The Chinese stance and aggressive response to the self-immolations is not shocking, but the lack of coverage by free media across the world is. Time Magazine featured the spread of self-immolations as the "most under-reported story of the year" back in December 2011 when the total was only eight, so why aren't reputable sources willing to comprehensively touch this story as these grim acts of political defiance continue?
Most Tibetan Exiles I spoke with in Northern India believe the self-immolations will continue unabated, and simply don't think Western media outlets are prepared to approach the topic. While Tibetans, both monks and lay people, view these acts as non-violent protest because they are not harming others, they do not fit into the general narrative of a nonviolent Tibetan resistance. It seems as if the West view these more as fanatical suicides than as desperate acts of political protest. For this reason alone it seems as if they are closer to the Chinese take on the self-immolators being more like "terrorists" than "freedom fighters". But there is a significant difference. "Terrorists" are wholly violent and indiscriminate in their actions, whereas these Tibetan self-immolators are extremely discriminate in ensuring that they are the only ones who perish. One has to wonder whether there is undue influence on our "free and fair" media when considering the meager level of coverage and the unique nature of this situation.
fair" media when considering the meager level of coverage and the unique nature of this situation.
Tibetans have been "fighting" the Chinese occupation in one form or another since the 1950s, but just looking back to the way the peaceful protests in 2008 morphed into full-blown riots is suffice to figure out the shift in methodology. On the 49th anniversary of their failed National Uprising in 1959 a group of monks peacefully marched to the Jokhang Temple, the epicenter of the Tibetan Buddhist world. Chinese Police and Military blocked their progress and eventually used force to hold them back. Several monks were taken into custody. Word spread throughout Lhasa and lay people joined monks and nuns in the streets in the greatest display of open resistance to the Chinese occupation since similarly motivated riots took place in the late 1980s. Much to the shock of the world, Tibetans torched Chinese businesses, attacked Han Chinese immigrants and broke from their non-violent approach of protesting the occupation. World media was all over the story, perhaps because Beijing was set to host the Olympics, but it seems plausible that the use of violence in a characteristically non-violent struggle was the real story.It seemed as if the lid had finally blown off the Tibetan tea pot of self-control so there was finally something to write about. International awareness exploded and was matched only by Chinese anxiety over its pre-Olympic image. For the first time in decades Tibetans had reason to believe the world was taking a unified stance against China. Hope had never been so high, but then China pulled off one of the more successful Olympics in history and it seems as if the world lost interest after the Closing Ceremonies triumphantly lit up the Beijing sky.