The New York Times
November 2, 2013
China aims to stamp out the voice of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in his restive and remote homeland by ensuring that what the government calls his “propaganda” is not received by anyone through the Internet, television or other means, a top official said.
China has tried for years, with varying degrees of success, to prevent Tibetans from listening to or watching programs broadcast from outside the country, or finding any information online about the Dalai Lama and Tibet’s government in exile.
But many Tibetans are still able to find such news, either via illegal satellite television dishes or by skirting Chinese Internet restrictions. The Dalai Lama’s picture and his teachings are also smuggled into Tibet at great personal risk.
Writing in the ruling Communist Party’s Qiushi journal, the latest issue of which was received by subscribers on Saturday, Tibet’s party chief, Chen Quanguo, said the government would ensure that only its voice was heard.
“Strike hard against the reactionary propaganda,” Mr. Chen wrote, adding that the government would confiscate illegal satellite dishes, increase its monitoring of online content and make sure all telephone and Internet users were registered using their real names.
It will “work hard to ensure that the voice and image of the party is heard and seen over the vast expanses” of China’s Tibetan regions, he wrote, “and that the voice and image of the enemy forces and the Dalai clique are neither seen nor heard.”
China calls the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who seeks to use violent methods to establish an independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959, says he simply wants genuine autonomy for Tibet, and denies espousing violence.
Tensions are high after a spate of self-immolation protests by Tibetans, which have led to an intensified security crackdown.
