Same game, new rules in Afghanistan
Asia Time Online - Daily News
South Asia
Mar 21, 2008
Same game, new rules in Afghanistan
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - After more than six years, coalition forces in Afghanistan are preparing for an all-out offensive against the Taliban centered on their safe havens straddling the border with Pakistan.
This, allied with intensive North Atlantic Treaty Organization and US operations already this year, has led to much speculation on whether the Taliban will launch their annual spring offensive, with even senior NATO officials suggesting the Taliban will instead bunker down in a war of attrition, much as they did during a rough phase in 2004.
This will not be the case, according to Asia Times Online's interaction with Taliban guerrillas over the past few weeks. But
instead of taking on foreign forces in direct battle in the traditional hot spots, the Taliban plan to open new fronts as they are aware they cannot win head-on against the might of the US-led war machine.
The efforts of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and its 47,000 soldiers from nearly 40 nations will focus on specific areas that include the Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies in Pakistan, as well as South and North Waziristan in that country, and Nooristan, Kunar, Paktia, Paktika and Khost provinces in Afghanistan. The ISAF is complemented by the separate US-led coalition of about 20,000, the majority being US soldiers. This does not include a contingent of 3,600 US Marine Corps who this week started arriving in southern Afghanistan. They will work under the command of the ISAF.
For their part, the Taliban, according to Asia Times Online contacts, will open new fronts in Khyber Agency in Pakistan and Nangarhar province in east Afghanistan and its capital Jalalabad.
This move follows a meeting of important Taliban commanders of Pakistani and Afghan origin held for the first time in the Tera Valley bordering the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan. (Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders famously evaded US-led forces in the Tora Bora soon after the invasion in 2001.)
Pakistan's Khyber Agency has never been a part of the Taliban's domain. The majority of the population there follows the Brelvi school of thought, which is bitterly opposed to the hardline Taliban and the Salafi brand of Islam. The adjacent Afghan province of Nangarhar has also been a relatively peaceful area.
Conversely, the historic belt starting from Peshawar in North-West Frontier Province and running through Khyber Agency to Nangarhar is NATO's life line - 80% of its supplies pass through it. From Nangarhar, the capital Kabul is only six hours away by road.
Over the past year, the Taliban have worked hard at winning over the population in this region and have installed a new commander, Ustad Yasir, to open up the front in Nangarhar.
New dimensions to the Afghan struggle
After seven years of the "war on terror" and the Iraqi experience, both "sides" have become more pragmatic. Slogans such as "shock and awe", "crusade" against Islamic extremism and "intifada" catch the headlines, but they are not getting the job done. Both sides have refined their approach aimed at achieving specific goals and targets. If NATO has acquired excellent knowledge of the Taliban's network, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have also excelled in gathering information on NATO and its allies.
Al-Qaeda has evolved from an organization that generally only allowed in Arabs and its ideology now accommodates indigenous factors. Today, Pakistani non-Pashtuns, popularly known as Punjabis, are the Pakistani franchise of al-Qaeda. They receive macro policies from the al-Qaeda shura (council) comprising Arabs, but are independent in the implementation of these policies - although an Arab in still in overall charge.
The same goes in Iraq, where al-Qaeda is now a local organization with its hub spread between Mosul, Diyala and Baquba.
At the same time, the "war on terror" extends beyond US-British dominance. Although there are several disagreements at the operation level within NATO in Afghanistan, some partners, such as France, cognizant of the revival of the enemy's strength, have greatly enhanced their input into intelligence resources.
French intelligence is directly involved in fresh moves to track the most wanted targets, including Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Tahir Yaldeshiv, besides bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.
New funds have been allocated for clandestine operations by French intelligence in Pakistan's North and South Waziristan regions, as well as in Balochistan province, to track high-profile targets with the aim of assassinating them. This is being done in coordination with NATO forces in Afghanistan.
According to Asia Times Online investigations, French intelligence has infiltrated a network of donors who had been arranging money for the Iraqi resistance and the Taliban.
Underlying these efforts is the belief that the war cannot be won through the use of naked violence alone. The militant camps have reached a similar conclusion: their actions now are much more nuanced and calibrated and they realize there will be no quick victory.
