China says will stamp out Dalai Lama's voice in Tibet
November 02, 2013: China aims to stamp out the voice of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader
the Dalai Lama in his restive and remote homeland by ensuring that his "propaganda"
is not received by anyone on the internet, television or other means, a top official
said.
China has tried, with varying degrees of success, to prevent Tibetans
listening to or watching programs broadcast from outside the country, or accessing
any information about the Dalai Lama and the exiled government on the internet. But
many Tibetans are still able to access such news, either via illegal satellite televisions
or by skirting Chinese internet restrictions. The Dalai Lama's picture and his teachings
are also smuggled into Tibet, at great personal risk.
Writing in the ruling
Communist Party's influential journal Qiushi, the latest issue of which was received
by subscribers on Saturday, Tibet's party chief Chen Quanguo said that the government
would ensure only its voice is heard. "Strike hard against the reactionary propaganda
of the splittists from entering Tibet," Chen wrote in the magazine, whose name means
"seeking truth". The government will achieve this by confiscating illegal satellite
dishes, increasing monitoring of online content and making sure all telephone and
internet users are registered using their real names, he added. "Work hard to ensure
that the voice and image of the party is heard and seen over the vast expanses (of
Tibet) ... and that the voice and image of the enemy forces and the Dalai clique are
neither seen nor heard," Chen wrote.
China calls the Nobel Peace Prize-winning
Dalai Lama a "wolf in sheep's clothing" who seeks to use violent methods to establish
an independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in
1959, says he simply wants genuine autonomy for Tibet, and denies espousing violence.
Chen said the party would seek to expose the Dalai Lama's "hypocrisy and deception"
and his "reactionary plots".
China has long defended its iron-fisted rule in
Tibet, saying the region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation and economic
stagnation until 1950, when Communist troops "peacefully liberated" Tibet. Tensions
in China's Tibetan regions are at their highest in years after a spate of self-immolation
protests by Tibetans, which have led to an intensified security crackdown.