China urges control of 'patriotic fervour' over Tibet

Fri Apr 18, 12:01 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - 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 that it has tacitly supported.

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 focussed on building the nation.

"Patriotic fervour should be channeled into a rational track and must be transformed into real action toward doing our work well," said the report.

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 fuel attacks on the Chinese Internet directed at foreign media.

A number of online campaigns have been launched, including one calling for a boycott of French goods due to 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 that criticises 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.

China's Communist Party government, which swiftly quashes any expressions of public opinion it does not like, has so far allowed the attacks.

Xinhua's report appears to fit a pattern in which the control-conscious government has given free rein to such sentiments when it serves party interests, but curb them when they appear to be spiralling out of control.

After US forces mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, large anti-US protests were allowed in China before the government put an end to them.

In 2005, protesters were allowed to throw rocks and eggs at Japan's embassy in Beijing, among other anti-Japanese actions, triggered by a range of grievances between the two Asian rivals.