What does ‘peoples war mean in Tibet?
By Claude Arpi AS Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao were reelected to their posts of President and Premier of the People’s Republic of China at the end of the 11th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), bad news was in store for them. As in March 1989 in Lhasa (and three months later on the Tiananmen Square), ‘people’ demonstrated against the Beijing regime. Today, there is only a minor difference: Premier Wen Jiabao, who was seen with his mentor Zhao Ziyang on the side of the students in June 1989, is now with the apparatchiks. After riots erupted last week in Lhasa and spread to different parts of Tibet during the following days, the immediate reaction of the Chinese authorities was the customary Party line: “We must wage a people’s war to expose and condemn the malicious acts of these hostile forces and expose the hideous face of the Dalai Lama group to the light of day.” What is this ‘people’s war’? For many China’s watchers, this has been one of the unanswered question
