
The Washington-based ICT said police violently beat the monk as they extinguished the flames, before taking him into custody. It was not immediately clear whether he survived.
   
He was a monk at Aba's Kirti monastery, a leading Tibetan Buddhist institution that has been the scene of repeated protests by Tibetans against what they say is religious and cultural repression by Beijing.
   
At least 20 Tibetans have set fire to themselves in the past year to protest what they see as a lack of rights under Chinese rule, leading Beijing to impose virtual martial law, according to residents and exiled groups.
   
Many have been monks from Kirti, which has been under virtual lockdown since a young monk named Phuntsog set light to himself and died last March, sparking mass protests there.
   
Government and police officials in Aba refused to confirm the latest attempt when contacted by AFP.
   
The spate of suicide attempts has led Beijing to impose virtual martial law in Tibetan-inhabited areas of China, residents and exiled groups have said.
   
China has accused overseas groups and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of fomenting unrest.
   
Tibetans have long chafed under China's rule over the vast Tibetan plateau, accusing Beijing of curbing religious freedoms and eroding their culture and language, and these tensions have intensified over the past year.
   
But Beijing insists that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and have benefited from improved living standards brought by China's economic expansion.

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Li - from Sydney, 3 months ago

Your report basically suggest that instead of Greeting the leader of a nation with proper courtesy, the Chinese people should protest against all western leaders for the wrongs that they did to china over the the past hundred year. Correct? Flip through the history book and amaze yourself.

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