China says Tibet rioters trying to wreck Olympics

Interesting Reuters article this morning.

There is a dangerous smelling petulance emanating from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's statements.

There's also some odd language:

"There is ample fact and plenty of evidence proving this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," Wen told a news conference.

The Dalai clique? Is that official terminology in China? It sounds like the name of a synth-pop band. (You'll see a band with this name soon enough; remember Gang of Four?)

Worth noting, however, is what the Dalai Lama's people had to say about the matter:

Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama, said in Dharamsala, in India, that the rioting started with one or two incidents. "Because of technology, because of word of mouth, word quickly spread," he said. "This was very spontaneous."

Yeah baby, it's the Electronic Revolution made flesh once again.

Now back to Mr. Wen:

Wen said the protesters "wanted to incite the sabotage of the Olympic Games in order to achieve their unspeakable goal"

Unspeakable goal? What, is H.P. Lovecraft's love-baby writing their speeches?

What I wasn't aware of was that:

The Nobel peace laureate says he wants autonomy for Tibet within China but not outright independence.

Really? What's so unspeakable about that?

There might be something lost in the transliteration, but the statements by the Chinese government seem like preemptive justification for some serious retribution that's about to be meted out.

What I'm trying to figure out is, what's the rub? Is it some sort of resource control issue? It couldn't be an old racial or nationalistic grudge, could it? Why are the Chinese (really) so put out by the idea of Tibetan autonomy? I suppose I need to do my research.

Also, it seems to me that if your goal was to disrupt the Olympics, you might want to wait a few months.

I'm leaning toward the 'spontaneous' explanation.