Eastern spin

While cheap appliances and plastic toys remain hot exports to the West, China’s government has shown itself more than willing to import some of what America does best—in this case, unsubstantiated and absurd claims of planned acts of terrorism by its enemies. Chinese authorities are trying to convince the public that the monks are planning widespread suicide bombings in support of that world-renowned pacifist, the Dalai Lama.

Offering no evidence or details, China’s Public Security Ministry has claimed that raids on Tibetan monasteries have turned up a huge cache of non-peaceful items: 19,000 sticks of dynamite, 7,725 pounds of other explosives, guns, knives, swords and two hand grenades. A Ministry spokesperson said that “the next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks.”

Speaking from Dharamsala, India, Tibetan government-in-exile Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche dismissed the accusations outright, and re-iterated that Tibetans are “100 per cent committed to non-violence.” Rinpoche also expressed concerns that Chinese operatives masquerading as Tibetans might carry out terrorist attacks to “give bad publicity to Tibetans.”

by SCOTT SAXON