“Close the door and beat the dog”

China’s strategy in dealing with the massive pro-independence protests across Tibet comports with the old Chinese saying, bimen dagou: “close the door and beat the dog.”

With Tibet under military lockdown, it makes one shudder to think of the “dog beating” going on in Tibet away from the eyes of the world. This is the latest from the AP:

Tour groups were barred from Tibet and foreign journalists blocked from outlying areas as the region remained under virtual lockdown Tuesday following the Chinese government’s crackdown on rioters last month.[...]

An Associated Press reporter and photographer were detained at a police checkpoint in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province late Monday, despite the elapse of a 10-day ban on foreigners entering the area that should have ended last Thursday.

The detentions also appear to violate China’s pledge to allow free reporting in areas outside Tibet through the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August.

Needless to say, China is directly violating its clear Olympic pledge to allow free reporting in China before the Olympics — even allowing for China’s cowardly decision not to apply this policy towards the so-called “Tibetan Autonomous Region.”

The government has sought to portray life as fast returning to normal in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa — the scene of the deadliest violence — although its landmark Buddhist monasteries of Jokhang, Drepung and Sera were closed and surrounded by troops, tour operators said.

“The Tourism Bureau has forbidden all tourist groups to come into Tibet,” said an agent with the Xinzhe Xibuyou travel agency in Lhasa, who gave only his surname, Yang. [Ed.: obviously, one of the many Chinese settlers in Tibet]

So while the Chinese government wants to pretend everything is “normal” in Tibet, monasteries are surrounded by troops, reporters and tourists are barred, there are house-to-house searches, and we have no idea what is happening to all the Tibetans taken into custody (torture, worse?).

Like we said, bimen dagou.

But whatever the Chinese government might think, Tibetans are not “dogs.” They are human beings, they demand their right to self-determination, and no amount of intimidation and brutality is going to change that.