The Associated Press reports that “South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg this week, hoping to keep good relations with trading partner China but instead generating a storm of criticism.”
The New York Times reports that “nearly 100 people, most of them monks, were being held in a Tibetan area of northwestern China after a crowd attacked a police station there.”
The AP follows up on this, noting that Chinese authorities have been aggressively patrolling the region following the arrests.
The Agence France-Press further reports that Tibetan exiles have told them that the whole row was sparked “after a monk was arrested for pulling down a Chinese flag and replacing it with a Tibetan one.”
Reuters talks to several who suggest that “more destabilising outbursts are likely in coming months.”
Our friend, stringer, and past interviewee Erick D. White points us to a piece in the lastest edition of the New York Review of Books by Pico Iyer, who recently authored a book about His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In the article, Iyer offers a lengthy, informed reflection on His Holiness’ recent comments on the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising.
Erick also sends us interesting pieces from openDemocracy and Radio Free Asia on “changing Chinese-world relations vis-a-vis Tibet” and “Serf-Emancipation Day,” respectively.
