China, Tibet: Interview with Grace Wang

A Chinese student at Duke University in North Carolina who wrote “Free Tibet” on the back of an anti-Chinese protester during an attempt to mediate a campus dispute over Tibet is now hated by former classmates and teachers alike, a former teacher said.

Tibet: Lhasa witnesses analyze the protests

I thought that this [the uprising] was the right thing to do. I participated in the protests and was among the protesters in the area of Ramoche monastery for about two hours. I knew that the protests were expressions of Tibetan despair over Chinese oppression in our own country. The actual suppression and crackdown by Chinese forces began on the night of March 14. At roughly 8 p.m., Tibetans in the Lhasa area heard that Chinese forces were coming. Many left and went to their homes, while others continued their protests. That very night I saw many Tibetans being taken away and Chinese armed police firing on Tibetans.

“Within a short period, about 200 Tibetans were detained. In the midst of the commotion, it was hard to tell who was alive or dead and who was taken away. I saw some Chinese with head injuries.

China: RFA listeners on the Tibet unrest

The following is a selection of comments from listeners who have called hotlines run by RFA’s Mandarin and Cantonese services since the Tibet unrest began. Some of the comments were made before China admitted to opening fire on anti-Chinese protests in Tibetan areas of Sichuan:

A Shanxi man called RFA Mandarin’s Listener Hotline:

“Tibetan cultural traditions have largely been destroyed. The railway enabled even more Han Chinese to go to Tibet; as a result, it has had a big impact on the environment and customs of Tibet…