There are going to be a lot more situations like this in the months leading up to the Olympics. Sounds like the Dalai Lama's trying to keep to the high road, which the Chinese are not capable of reciprocating.

China warns of 'life and death struggle' Report: 105 Tibetan protesters surrender in wake of Lhasa violence MSNBC News Services updated 6:15 a.m. ET, Wed., March. 19, 2008

BEIJING - China warned of a "life and death struggle" with the Dalai Lama on Wednesday following a crackdown on protests in Tibetan regions that brought some calls for a boycott of Beijing's showcase Olympic Games in August.

"We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life and death struggle with the Dalai clique," Tibet's Communist Party secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of the region's government and Party leaders.

"Leaders of the whole country must deeply understand the arduousness, complexity and long-term nature of the struggle," he said in remarks carried online by the China Tibet News.

His comments come after Chinese state media reported that 105 people had surrendered to police for taking part in protests in Tibet’s capital.

Harsh punishment The official Xinhua News Agency said the surrenders came after authorities promised harsh punishment for those who did not turn themselves in.

The Lhasa protests, led by monks, began peacefully March 10 on the anniversary of a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese Communist troops entered in 1950.

The unrest spread into neighboring provinces with large Tibetan populations.

The authorities are keen to stamp out the unrest quickly and restore stability in the far-west before the Olympics, which they hope will showcase China's prosperity and unity.

The Tibetan protests add to the ruling Communist Party's headaches ahead of the Olympics, which include the risk of social instability due to mounting inflation after years of breakneck growth, fears of militant attacks by Uighurs in the remote Muslim region of Xinjiang, and criticism of the pollution in Beijing.

'Don't commit violence' China accuses the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, of masterminding the protests from his base in the Indian town of Dharamsala, where he lives in exile.

The Nobel peace laureate's government-in-exile says 99 people died when Chinese security forces moved to quell the riot, but Beijing says 13 "innocent civilians" were killed in the violence.

Dalai Lama called for an end to the violence in Tibetan regions on Tuesday, offering to step down as the head of Tibet's exiled state if that would stop the bloodshed.

“I say to China and the Tibetans — don’t commit violence,” the Nobel Peace laureate told reporters. He suggested the Chinese themselves may have had a hand in it to discredit him.

“It’s possible some Chinese agents are involved there,” he said. “Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate.”

He said that “if things become out of control,” his “only option is to completely resign.”

Later, one of his top aides clarified the Dalai Lama’s comments.

“If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence, he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence,” Tenzin Taklha said. “He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama.”

China's official media called Dharamsala an "epicenter of lies," repeating Premier Wen Jiabao's assertion that the unrest was "organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique."

Focus on human rights The protests have focused world attention on China’s human rights record ahead of the Olympics. The Communist government wants to ensure that the Aug. 8-24 games boost its international image.

Sports officials from the European Union, Russia, the United States and Australia, have ruled out an Olympic boycott. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday, however, that the EU should consider boycotting the opening ceremony if violence continues in Tibet.

U.S. officials urged China to address Tibetans’ long-standing grievances and engage in direct talks with the Dalai Lama.

“I do think that his statements point out the fact that he is not arguing for independence or separation from China. Quite the opposite, he is arguing for dialogue with the Chinese,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Christensen told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that the United States is not threatening a boycott of the Olympics.

“The Olympics is an opportunity for China to put its best face forward and show progress to the world” on human rights and other matters, he said. “To be successful, they’re going to have to address some of these issues while the world is watching China. And the world will be watching China.”

China's tight control Witnesses said authorities have been rounding up people since the weekend, but there has been no confirmation of any sweeping arrests since a Monday midnight deadline expired for protesters to turn themselves in or face severe punishment passed without apparent surrenders.

China’s tight control over information and ban on trips by foreign reporters restricted independent reporting from the region.

Wen said Lhasa was returning to normal and “will be reopened to the rest of the world.” He did not say when.

The India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said thousands of Tibetans converged onto the streets in Seda, a county seat in the southern province of Sichuan, and the situation was “extremely tense.”

Sichuan, which borders Tibet, has seen other sympathy protests in recent days.

Telephone calls to the county’s government, police and religious affairs bureau were not answered.

John Kenwood, a 19-year-old tourist from Victoria, Canada, who left Lhasa Tuesday morning, said he saw street cleaners wearing orange vests emblazoned with the Beijing Olympics symbol.

“When the fighting began, you saw no Chinese,” said Kenwood as he arrived in Nepal. “Now you see no Tibetans on the streets. The young Tibetans are probably hiding.”

Nepali police arrested about 50 protesters who were demonstrating to demand a U.N. investigation into China’s crackdown on Tibet, officials said. It was the third protest in recent days close to the U.N. headquarters in the capital, Katmandu.

Some 600 people protested in Lausanne, Switzerland, demanding the International Olympic Committee call off a section of the Olympic torch relay in Tibet.

The IOC said it joined with others in calling for a peaceful resolution to the tensions in Tibet but it intended to go ahead with the relay section through Lhasa in June.

Olympic torch relay proceeding The Olympic torch relay route in Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest will not be changed despite protests in Lhasa, a Chinese Olympic official said.

Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the Beijing organizing committee, said that the ascent to the top of Mount Everest would be the "highlight" of the torch relay and "a great feat in Olympic history."

"The Tibet leg of the torch relay will proceed as scheduled," Jiang told a news conference, adding that "we firmly believe that the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region will be able ensure the stability of Lhasa and Tibet and also be able to ensure the smooth going of the torch relay in Tibet."

Jiang said climbers would take the Olympic flame to Everest's 29,035-foot summit on a day with favorable weather conditions in May.

He said local police and governments would provide security along the relay route.

Mount Everest is in the border region between Nepal and Tibet. China has already begun denying mountaineers permission to climb the Tibetan side of the mountain this spring -- a move that reflects government concerns that activists may try to disrupt it torch plans.

Even before the riots, taking the torch to the top of Mount Everest was shaping up to be among the more politicized events of an already politicized Games.

Activists have in the past unfurled banners at the Everest base camp and the Great Wall of China calling for Tibet's independence.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23668889/page/2/