Justified response

We have two questions for those pointing accusatory fingers at the Chinese government for what happened recently in a Tibetan-inhabited area of Sichuan province.

First, how should police officers respond when a police station is attacked by a violent mob armed with rocks and knives?

Second, how would police officers in their own country react to such a scenario?

Here is what happened in the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture:

In the face of the mob, which had attacked stores and bank facilities and smashed police vehicles and fire trucks at a police station, local police officers opened fire.

At least one person was killed. Many others, police officers included, were injured.

Although the death was tragic and lamentable, for the police, opening fire was the only course of action in the circumstances. They not only had to contain the commotion and restore calm, but also defend themselves and prevent even more disastrous consequences.

Police officers in Western countries also resort to force and use weapons when the occasion demands.

Our country has extremely strict rules on the use of weapons by police officers. Which is why the majority of Chinese police do not even carry weapons as part of their daily job. The actions of the mob in Ganzi constituted a clear and present danger to life and property that justified the use of force.

Yet, like always, just because it happened in a Tibetan-inhabited area and some monks were involved, the incident has been portrayed as part of the so-called repression of an ethnic group, and has been distorted by those who seek to gain by promoting the idea that religious freedom is being suffocated.

Dharamshala and its Western patrons spare no effort in exploiting such incidents to their own advantage. And, thanks to their long-term endeavors their bogus claims are voluntarily trumpeted by some Western media all too eager to engage in a new round of China-bashing.

The truth in Tibet and Tibetan-inhabited areas is the opposite of that espoused by Dharamshala and lies cannot blind people from the truth forever.

The average Tibetan, no matter where he or she is in China, has complete freedom to worship. And the government's care for the preservation of their cultural traditions is meticulous, and, we might add, generous.

Dharamshala blinds itself to the truth and seeks to obscure the facts, because a content and peaceful Tibet is detrimental to its aims.

In order to remain relevant and of use to its foreign patrons, Dharamshala has to continue instigating unrest. But the majority of Tibetans know that is not the path to a better future.