China hits back at Pelosi's Tibet criticism
BEIJING (AFP) — China has called US House speaker Nancy Pelosi a "defender of arsonists, looters and killers" after she visited the Dalai Lama and criticised Chinese "oppression" in Tibet.
Pelosi "turned a blind eye to merciless rioters" in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, the Xinhua state news agency said in a commentary on Pelosi's trip to Dharamshala, seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, last week.
"Apathetic to those innocent victims in the recent Lhasa riot, Pelosi lost her own 'moral authority to speak about human rights' when she acted as a defender of arsonists, looters and killers," Xinhua said on Sunday.
"Finding a leverage to tarnish China, 'human rights police' like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and ungenerous when it comes to China, refusing to check their facts and find out the truth of the case," it said.
Pelosi was cheered on her trip to India, when she made the first high-level call on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader after anti-Chinese protests led to violent clashes between Tibetans and Chinese police 10 days ago.
"If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, we have lost our moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world," Pelosi said.
China has said 18 people and one police officer died as Tibetans went on the rampage in Lhasa on March 14, following several days of protests led by monks.
The government-in-exile said at least 99 people died in the violence, as China launched a crackdown on protesters across Tibet and nearby regions.
The Dalai Lama, whom China blames for instigating the violence, fled Tibet in 1959 after an uprising against Chinese rule was violently put down.
China blames a vaguely defined "Dalai clique" for instigating the latest protests and violence, which came on the anniversary of the 1959 uprising, but has provided no evidence backing that charge.
