Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Little sympathy for Tibet protesters among Chinese

Little sympathy for Tibet protesters among Chinese
REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service
Mar 20, 2008 07:27 EST
BEIJING, March 20 (Reuters) - Conspiracy theories, denunciations of the
Dalai Lama and an unflinching belief that Tibetans are better off under
China's rule.
The views of many people in China on the recent unrest in Tibet could be
plucked verbatim from the most fiery editorials of the Communist Party's
official newspapers.
As authorities in Tibet announced dozens of arrests following anti-Chinese
riots that rocked the remote Himalayan region, Han Chinese in Beijing on
Thursday applauded the crackdown.
"They should suppress the riots, no matter using police or using military
force and put the real criminals in prison," said Zhang Ming, a
25-year-old Beijing office worker. "I don't have any sympathy for these
people."
Zhang, like many other Han Chinese, who make up the vast majority of
China's 1.3 billion people, can't see what Tibetans would have to be
unhappy about.
"I don't think Tibetans want independence. Tibet is treated well under the
Chinese government. Any normal Tibetans would be happy live under Chinese
rule," Zhang said.
China's rapid response to the Tibetan unrest, which began in regional
capital Lhasa last weed and has since spread to neighbouring provinces,
has seen troops pour into ethnic Tibetan villages and journalists kicked
out of sensitive areas.
Like China's senior leaders, ordinary Chinese say they have little doubt
as to the real drivers behind the unrest.
"I personally believe the Dalai Lama is behind the protests," said a
retired housewife surnamed Geng. "I don't believe his feelings towards the
Communist Party could have changed."
China blames the Tibetan spiritual leader for masterminding the protests
in Tibet from Dharamsala, the seat of his government-in-exile.
The Dalai Lama, who fled China after a failed uprising in 1959, has denied
any involvement and on Thursday said he was ready to talk to Chinese
leaders.
He has also called on Tibetans to eschew violent means of protest and live
side-by-side with Chinese.
Few Chinese believe his intentions are pure.
"He was taken from the stage by the Communist Party, and now he wants to
return. He had a lot of power before, and a lot of slaves. Now he has
none," said a middle-aged businessman from Hebei province who declined to
give his name.
While the Dalai Lama has proved an effective figure for the Chinese
government to explain the Tibetan unrest to its people, Western
governments have proved a tougher audience.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will meet the 72-year-old on a visit
to Britain in May, in a plan announced on Wednesday that drew a testy
response from China's Foreign Ministry.
International sympathy for the Dalai Lama may be lost on many Chinese. But
the attention brought by the Tibetan protests four months before the
Olympic Games in Beijing has been noted.
"How could these people do this ahead of the Olympics?" snapped a
middle-aged woman surnamed Li, brushing away a friend urging her not to
comment. "They should think about the national interest."
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comment. "They should think about the national interest." (Reporting by
Ian Ransom; Editing by Alex Richardson) 
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