Eye On China

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خبرگزارى رويتر به نقل از مقامات دولت بوش ادعا كرد: "با وجود راى مثبت چين به تحريم*هاى سازمان ملل عليه ايران، اين كشور براى توقف انتقال تجهيزات نظامى به ايران تلاش زيادى نمى كند."

خبرگزارى رويتر به نقل از *دان ماهلي، معاون وزير امور خارجه*ى آمريكا كه در "كميسيون بازنگرى امنيتى و اقتصادى آمريكا و چين" صحبت مى كرد،* مدعى شد:" به رغم وجود قطعنامه*هاى شوراى امنيت سازمان ملل برخى شركت*هاى چينى همچنان به تامين مواد و فن آورى قابل استفاده در توليد تسليحات، ابزارهاى پرتابي*شان و برنامه*ى تسليحات پيشرفته*ى متعارف به ايران ادامه مى دهند."

وى از جزييات نقل و انتقال ها صحبتى نكرد،* اما ادعا كرد اين موارد ممكن است به برنامه موشكى و نيز برنامه هسته*يى ايران مربوط باشند.

يك مقام عالي*رتبه سفارت آمريكا در پكن نيز گفت:"* ما بارها از چين خواسته*ايم تا انتقال تسليحات و فن آوري*هاى متعارف به ايران را متوقف كند، اما پاسخ چين غير مسوولانه بوده است."

وى با تكرار اتهامات غرب مبنى دخالت ايران در امور عراق از حملات مهلك عليه نيروهاى آمريكايى در عراق و افغانستان كه واشنگتن آنها را به ايران نسبت داده است ابراز نگرانى كرد.

اين مقام آمريكايى به طور كلى از پكن به خاطر انتقال مواد داراى كاربرد دوگانه و فن آورى هاى متعارف به كشورهايى مانند ايران، كره شمالي، سودان، زيمباوه، كوبا و ونزوئلا انتقاد كرد.

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China-Iran Trade Surge Vexes U.S.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government says a handful of Chinese companies have ramped up shipments of sensitive military technologies to Iran, part of a surge in China-Iran trade that is complicating efforts to apply pressure on Tehran to rein in its nuclear program.

The State Department and its embassy in Beijing have lodged "numerous" formal protests with the Chinese government since the start of the year over the shipments, U.S. officials said. They said the goods have included a range of specialty metals and other dual-use items that could aid Tehran's missile and nuclear programs.

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China sets deadline for Tibet rioters to surrender

China set a "surrender" deadline after riots in Lhasa that it said killed 10 innocent people, launching a crackdown on Saturday after the worst unrest in Tibet for two decades.

The response came after torrid protests on Friday which flew in the face of official claims the region was immune from unrest as Beijing readies to hold the Olympic Games in August.

Xinhua news agency said 10 "innocent civilians" were shot or burnt to death in fires that accompanied street clashes in the remote, mountain capital on Friday. It said no foreigners died, and the dead included two people killed with shotguns.

Tibetan law-and-order departments offered leniency for rioters who turned themselves in by Monday midnight.

"Criminals who do not surrender themselves by the deadline will be sternly punished according to the law," stated the notice on the Tibetan government Web site (www.tibet.gov.cn). It added that those who "harbor or hide" them also face harsh treatment.

The government offered rewards and protection for informers.

Chinese television showed footage of rioters trashing shops and trying to break down the entrance of a bank, and plumes of smoke floating above the city.

A source close to the self-proclaimed Tibetan government-in-exile suggested China's death toll of 10 was not the full story. He said at least five Tibetan protesters were shot dead by troops. Other groups supporting Tibetan independence have claimed many more may have died.
The Olympic torch arrives in Lhasa in a matter of weeks.

China has accused followers of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of masterminding the rioting, which has scarred its image of national harmony in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics.

A rash of angry blog posts appeared after China confirmed deaths in Lhasa and Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a Buddhist and an activist for Tibetan causes, suggested an Olympic boycott.

Tibetan crowds in the remote mountain city attacked government offices, burnt vehicles and shops and threw stones at police on Friday in bloody confrontations that left many injured.

A Reuters picture showed a protester setting afire a Chinese national flag. Another depicted security personnel shielding themselves against rocks hurled by protesters.

Qiangba Puncog, the top government official in Tibet, told reporters in Beijing that Tibetan authorities had not fired any shots to quell the violence.

But official statements suggested the government reaction in coming days will be tough, and will bring Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries under tighter controls.

The Tibet government notice claimed that the burning of schools, hospitals, shops and houses was "premeditated". And an announcement on Tibet television urged residents to denounce the "malicious intent" of the Dalai Lama, "protect national sovereignty" and "reject lawless monks and nuns".

The International Campaign for Tibet cited unconfirmed reports of scores of Tibetans killed. John Ackerly of the group said in an e-mailed statement he feared "hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested and are being interrogated and tortured".
Danish tourist Bente Walle, 58, said Lhasa was like a ghost town on Saturday.