A smooth supply of money and arms from various sources as well as thousands of new recruits have rejuvenated their cause and allowed the militants to better plan their operations and carefully select their targets. They have established good rapport within the security forces at an individual level and use these contacts whenever it is essential.
Italian job
Last weekend's attack on an Italian restaurant in the Pakistani capital Islamabad shows how deeply al-Qaeda has made inroads into the Pakistani security agencies and as a result is receiving first-hand information.
The al-Qaeda attack injured, through a time bomb, four US Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, including a senior official of counter-terrorism coordination with the Pakistani Special Intelligence Agency.
The restaurant is co-owned by an Italian woman who is the wife of a man believed to be the main financial backer of anti-Taliban Shi'ites in the northern areas of Pakistan.
More such attacks are expected.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Monday, March 24, 2008
Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation - USA
Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation - USA
The New York Times
March 23, 2008
Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation
By ROBERT PEAR
Growing Disparities
WASHINGTON — New government research has found “large and growing” disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades.
Life expectancy for the nation as a whole has increased, the researchers said, but affluent people have experienced greater gains, and this, in turn, has caused a widening gap.
One of the researchers, Gopal K. Singh, a demographer at the Department of Health and Human Services, said “the growing inequalities in life expectancy” mirrored trends in infant mortality and in death from heart disease and certain cancers.
The gaps have been increasing despite efforts by the federal government to reduce them. One of the top goals of “Healthy People 2010,” an official statement of national health objectives issued in 2000, is to “eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population,” including higher- and lower-income groups and people of different racial and ethnic background.
Dr. Singh said last week that federal officials had found “widening socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy” at birth and at every age level.
He and another researcher, Mohammad Siahpush, a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, developed an index to measure social and economic conditions in every county, using census data on education, income, poverty, housing and other factors. Counties were then classified into 10 groups of equal population size.
In 1980-82, Dr. Singh said, people in the most affluent group could expect to live 2.8 years longer than people in the most deprived group (75.8 versus 73 years). By 1998-2000, the difference in life expectancy had increased to 4.5 years (79.2 versus 74.7 years), and it continues to grow, he said.
After 20 years, the lowest socioeconomic group lagged further behind the most affluent, Dr. Singh said, noting that “life expectancy was higher for the most affluent in 1980 than for the most deprived group in 2000.”
“If you look at the extremes in 2000,” Dr. Singh said, “men in the most deprived counties had 10 years’ shorter life expectancy than women in the most affluent counties (71.5 years versus 81.3 years).” The difference between poor black men and affluent white women was more than 14 years (66.9 years vs. 81.1 years).
The Democratic candidates for president, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, have championed legislation to reduce such disparities, as have some Republicans, like Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi.
Peter R. Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said: “We have heard a lot about growing income inequality. There has been much less attention paid to growing inequality in life expectancy, which is really quite dramatic.”
Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining for people who have attained a given age.
While researchers do not agree on an explanation for the widening gap, they have suggested many reasons, including these:
¶Doctors can detect and treat many forms of cancer and heart disease because of advances in medical science and technology. People who are affluent and better educated are more likely to take advantage of these discoveries.
¶Smoking has declined more rapidly among people with greater education and income.
¶Lower-income people are more likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods, to engage in risky or unhealthy behavior and to eat unhealthy food.
¶Lower-income people are less likely to have health insurance, so they are less likely to receive checkups, screenings, diagnostic tests, prescription drugs and other types of care.
Even among people who have insurance, many studies have documented racial disparities.
In a recent report, the Department of Veterans Affairs found that black patients “tend to receive less aggressive medical care than whites” at its hospitals and clinics, in part because doctors provide them with less information and see them as “less appropriate candidates” for some types of surgery.
Some health economists contend that the disparities between rich and poor inevitably widen as doctors make gains in treating the major causes of death.
Nancy Krieger, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, rejected that idea. Professor Krieger investigated changes in the rate of premature mortality (dying before the age of 65) and infant death from 1960 to 2002. She found that inequities shrank from 1966 to 1980, but then widened.
“The recent trend of growing disparities in health status is not inevitable,” she said. “From 1966 to 1980, socioeconomic disparities declined in tandem with a decline in mortality rates.”
