Tibetans Desperate

Tibetans Desperate.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/
0,8599,1722509,00.html
begin quote
"It used to be the Tibetans were protesting against Chinese rule," says Nicholas Bequelin, China
researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch. "But now they're protesting against the destruction of their whole civilization, their whole world. They feel that they are doomed if they don't do something. And when people feel that desperation there's no knowing what it could lead them to do."

That desperation may only increase, as Beijing appears unwilling to making any conciliatory move. In a familiar phrasing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang bitterly criticized the Dalai Lama on March 13, blaming the protests on "a political conspiracy schemed by the Dalai group, aiming to separate Tibet from China and to destroy the normal, harmonious and peaceful life of the Tibetan people."

Beijing is particularly incapable of flexibility when it comes to policy toward ethnic areas of the country because it fears that any sign of weakness could open up the floodgates and lead to widespread demand for autonomy in other areas such as the Muslim province of Xinjiang. "There is just no safety valve for ethnic issues in China," says Bequelin. "It remains one of the most retrograde areas of policy. They just don't have the tools to handle something like this." endquote

I'm very concerned that China is completely unprepared to deal with the very patient Tibetans who have finally reached a stage of desperation that is the permanent end of Tibetan culture within Tibet. The world will watch because this is the way China will deal with all of us in the future if things are left as they are.