IOC Allows China To Limit Reporters' Access to Internet; Censorship Reverses Pledge by Beijing

Beijing, 7/31/08 - Washington Post (Edward Cody) - The International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government acknowledged Wednesday that reporters covering the Olympics will be blocked from accessing Internet sites that Chinese authorities consider politically sensitive.

The avowed censorship, although standard procedure for China's millions of Internet users, contradicted pledges made earlier by IOC and Chinese officials that the estimated 20,000 journalists and technicians due in Beijing next week for the Olympic Games would have unfettered Web access. It was the latest in a series of steps taken by Chinese authorities reneging on promises they made seven years ago, when Beijing was granted the Games, to allow free reporting during the Olympics.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/07/30/ST2008073002956.html

Anxiety Olympics

Beijing, 7/31/08 - New York Times (Nicholas D. Kristof) - Video report by In the run up to the Olympics, China is facing unrest among several ethnic minority groups, most notably Tibetans and Uighur Muslims. Includes interview with (unidentifiable) Tibetan living in Tibet. (3 minutes 24 seconds)

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=e4fd4e283327c12531852cd21619a25026f8c1eb

China plans sweeping purge of Tibetan monasteries

Beijing, 7/27/08 - The Telegraph (Richard Spencer) - Monks with "attitude problems", or who refuse to change their thinking in line with official demands, will be dismissed or jailed.

Abbots and other leaders who fail to carry out government orders to "re-educate" their charges will be replaced by the regime's appointees.

The orders are contained in an official document posted only in Tibetan on the government's Tibet information website. This refers to Kandze, a prefecture of Sichuan Province populated largely by Tibetans, where some of the most violent clashes between monks and security forces took place earlier this year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2463385/China-plans-sweeping-purge-of-Tibetan-monasteries.html

Tibetan monasteries empty as China jails monks to silence Olympic protests

Beijing, 7/7/08 - Times of London (Jane Macartney) - Chinese authorities tightened security around Tibet's main monasteries and banned visits to a sacred site on the edge of the capital, Lhasa, for fear of a fresh outburst of unrest on the Dalai Lama's birthday.

Few monks remain, however, in the province's three most important monasteries. Many have disappeared, their whereabouts a mystery. Chinese officials have deployed troops and paramilitary police around the ancient religious institutions, suspecting these sprawling hillside communities are at the heart of the unrest that has swept the region since early March. Dozens, possibly several hundred, have been arrested or are detained and under investigation for their roles in the anti-Chinese demonstrations and riots that hit Lhasa on March 14. This, however, does not account for the empty halls in the three great monasteries, Drepung, Sera and Ganden, that lie near the city. Several hundred monks are believed to have been living in each of them before the violence erupted.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4281932.ece