The creation of Medicaid and Medicare, community health centers, the “war on poverty” and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 all probably contributed to the earlier narrowing of health disparities, Professor Krieger said.
Robert E. Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said one reason for the growing disparities might be “a very significant gap in health literacy” — what people know about diet, exercise and healthy lifestyles. Middle-class and upper-income people have greater access to the huge amounts of health information on the Internet, Mr. Moffit said.
Thomas P. Miller, a health economist at the American Enterprise Institute, agreed.
“People with more education tend to have a longer time horizon,” Mr. Miller said. “They are more likely to look at the long-term consequences of their health behavior. They are more assertive in seeking out treatments and more likely to adhere to treatment advice from physicians.”
A recent study by Ellen R. Meara, a health economist at Harvard Medical School, found that in the 1980s and 1990s, “virtually all gains in life expectancy occurred among highly educated groups.”
Trends in smoking explain a large part of the widening gap, she said in an article this month in the journal Health Affairs.
Under federal law, officials must publish an annual report tracking health disparities. In the fifth annual report, issued this month, the Bush administration said, “Over all, disparities in quality and access for minority groups and poor populations have not been reduced” since the first report, in 2003.
The rate of new AIDS cases is still 10 times as high among blacks as among whites, it said, and the proportion of black children hospitalized for asthma is almost four times the rate for white children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month that heart attack survivors with higher levels of education and income were much more likely to receive cardiac rehabilitation care, which lowers the risk of future heart problems. Likewise, it said, the odds of receiving tests for colon cancer increase with a person’s education and income.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
The New York Times
March 23, 2008
Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation
By ROBERT PEAR
Growing Disparities
WASHINGTON — New government research has found “large and growing” disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades.
Life expectancy for the nation as a whole has increased, the researchers said, but affluent people have experienced greater gains, and this, in turn, has caused a widening gap.
One of the researchers, Gopal K. Singh, a demographer at the Department of Health and Human Services, said “the growing inequalities in life expectancy” mirrored trends in infant mortality and in death from heart disease and certain cancers.
The gaps have been increasing despite efforts by the federal government to reduce them. One of the top goals of “Healthy People 2010,” an official statement of national health objectives issued in 2000, is to “eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population,” including higher- and lower-income groups and people of different racial and ethnic background.
Dr. Singh said last week that federal officials had found “widening socioeconomic inequalities in life expectancy” at birth and at every age level.
He and another researcher, Mohammad Siahpush, a professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, developed an index to measure social and economic conditions in every county, using census data on education, income, poverty, housing and other factors. Counties were then classified into 10 groups of equal population size.
In 1980-82, Dr. Singh said, people in the most affluent group could expect to live 2.8 years longer than people in the most deprived group (75.8 versus 73 years). By 1998-2000, the difference in life expectancy had increased to 4.5 years (79.2 versus 74.7 years), and it continues to grow, he said.
After 20 years, the lowest socioeconomic group lagged further behind the most affluent, Dr. Singh said, noting that “life expectancy was higher for the most affluent in 1980 than for the most deprived group in 2000.”
“If you look at the extremes in 2000,” Dr. Singh said, “men in the most deprived counties had 10 years’ shorter life expectancy than women in the most affluent counties (71.5 years versus 81.3 years).” The difference between poor black men and affluent white women was more than 14 years (66.9 years vs. 81.1 years).
The Democratic candidates for president, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, have championed legislation to reduce such disparities, as have some Republicans, like Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi.
Peter R. Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said: “We have heard a lot about growing income inequality. There has been much less attention paid to growing inequality in life expectancy, which is really quite dramatic.”
Life expectancy is the average number of years of life remaining for people who have attained a given age.
While researchers do not agree on an explanation for the widening gap, they have suggested many reasons, including these:
¶Doctors can detect and treat many forms of cancer and heart disease because of advances in medical science and technology. People who are affluent and better educated are more likely to take advantage of these discoveries.
¶Smoking has declined more rapidly among people with greater education and income.
¶Lower-income people are more likely to live in unsafe neighborhoods, to engage in risky or unhealthy behavior and to eat unhealthy food.
¶Lower-income people are less likely to have health insurance, so they are less likely to receive checkups, screenings, diagnostic tests, prescription drugs and other types of care.
