A police station in a part of north-western China near Tibetan-populated areas was attacked early on Sunday, leaving two police officers hurt, state media reported.
The brief dispatch by Xinhua news agency said the incident occurred in Xining, capital of Qinghai province, which neighbours Tibet and has a substantial Tibetan population.
It gave no other details besides saying the incident was under investigation.
The report comes amid a heavy security crackdown in Tibet and adjacent Tibetan areas to prevent unrest during this month’s 50th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule.
It also comes a day after China launched a new national holiday for Tibetans called ”Serf’s Liberation Day” to mark what the government
calls the emancipation of Tibetans from the ”feudal” rule of the now-exiled Dalai Lama.
Calls to police and government offices in Xining went unanswered on Sunday.
State media last week reported an incident on Tuesday in which three traffic police officers in Xining were surrounded and beaten by a group
of men as they intervened to sort out a routine traffic accident.
The report, issued on Thursday by China National Radio, said two of the officers were sent to hospital in stable condition, and that one of the
assailants was arrested. The others were still being sought, it said at the time.
Violent outbursts by people upset with police or the government over perceived injustices are common in China.
But Sunday morning’s incident comes amid high tension in Tibetan areas due to the March 10 anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising after
which the Dalai Lama, the Himalayan region’s spiritual leader, fled into exile.
On March 21, an angry mob attacked a police station in Rabgya, a mountain town about 300km from Xining that is known in Chinese as Lajia and home to a large monastery, Xinhua reported at the time.
It said 93 monks, most from the Rabgya monastery, were taken into custody by police following the incident.
China has ruled Tibet since 1951, after sending in troops to ”liberate” the region the previous year, and Beijing has long maintained that its rule ended a Buddhist theocracy that enslaved all
but the religious elite.
But the Dalai Lama and his followers allege China has carried out a systematic campaign of repression in Tibet that has nearly extinguished
its unique Buddhist culture.
Last year, widespread anti-China demonstrations and riots erupted in Tibet and other nearby provinces with large Tibetan populations on the
uprising’s 49th anniversary.
Controversy in SA
The Dalai Lama sparked controversy this week when the South African government denied him a visa to attend a now postponed 2010 peace conference.
The Tibetan spiritual leader was to have addressed the conference, aimed at thrashing out ways of using football to fight racism and xenophobia ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Thursday that the Dalai Lama could not be allowed to raise global issues on South African soil that would effect the country’s standing.
Speaking during a debate at the University of Cape Town, he said not allowing the Dalai Lama into South Africa was ”a matter of relations between states”.
”To say anything against the Dalai Lama is, in some quarters, equivalent to trying to shoot Bambi,” he said.
”Let’s put our cards on the table. Who is the Dalai Lama? I’ve heard him described as a god. I’ve heard him described as Buddha.
”Is he just the spiritual leader of the Buddhists in Tibet, or is he the one who on March 28 1969 established a government-in-exile in the same way as Taiwan was established to counter the reality of a single China?”
Manuel said Tibet’s history had to be looked at, because the Lamas had been ”feudal overlords” in that country.
”The reason why the Dalai Lama wants to be here … is to make a big global political statement about the secession of Tibet from China and he wants to make it on the free soil of South Africa.
”I’m sure he’s welcome to come at any other time, but we shouldn’t allow him to raise global issues that will impact on the standing of South Africa.
”Quite frankly this has nothing to do with the PSL [Premier Soccer League], it is a matter of relations between states and that’s what we have to stand up for.”
An urgent court application by the leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, to force the minister of home affairs to grant the Dalai Lama a visa has been set down for Tuesday. – Sapa