In 2016 John Powers wrote about 2008's "unprecedented levels of protest" and that "On March 7, 2009, Wang Xiaobin, a scholar at the China Tibetology Research Centre, told foreign reporters: 'We think the Dalai Lama is the reason for the riots in Tibet... and the Dalai Lama is a card, a chip in a wider diplomatic struggle... If there was no intervention by the West, there would be no Tibet issue at all. The Tibet issue is a creation of the USA.' "