China urges control of 'patriotic fervour' over Tibet
Posted: 18 April 2008 1159 hrs

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BEIJING - China has urged its people to contain their patriotism, in the first sign Beijing may be growing uncomfortable with a nationalist outburst over the Tibet issue.

A dispatch issued late Thursday by state-controlled Xinhua news agency railed against "despicable" Western media coverage of the unrest in Tibet and said resulting Chinese indignation should be "cherished".

But it also said nationalist energies should be expressed in a "rational" way and focused on building the nation.

"Patriotic fervour should be channelled into a rational track and must be transformed into real action toward doing our work well," said the report, published only in Chinese, suggesting it was aimed at a domestic audience.

China's government and state media have repeatedly condemned what they call bias in foreign coverage of China's crackdown on Tibetan riots, which erupted in Lhasa on March 14 and spilled over into other Tibetan-populated regions.

The government's stance appears to have helped embolden attacks by Chinese netizens directed at the foreign media and overseas critics of China.

But as it prepares to open its doors to the world for the Olympics, China may now be worrying the outbursts were going too far, said David Zweig, a China foreign-affairs expert at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

"It clearly has gotten out of hand. Clearly, they can't control the netizens, who are much more active these days," he said.

The online campaigns include a call for a boycott of French goods in retaliation for protests against China's Tibet policies that threw the Beijing Olympic torch relay's Paris leg into chaos last week.

Web users also have set up the website www.anti-cnn.com to criticise the US-based news network's alleged anti-China bias.

On Friday, the email boxes of major news organisations in Beijing, including AFP, were flooded with emails furious over "vicious distortions" in Tibet coverage. Some Western media in China have also reported threatening phone calls.

China's government has so far allowed the attacks and launched some anti-Western diatribes of its own through its state media.

Xinhua last weekend called US Congressional leader Nancy Pelosi "disgusting" for her outspoken criticism of China's control of Tibet.

China's people are rightfully outraged about the killing of some ethnic Chinese by Tibetan rioters during the recent unrest, Zweig said.

Exiled Tibetan leaders say more than 150 people in their Himalayan homeland died in the Chinese crackdown on demonstrations, while China insists it killed no one and blames Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 20 people.

Zweig said Beijing may now be realising that its official attacks, and copycat anti-Western campaigns, could hurt its international reputation.

"China is playing to two audiences. They are winning domestically but losing internationally. This is not going to win China any friends," Zweig said. - AFP/ir