For months, as Tibetans across western China doused themselves in gasoline and set themselves alight, authorities responded by sending in security forces to seal off areas and prevent information from getting out, but those efforts did not stop or slow the protests. The self-immolations even accelerated in November as China's ruling Communist Party held a pivotal leadership transition.

Then the government went on the offensive in December, announcing through a state-owned newspaper that the burnings are the work of foreign hostile forces keen on separating Tibet from the mainland and that those who help others self-immolate are liable to be prosecuted for murder. Arrests quickly followed. [...] Though Yu is considered a liberal on economic matters, he has not had any previous experience dealing with Tibet and has no incentive to change the government's policies in Tibet, which is a region of strategic importance because it borders India, said Willy Lam, a China politics expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Lam said that Chinese leaders expected the Tibetan cause to dissipate once the elderly Dalai Lama dies.

"There is no rationale for the party leadership to shift to a more liberal policy," Lam said. "I think the Chinese believe that time is on their side ... after the death of the Dalai Lama, there won't be such a powerful spiritual leader soliciting international support."

    AS TIBET BURNS, CHINA MAKES ARRESTS, SEIZES TVS (Gillian Wong, 1/18/13, AP)

In his inaugural, President Obama gave only a thumbnail sketch of his foreign policy for the next four years. But he put his thumb on what can help the United States keep the peace: the lifting of “suspicion and fear” in other nations by engaging them over differences.

    -Obama's chance to lift suspicions of China (The Monitor's Editorial Board, January 22, 2013, CS Monitor)