"Today Lhasa is completely closed and there is Chinese military all over," she said, adding that many people were tying white prayer scarves on doors. "The Tibetans put them on their doors to tell everybody: here is a Tibetan."

NO CHANGE OF POLICY

The riots emerged from a volatile mix of pre-Olympics protests, diplomatic friction over Tibet and local discontent with the harsh ways of the region's Communist Party leadership.

China has chided the leaders of the United States and especially Germany in past months for hosting the Dalai Lama, saying such acts boost what they call his "separatist" goals. It has also urged India to stop protests there by exiled Tibetans.

"We are fully capable of maintaining the social stability of Tibet," Xinhua quoted an official as saying in a statement repeated across Chinese state media on Saturday.

But already the protests have become an international issue dogging the Beijing Games, which China hopes will showcase its economic progress and social harmony.

Asked whether he thought the unrest in Tibet would affect the torch relay passing through there, Sun Weide, spokesman for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, said no.

"The preparations for the Torch relay in Tibet and taking the flame up Mount Qomolangma have been progressing smoothly," he said. Mount Qomolangma is better known as Mount Everest.

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BEIJING (AP) — Violence spilled over from Tibet into neighboring provinces Sunday as Tibetans defied a Chinese government crackdown and the Dalai Lama warned that the area faced "cultural genocide" and appealed to the world for help.
Supporters of the Dalai Lama said 80 people had been killed during the protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and at least another 72 injured. It was the latest negative publicity for China ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Protests were reported in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces. All are home to Tibetan populations.

The demonstrations come after five days of protests in Lhasa escalated into violence Friday, with Buddhist monks and others torching police cars and shops in the fiercest challenge to Beijing's rule over the region in nearly two decades.

"Whether the (Chinese) government there admits or not, there is a problem," the Dalai Lama said. "Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some cultural genocide is taking place."

He told reporters in Dharmsala, the north Indian town where Tibet's self-declared government-in-exile is based, that an international body should investigate the government's crackdown on the protests in Lhasa.

Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama's government, said multiple sources inside Tibet had counted at least 80 corpses since the violence broke out Friday. He did not know how many of the bodies were protesters. At least another 72 people had been injured, he said.

The official Xinhua News Agency has said at least 10 civilians were burned to death Friday.

The figures could not be independently verified because China restricts foreign media access to Tibet.

A resident of Aba county in Sichuan, who refused to give his name, said there was a clash between Tibetan monks and armed police after the monks staged a protest. He said one policeman had been killed and three or four police vans had been set on fire.

The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said at least seven people have been shot dead in the county. There was no way of immediately confirming the claim.

In Qinghai, 100 monks defied a directive confining them to Rongwo Monastery in Tongren city by climbing a hill behind the monastery, where they set off fireworks and burned incense.

The act frayed tensions. Businesses were shuttered, and about 30 riot police with shields took up posts near the monastery. Police forced journalists to delete photographs of the riot squads.

In Gansu, more than 100 students protested at a university in Lanzhou, according to Matt Whitticase of activist group Free Tibet. Witnesses said a curfew was imposed in Xiahe city in the province on Sunday, a day after police fired tear gas on a 1,000 protesters, including Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens, who had marched from the historic Labrang monastery.

Large communities of ethnic Tibetans live far outside modern Tibet in areas that were the Himalayan region's eastern and northeastern provinces of Amdo and Kham until the communist takeover in 1951. Those areas were later split off by Beijing to become the Chinese province of Qinghai and part of Sichuan province.

Hong Kong Cable TV said about 200 military vehicles each carrying dozens of armed soldiers, drove into the center of Lhasa on Sunday. The footage showed mostly empty streets, but for armored and military vehicles patrolling and soldiers searching buildings.

Loudspeakers on the streets repeatedly broadcast slogans urging residents to "discern between enemies and friends, maintain order."

The violence Friday erupted just two weeks before China's Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which will pass through Tibet.

China's communist government is hoping Beijing's hosting of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics will boost its popularity at home as well as its image abroad. But the event has already attracted the scrutiny of China's human rights record and its pollution problems.

International criticism of the crackdown in Tibet so far has been mild, with no threats of an Olympic boycott or other sanctions.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on China "to exercise restraint in dealing with the protests."

Rice said she was "concerned by reports of a sharply increased police and military presence in and around Lhasa." Her statement urged China to release those jailed for protesting.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said he opposed an Olympic boycott over Tibet.

"We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."

The unrest in Tibet began March 10 on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule of the region. Tibet was effectively independent for decades before communist troops entered in 1950.

The protests by Buddhist monks spiraled to include cries for Tibet's independence and turned violent when police intervened. Pent-up grievances against Chinese rule came to the fore, as Tibetans directed their anger against Chinese and their shops, hotels and other businesses.