Jane Macartney, China Correspondent
Subscribe to The Times and The Sunday Times
Where maroon-robed Tibetan monks would clap their hands and shout in spirited Buddhist debate daily, now only birdsong can be heard. Barely a dozen tourists a day visit Sera monastery on the edge of Lhasa and the monks are nowhere to be seen. Many are confined to their quarters. Some have even been arrested.
Shopkeepers in the Tibetan capital are struggling to do business since visitors stopped arriving and a huge police presence deters locals from going out unless they must. Tibet, and its capital, resemble regions under siege since the March 14 riot when citizens angry at Beijing's rule rampaged in the streets, attacking ethnic Han Chinese.
The anti-Chinese violence was just the latest to erupt in Tibetan regions since the Communist Party came to power in China in 1949. In 1989 martial law was imposed on Lhasa for 14 months after troops were sent in to shoot Tibetans as they set fire to shops and businesses owned by Han Chinese.
It was a fateful decision by Hu Jintao, the region's party chief. He is now the President of China and Communist Party chief, and bureaucrats who administer Tibet do not dare to be seen as any less tough on anti-Chinese violence than their boss was.
One official said: “President Hu can't change his tough approach because that was the policy that won him China's top job.”
China may have stopped short of imposing martial law this time, aware as it is of its reputation with only weeks to go before the start of the Beijing Olympics. But the troops are in place. And the crackdown now under way is believed to be no less severe than the measures used to restore order after the previous big riots.
For many, the question is whether the authorities will begin to relax their grip once the Olympics are out of the way.
Many Tibetans in Lhasa say they believe that the police presence will be diminished and security checks will start to disappear once the Olympics have finished. Perhaps the tourists may then start to return and the monks will be allowed into their temple halls and even back on to the streets.
But one Chinese analyst of Tibetan matters expected quite another response by Beijing. “I think that once the Olympics are over we will start to see the real crackdown.
“Now the authorities worry about international opinion, but once the Games are over there will be a settling of accounts. Then we will see many people being sent to jail and even tougher measures to restore order.”
Read the training tips and advice that helped our London Triathletes
Enjoy screenings of all the classic films you love, plus take advantage of two-for-one tickets
Times Online's new TV show helps you make the right decisions for your pet
Read our exclusive 100 Years of Fleming and Bond interactive timeline, packed with original Times articles and reviews
The latest travel news plus the best hotels and gadgets for business travellers
Shortcuts to help you find sections and articles

Get three teams for £6 £100K prize fund to be won

Find a course, arrange a game and save money

Get Times news, business and sport on your mobile. Text Times to 86626

2007
£47,995
2008
£42,945
06/2006
£40,850
Great car insurance deals online
£33,000
Macmillan Cancer Support
Central/South West
£50k
NHS
Nationwide
£
£30k OTE
Meltwater News
Nationwide
circa £70k
Central Office of Information
London
Great Dubai Investment Opportunities
from £89,950
Luxury Appts, beautiful gardens w/ Thames views
Studios £33K, 1 Beds £60K, 2 beds £79K
Great Investment, River Views
New York Christmas Shopping
Christmas Cruises
From only £995pp
APTs East Coast now from only
£2425pp.
Great travel insurance deals online
Contact our advertising team for advertising and sponsorship in Times Online, The Times and The Sunday Times. Globrix Property Search - find property for sale and rent in the UK. Visit our classified services and find jobs, used cars, property or holidays. Use our dating service, read our births, marriages and deaths announcements, or place your advertisement.
Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard Terms and Conditions. Please read our Privacy Policy.To inquire about a licence to reproduce material from Times Online, The Times or The Sunday Times, click here.This website is published by a member of the News International Group. News International Limited, 1 Virginia St, London E98 1XY, is the holding company for the News International group and is registered in England No 81701. VAT number GB 243 8054 69.
I don't know about crackdowns but the real crackup will be after the 2012 Olympics in London when we will be poor as a church mouse. God forbid, that will really taint the Olympics forever!
Glynn, Kingston,
Lim Malaysia said 'China is Rising.'
Unfortunately, by laws of rampant capitalism, rising is always followed by sinking. Have you heard of South Sea Bubble or Dot Com Bubble and currently Property Bubble? Chinese Bubble will pop due to inflation/slump in global demand. Sorry! It is only temporary
Colin, Carmarthen, United Kingdom
Jerry, are you suggesting that the Chinese people know no better than what they have experienced (from external and internal sources) over the last few hundred years?
It would indeed go some way to explain why they're so defensive of their corrupt and heavy handed system of governance.
Fordie, Sydney, Australia
Jeff, Birmingham,
"I am ashamed that nobody has the guts to stand up in the face of this Chinese brutality"
if you feel so strongly about it, why don't YOU stand up?
Never mind the killing, the looting YOU (foreigners) have done to Chinese people in the past hundreds of years!
Jerry, Auckland,
Jean, London, England
Do Britain hv proper elections? I read some posts saying that some bureaucrats were appointed. Anyway do elections always lead to a good, clean, transparent govt.? U may not like d Chinese Govt.. but they proved to be good, responsive and people oriented & China is rising.
Lim , Johor Bahru, Malaysia
What difference is there between Mugabe and the chinese communist party? There will never be elections in China,world governments should beashamed that they allow this dictatorship to continue without at least sanctions,thenaward them the olympic games...poor Tibetan people,but so brave
Jean, London, England
To hgao, Beijing
I suppose Jeff, Birmingham, was talking about Olympics, wasn't he? But if you want to throw in numbers... How about Mao Zedong being the world's largest murderer ever. According to independent historians 70 million Chinese (Tibetans included) have lost their lives due to his rule?
Josef, Sydney,
To Jeff, Birmingham
China "as shameful as the 1936 Berlin Olympics"? No, I dont think you are smart enough to realize it should be as shameful as 1904 British invasion of Tibet when officer Young Husband mawed down over 2,500 Tibeten monks.
hgao, Beijing,
Umm, I wonder who that Chinese analyst of Tibetan matters is?
Tears on d earthquake had hardly dried up. Now we read abt a crackdown after Olympics. Yes, maybe it could happen but not after d games, maybe after Sichuan is totally rebuilt. Ummm how long will that be? Can analyst be right?
230608
Lim , Johor Bahru, Malaysia
I am ashamed that nobody has the guts to stand up in the face of this Chinese brutality and call it what it is: brutal, vile and utterly unacceptable. We are sleepwalking towards something as shameful as the 1936 Berlin Olympics, letting the Games be used for propaganda for genocidal dictators.
Jeff, Birmingham,
Are you kidding me? Relax their grip? The Chinese analyst is damn right, the true scale of China's repressive regime will strike upon the Tibetans and the Uyghurs after the global attention has shifted elsewhere. The IOC must respond for this too. If they have a conscience, that is.
Luca, Beijing, China
i personally reckon if first-hand observations and interviews were included, it would be a more interesting piece of reading.
odysseus, ithaca, us