Even among people who have insurance, many studies have documented racial disparities.
In a recent report, the Department of Veterans Affairs found that black patients “tend to receive less aggressive medical care than whites” at its hospitals and clinics, in part because doctors provide them with less information and see them as “less appropriate candidates” for some types of surgery.
Some health economists contend that the disparities between rich and poor inevitably widen as doctors make gains in treating the major causes of death.
Nancy Krieger, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, rejected that idea. Professor Krieger investigated changes in the rate of premature mortality (dying before the age of 65) and infant death from 1960 to 2002. She found that inequities shrank from 1966 to 1980, but then widened.
“The recent trend of growing disparities in health status is not inevitable,” she said. “From 1966 to 1980, socioeconomic disparities declined in tandem with a decline in mortality rates.”
The creation of Medicaid and Medicare, community health centers, the “war on poverty” and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 all probably contributed to the earlier narrowing of health disparities, Professor Krieger said.
Robert E. Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said one reason for the growing disparities might be “a very significant gap in health literacy” — what people know about diet, exercise and healthy lifestyles. Middle-class and upper-income people have greater access to the huge amounts of health information on the Internet, Mr. Moffit said.
Thomas P. Miller, a health economist at the American Enterprise Institute, agreed.
“People with more education tend to have a longer time horizon,” Mr. Miller said. “They are more likely to look at the long-term consequences of their health behavior. They are more assertive in seeking out treatments and more likely to adhere to treatment advice from physicians.”
A recent study by Ellen R. Meara, a health economist at Harvard Medical School, found that in the 1980s and 1990s, “virtually all gains in life expectancy occurred among highly educated groups.”
Trends in smoking explain a large part of the widening gap, she said in an article this month in the journal Health Affairs.
Under federal law, officials must publish an annual report tracking health disparities. In the fifth annual report, issued this month, the Bush administration said, “Over all, disparities in quality and access for minority groups and poor populations have not been reduced” since the first report, in 2003.
The rate of new AIDS cases is still 10 times as high among blacks as among whites, it said, and the proportion of black children hospitalized for asthma is almost four times the rate for white children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month that heart attack survivors with higher levels of education and income were much more likely to receive cardiac rehabilitation care, which lowers the risk of future heart problems. Likewise, it said, the odds of receiving tests for colon cancer increase with a person’s education and income.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Now the Tibet blame game begins - CHINA
Now the Tibet blame game begins - CHINA
Asia Time Online - Daily News
Greater China
Mar 19, 2008
Now the Tibet blame game begins
By John Ng
HONG KONG - Hours after Monday's midnight deadline passed for anti-Chinese protesters in Tibet to turn themselves in or face severe punishment, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao clearly laid the blame for the unrest on the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader and temporal head of the Tibetan government in exile.
"There is ample fact - and we also have plenty of evidence - proving that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," Wen said in Beijing at the end of the annual National People's Congress
session in a press briefing that was broadcast live nationally.
Despite Wen's unequivocal accusation against the Dalai Lama of orchestrating events in Tibet, he said China was prepared to talk to the spiritual leader.
"We have repeatedly stated that the Dalai Lama gives up his independence position, recognizes Tibet as an inseparable part of China's sovereign territory and recognize Taiwan as an inseparable part of China's sovereign territory. [Then] our door is open to him for talks ... But the recent events exactly prove he is hypocritical on these two key issues. Even so, I want to reiterate that we still keep our word. Now what is key to this is his action."
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he does not seek independence for Tibet, but true autonomy for the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The Dalai Lama has called for an investigation into the Chinese crackdown and whether it was deliberate "cultural genocide".
Sources close to the Chinese government told Asia Times Online that Beijing believes the Dalai Lama and his supporters want to use the occasion of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August to "internationalize" the Tibet issue in the hope it would lead to the ultimate independence of the Himalayan region. "But China is not Serbia and Tibet is not Kosovo. China will never allow any issue concerning its sovereignty to be internationalized or the intervention of foreign forces," one of the sources said.
It is not known how many protesters took up Beijing's offer to turn themselves in as news has been blacked out from the Tibetan capital Lhasa, where officially 16 people have been killed in protests over the past few days. Foreign tourists and journalists have been barred from entering the region.
