By making 28 March Serfs' Emancipation Day to mark Tibetan liberation from the Dalai Lama’s theocracy Beijing is trying to hide its violent repression of the Tibetan people. The South African government admits it is banning the Dalai Lama from the country for fear of what China might do.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China is throwing a party tomorrow, 28 March, to celebrate its occupation of Tibet as Serfs' Emancipation Day. For Beijing, China’s beneficial impact on the occupied country must be acknowledged. The fact that it placed it under martial law is of little consequence.

China is indeed hopeful that overseas media might carry out reports on Tibet in an objective, comprehensive and truthful way, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday.

A recent video circulating on the Internet showing Chinese brutality in Lhassa last year was doctored, according to Mr Qin.

By contrast Chinese media are running testimonials by people who were present on the day, 50 years go, when the Dalai Lama’s feudal theocracy was abolished, full of praise for the great economic and social progress enjoyed by the country in last past 50 years.

Indeed the Communist Party’s People’s Daily announced that 1.3 billion Chinese are getting ready to celebrate the emancipation of a million Tibetan serfs.

Tomorrow’s show is an answer to recent anniversaries like 10 March 1959 when the last anti-Chinese uprising was crushed in blood and 13 March 2008 when street protests broke out in Tibet only to be drowned in the blood of some 200 people who were killed, and thousands arrested.

Fearing new protests Chinese authorities have made Tibet a no-go zone for foreign journalists and tourists as tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers in full gear patrol its cities, and this despite the coverage by Chinese media, which only show festive Tibetan natives.

But as that was not enough Beijing is throwing its weight around, trying to prevent other countries from entertaining any relations with the Dalai Lama.

South Africa for instance denied the 1989 Nobel peace Prize laureate a visa to participate in a peace conference involving Nobel peace prize winners.

Noble Peace Prize winners Archbishop Tutu and FW de Klerk pulled out of the conference following the South African Government's decision to refuse the Dalai Lama a visa, forcing its postponement.

An embarrassed Themba Maseko, spokesperson for the South African government, admitted that the decision announced on Wednesday to keep the Dalai Lama out of South Africa was meant to avoid upsetting the Chinese.

The Peace Conference itself was meant to discuss ways to use football (soccer) to fight racism.

Mr Maseko added that the Dalai Lama was not welcome in South Africa until after the 2010 World Cup because of possible retaliation and boycott.

• china
• tibet
• south
• africa
• dalai
• lama
• serfs’
• emancipation
• day
• occupation
• invation
• 28
• march
• 1959
• themba
• maseko
• desmond
• tutu
• fw
• de
• klerk