CHINA:CHINA PARADED the Olympic torch through the streets of Lhasa at the weekend in a blaze of red flags, eager to present a picture of national unity and domestic harmony just three months after the Tibetan provincial capital was rocked by anti-Chinese riots.
With the Olympic Games due to begin in Beijing on August 8th, top Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of the restive province used the opportunity of the torch relay to denounce the Dalai Lama and underline China's tight grip on the Himalayan region.
"Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it. It is certain we will be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama's clique," said Zhang Qingli, the hardliner who heads up Tibet's Communist Party.
Zhang was speaking at a ceremony to mark the end of the two-hour torch procession through Lhasa, which ended under tight security just below the Potala Palace, the Dalai Lama's former home and a key symbol of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's religious influence in Tibet.
A handpicked crowd of onlookers watched the Olympic flame pass, while groups of Tibetan and ethnic Han Chinese students waved Olympic banners, the Chinese national flag, and the hammer and sickle banner of the ruling Communist Party.
A tightly controlled group of foreign media was allowed watch the relay, which had been dogged by protests in western cities.
As the torch passed through the city, Lhasa was locked down with People's Armed Police and soldiers at regular intervals along the route, closely watching the groups of residents chosen to cheer on the torch. Shops were kept closed for the relay.
The use of the Olympic torch relay through Tibet to underline Chinese rule of the province is sure to anger activists eager to secure greater autonomy for the region, as well as human rights activists and press freedom advocates.
There has been a huge outpouring of sympathy for China in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake that which has claimed 80,000 dead or missing, and the relatively open way in which China responded to the tragedy.
However, the torch relay, particularly the way it has been run through Tibet, is a reminder of some of the knotty international issues that arose following its tough crackdown on monks and other anti-Chinese demonstrators during the March riots.
The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace prize in 1989 and is based in Dharamsala in northern India, fled Lhasa in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, nine years after Communist troops entered the remote, mountainous region.
Beijing accuses the monk of inciting protests and riots that tore Lhasa apart in March, before spreading to other Tibetan areas in Sichuan and Gansu provinces. They say the Dalai Lama wants to undermine the Beijing Olympics, a charge he denies. His envoys have held talks with Beijing's representatives since the protests about finding a solution. In a sign of how tense the situation remains, Chinese officials suddenly cancelled a planned visit by foreign media to the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, which was one of the focal points for anti-Chinese violence.