A Tibet advocacy group has reported the deaths of two Tibetans who were purportedly killed by Chinese paramilitary officials raiding a monastery in Sichuan province last Thursday. According to reports, the two Tibetans killed, an elderly man and woman, were beaten to death as they were gathered outside a monastery to prevent several hundred monks from being detained. A New York Times journalist reporting on the incident said the following:
“Officers from the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to quell riots, had put the monks in 10 trucks, the group said, citing as its source a monk from Kirti living in exile who remained in contact with the monastery. The officers then clashed with a large number of laypeople, many of them elderly, who tried to prevent the trucks from driving out the main entrance gate.”
By emphasizing the brute force employed by Chinese military officials against traditionally helpless or at least peaceful individuals, this particular news story effectively appeals to the readers’ emotions. Stories concerning Tibet, a subject of intense scrutiny among the press, have generally tended to tug at the heartstrings of American citizens. Formalized news about Tibet is often juxtaposed against the democratic maxims of equality and American guarantees of universal human rights. However, media neglects to inform the public about the finer intricacies of Sino-Tibetan relations, opting instead to rely on particular “newsworthy” pegs. Tibetan revolts then, can have the effect of being perceived as a series of disconnected events that stem from a vague sense of discontent. Further details regarding Tibet’s history and culture among other paramount factors that has led to such uprisings, however, remains ever elusive.
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