Putting China to the test

BEIJING — The largest protests in Tibet in two decades, which have coursed through Lhasa, the capital, and left vehicles and shops in flames, pose a political dilemma for Beijing as it struggles to bring the unrest under control.

China's government, already facing international pressure to improve its human-rights record before the Summer Olympics in Beijing, confronts two unappealing options: permit protests to continue and risk broader unrest, or clamp down and face further scrutiny and censure worldwide.

Activists have brought pressure on the Olympics' corporate sponsors, foreign heads of state who plan to attend and celebrities involved in planning. Last month, Britain's Prince Charles said he would not attend the games in protest of China's treatment of Tibet, and Steven Spielberg withdrew as an artistic adviser, blaming China's continuing support of the government of Sudan, which has failed to quell violence in its Darfur region.

China considers foreign support a critical measure of a successful games, and a crackdown in Tibet could even risk the prospect of a boycott.

The tension in Tibet comes just days after the U.S. State Department removed China from a list of the world's worst human-rights violators, despite objections from rights groups. However, China's "overall human-rights record remained poor" in 2007, according to the State Department's annual report released Tuesday, which cited stricter controls on the Internet and the press, and limits on the freedom of religion in Tibet and the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

In a statement that also may reflect, unintentionally perhaps, the prospect of a wider uprising, President Hu Jintao told party officials this week: "Stability in Tibet concerns the stability of the country, and safety in Tibet concerns the safety of the country."

The protests have steadily widened since Monday, when police scattered and arrested protesters celebrating the anniversary of the Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule in 1959. The protests in Lhasa — which began as part of a coordinated day of rallies in Nepal, India and elsewhere — have become the largest political demonstrations there since 1989, when Beijing quelled demonstrations by imposing martial law.

Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth League based in Dharamsala, northern India, said Tibetan exiles are determined make Tibet a major international focus as the Olympics approach in August.

"We are taking chances. We know how the Chinese have treated Tibetans in the past," he said. "But with the spotlight on them with the Olympics, we want to test them. We want them to show their true colors. That's why we're pushing this."

Speaking by phone from Dharamsala, where Tibet's government-in-exile is based, Rigzin said Tibetan exiles were particularly annoyed at China's plans to take the Olympic torch to the top of Mount Everest before the games.

Chinese authorities confirmed this week that the route to the summit of Mount Everest along its north face, in Tibet, would be closed. Nepal has decided that from May 1 to May 10, when China has said the Olympic torch will be carried to the summit, no one will be allowed to climb up the south face, in Nepal, though apparently it has not yet clarified its new restrictions to tour operators planning expeditions, The New York Times reported.

The world's highest mountain "belongs to Tibet, not China," Rigzin said. "They're trying to show the world Tibet is part of China, so we're shining a spotlight on the brutal occupation."

Rigzin suggested Tibetan protesters had expected a crackdown in Lhasa. "Freedom comes for a price," said Rigzin, a native of Washington state who moved to Dharamsala in October to take over his organization's presidency.

Tibet has been roiled by periodic unrest since 1950, when Chinese troops invaded. The Dalai Lama launched a failed uprising against Chinese rule nine years later, then fled into exile in India.