"Smash Everything!"

To mark the end of Tibet's annual grand prayer festival, crowds of russet- robed monks ritually parade a statue of the "future Buddha" around the courtyard of Lhasa's Jokhang Temple. This year Chinese officials approached that ceremony with trepidation. They feared a renewal of the violence of last October, in which thousands rioted against rule by Beijing, imposed upon Tibet in 1950. On the designated morning, some 2,000 police lined the streets of Lhasa; others perched on rooftops or mingled with the throng of 25,000 pilgrims. But their presence did not intimidate.

Shortly after the procession got under way, hundreds of young monks began shouting nationalist slogans. They were quickly joined by thousands of sympathizers in the crowd. The protest escalated when rock-throwing monks destroyed a Tibetan TV transmission van, and rioters, shouting "Smash everything that belongs to the Communist Party and the Chinese!" overturned other vehicles. Fighting worsened after police and paramilitary forces stormed the temple, Tibet's holiest shrine. When calm was restored some twelve hours later, at least eight were dead.

The events awkwardly coincided with an official visit last week by Chinese Foreign Minister Wu Xuequian to Washington, where human rights violations in Tibet were already on the agenda. Wu told Secretary of State George Shultz that China had done much to make amends for damage suffered by Tibetans during the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s. Monasteries seized in those years have been reopened, and $700,000 has been paid to the monks in compensation. Wu also noted that China and the U.S., which accepts China's claim to Tibet, "have a different conception of human rights."