In response to recent protests in Tibet, China has intensified its propaganda campaign against self-immolations with the release of a documentary which claims to “disclose the truth” about the protests. Titled “Facts About Self-Immolation in Tibetan Areas of Ngapa (Aba),” the film was broadcast on CCTV-4, an international channel targeting Chinese language overseas viewers on 24 December followed by airings on CCTV’s English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian channels the following day.
Containing interviews with the “masterminds” and “victims” of the self-immolations, the film alleges that self-immolators were “acting on orders sent from overseas,” referring to the ongoing accusation that the “Dalai clique” is behind this social unrest in an attempt to split China.
In addition to this film, China’s state run newspapers have recently devoted an increasing number of editorials, reports, and opinion pieces by supposed Tibetan scholars, all aimed at reinforcing Beijing’s official line of blaming the Tibet crisis on exile Tibetans.
China continues to cut off Tibet from the rest of the world, restricting access to diplomats and the media. In fact, China’s foreign ministry has vehemently refuted all claims by world leaders to address the Tibetan situation as a “gross intervention in China’s internal affairs.”
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