Opinion | CCTV blames Dalai Lama, foreign media for instigating self-immolations

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Screenshot from the CCTV report showing a man accused of instigating self-immolations in Aba, Sichuan, aired on May 16, 2013.

Published: 2:43pm, 17 May 2013Updated: 4:13am, 29 Aug 2013

Chinese national television aired a lengthy prime time news feature blaming the Tibetan government-in-exile and foreign media for self-immolations in the country's Tibetan-populated areas.

"Only after I watched Voice of America, I want to do it," a bashful, young Tibetan man says, speaking of his failed attempt to kill himself by setting himself on fire. "At first, I thought I was a hero, now I am no hero; I'm an idiot."

The half-hour news feature is part of recent efforts by Chinese state media to change the narrative of Chinese control over Tibet. It is the fifth such video aired over the last year, writes Beijing-based Tibetan activist Tsering Woeser in a tweet.

She adds later that the report reveals one so far unknown failed attempt of self-immolation and that it shows a known self-immolator being shot by police.

At least 116 Tibetans have killed themselves in such acts of defiance against Chinese rule since 2009, according to overseas media reports.

The Chinese television news report repeats an allegation that the Tibetan government-in-exile is distributing a "self-immolation manuals" in Tibetan-populated areas. State-media began mentioning the purported existence of such a manual around the end of Feburary.

The manual is allegedly distributed online, by travellers and by monks who clandestinely enter China. The TV production portrays self-immolators as young, naive and either desperately poor or with a criminal background.