Candle4Tibet. TibetSites. Rangzen Means Independence. China tibet - Huffington Post Search Results. Rebecca Novick: Protest Or Sacrifice? China's Anti-Imperialist Propaganda Backfires In Tibet. With TIME magazine hoisting the self-immolations in Tibet as the top most underreported story of 2011, just one day after the 12th Tibetan set himself on fire, suddenly there is a window of attention on this disturbing trend. Many Tibet activists are hailing these young men and women as heroes while the Chinese government vilifies them as extremists, even going so far as to call them terrorists.
Dr. Robert Barnett, a professor of Modern Tibetan Studies at Columbia University, offers some intriguing analysis as to the influences around these events, and especially about how a Chinese propaganda film aimed at winning Tibetans towards the state may have had unintended consequences. Before a 20-something monk named Tapey set fire to himself in 2009, self-immolation was unheard of as a form of public political protest. Barnett thinks that it is unlikely that these events in Tibet are related to the similar events in Tunisia or Vietnam.
Barnett offers a different view.