New protests in Tibet challenge Beijing’s claims of “normalcy”

New protests in Tibet are calling into question the Chinese government’s claim that everything is back to “normal” in Tibet.  What is “normal” in Tibet anyway: military occupation and simmering resentment ready to explode?

 From the BBC:

New violence has broken out in a Tibetan area of western China, leaving at least one government official seriously injured, state media says.

Xinhua news agency said the riot erupted on Thursday near government offices in Garze, Sichuan province. [...]

Foreign media organisations cannot report freely from Tibetan areas, so it is difficult to confirm facts from the area.

The latest Xinhua report states that a government official was “attacked and seriously wounded” in the Donggu township at about 2000 (1200 GMT) on Thursday.

“Police were forced to fire warning shots and put down the violence,” Xinhua quoted an official with the prefectural government as saying.

The Chinese government doesn’t say how they “put down” the protesters.  Nor do they say if the “warning shots” hit any people (the Chinese military has a habit of doing that in Tibet). 

Nor is it surprising that the Chinese government is reporting that a government official was injured; as with the Tiananmen Square massacre, Chinese officials/troops/police have a habit of being injured, while protesters/demonstrators apparently are always completely unharmed.

Regardless, this protest makes it pretty hard to believe the Chinese government’s claim:

Chinese officials said Thursday that they had succeeded in restoring order in heavily Tibetan areas across western China and were moving quickly to arrest monks and others involved in weeks of widespread anti-government protests.