KANGDING, China — Authorities closed the last window into a restive Tibetan region in western China on Monday, tightening its security cordon on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile.
Beijing is trying to head off trouble around March 10, the date of the start of the 1959 abortive Tibetan revolt against Chinese rule. A peaceful commemoration last year by monks in Lhasa, Tibet’s regional capital, erupted into anti-Chinese rioting four days later and spread to surrounding provinces — the most sustained and violent demonstrations by Tibetans in decades.
This year, police checkpoints confront travelers to ethnically Tibetan areas — a quarter of Chinese territory from Tibet to parts of Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces. Convoys of armored vehicles and sandbagged sentry posts have turned the remote mountainous region into something of an armed camp. Police patrols have increased outside Buddhist monasteries.
Recent visitors to Lhasa have described armed police on rooftops. Governments in Tibetan areas have ordered foreign tourists out, and foreign journalists have been detained and told to leave. Internet and text-messaging services, which spread word of last year’s protests, have been unplugged in areas.
“There won’t be large- scale protests because the security situation in areas of Tibetan populations is very tight,” said Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at London’s Westminster University. “Let’s say there is a protest in a small town somewhere. How would we know? . . . Even if there is a clampdown we will not find out.”
The Dalai Lama scheduled a speech today marking the anniversary in the Indian hill town of Dharmsala where he is based.
The U.S. embassies in Beijing and Katmandu, Nepal, issued warnings Monday related to the tensions. The embassy in Beijing warned of increased security in many Tibetan areas and in areas near universities for ethnic minorities.
