China’s crackdown in Tibet

The situation is extremely tense. We’ve seen a lot of soldiers, but we see also large police presence as well. In some towns, there have been reports of some towns being closed down and arrests of people taking to the streets. There’s a lot of rumor and speculation though. I’ve seen large military and police deployments, some as large as 400 soldiers. (Could you see soldiers or weaponry?) These were extremely long convoys, some as large as 80 vehicles, snaking very slowly throughout towns. In some vehicles, we could see soldiers armed with automatic rifles and wearing riot shields and carrying supplies. (How unusual is that kind of troop movement and is it just a form of intimidation or actual preparation?) in my travels in some parts of Tibet, we’ve seen such convoys, but not on this scale. It gave me the impression that the Chinese authorities are ratcheting up their military presence in Tibet. (Do the Tibetans react to it?) No one reacts when I’ve been around, when the convoys go through. But some ethnic Tibetans just want to get on with their lives and don’t want to get involved, while others have expressed resentment.