Beijing: China said on Sunday anti-government protests that spread from Tibet into other provinces were under control, while Chinese officials accused Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of masterminding the recent protests.

The Communist Party’s official state newspaper said on Sunday the Dalai Lama had never abandoned violence since fleeing China in 1959, and was seeking to hijack the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Officials have also accused him of colluding with Uighur separtists in Xinjiang, who are calling for an independent state.

The exiled leader, for his part, has criticised the violence and said he wants to open negotiation channels.

On Saturday, 29 Chinese dissidents urged Beijing to end the bitter propaganda war, allow UN investigators into Tibet, and open direct talks with Tibet’s government in exile.


Foreign media have been banned from large parts of western China where thousands of troops have been dispatched to quell the protests against Chinese rule, the most bloody in nearly five decades.