However, the US government-funded Radio Free Asia on Tuesday quoted an unnamed witness as saying authorities in Lhasa had begun arresting hundreds of people. Tibetan exile groups claim that 100 people or more have died.
Wen, who was re-elected as premier for another five years on Monday, assured at the briefing that the situation in Tibet was returning to normal, and that Beijing would "consider the possibility" of allowing access for foreign journalists, but he did not say when. "Social order has basically been restored in Lhasa," Wen said.
It remains now for China to limit the damage of the events that have dominated world headlines for several days. The chief concern is how the fallout might affect the Olympics.
Again, Wen accused the Dalai Lama of trying to undermine the Games. "They want to undermine the Beijing Olympic Games. We should respect the principles of the Olympics and the Olympic charter. We should not politicize the Games."
A high-level contact who spoke to Asia Times Online stressed China's obsession with staging a successful Games, including a relay for the Olympic torch that will pass through Tibet in June. As Wen said, "I want to reiterate that China is a country with a history of 5,000 years. To hold an Olympic Games is a dream of many generations. Through hosting the games, we hope to strengthen friendship and cooperation with peoples in other countries."
Many nations have called on China to exercise restraint in dealing with the Tibetan protests, but none has indicated it will stage - or call for - a boycott of the Olympics.
So at this stage, Beijing looks to have escaped an Olympic bullet, provided it can keep the lid on any more protests.
As for relations with the Dalai Lama, Beijing has sparred with him ever since he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against the China-backed government in Lhasa. Despite the rhetoric, the latest events are unlikely to change much.
However, the Dalai Lama was quoted in the media on Tuesday as saying "if things become out of control [in Tibet] then my only option is to completely resign".
A neighbor on edge
Wen admitted that Tibet is a "sensitive" issue between China and India and expressed his appreciation to the Indian government for cracking down on Tibetan protesters there.
The Dalai Lama's government in exile is based in the Indian Himalayan town of Dharamsala, which is also home to thousands of his followers and fellow exiles.
"The Tibetan issue is a very sensitive one in our relations with India. We appreciate the position and the steps taken by the Indian government in handling Tibetan independence activities masterminded by the Dalai clique."
Indian police last week arrested about 100 Tibetan marchers who were trying to get into Tibet from India. Delhi also said it "does not permit Tibetans to engage in anti-China political activities in India".
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Parliament during a debate on Tibet that India's policy of non-interference in China was the same despite recent events. "New Delhi's policy on China and Tibet has remained unchanged since 1959 despite various political parties being in power at the center [Delhi] since then," he said.
Economic concerns
Addressing economic issues, Wen said he was worried about the potential global economic and financial fallout from the US subprime crisis, which would make his job of balancing growth and fighting inflation more challenging.
"I am closely watching and feel deeply worried about the global economic situation, especially the US economy. What concerns me now is the continuous depreciation of the US dollar and when the dollar will hit bottom and what measures the US government will take."
Wen said Beijing would have to take the changing international environment into account. "Global economic developments cannot but have an impact on China. Therefore, at the same time as pursuing these policies [tightening monetary policy and prudential fiscal policy], we must pay close attention to international economic developments and, based on changing trends, be flexible and timely in adopting corresponding countermeasures."
His government's top priority was to bring inflation under control while at the same time keep relatively high-speed economic growth, the Chinese premier said. "Number one, we need to ensure fast yet steady economic development in the country and at the same time we need to effectively hold down inflation."
China needs to keep its economy growing fast to curb unemployment. Wen said in the next five years, China needed to create 50 million new jobs, so it could not afford to let its economic growth slow too drastically.
China's gross domestic product grew 11.4% last year, the fifth straight year of double-digit growth. Wen has set a target of 8% for 2008, but economists widely expect this will be exceeded.
Wen said he was confident his government could keep inflation under the target of 4.8% this year, through arduous efforts. "We hope to keep the consumer price index [CPI] this year to 4.8%, though this is not an easy job." China's CPI hit a near 12-year high of 8.7% in February, well above the target for the whole of the year.
John Ng is a freelance journalist based in Hong Kong.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Asia Time Online - Daily News
Greater China
Mar 19, 2008
Now the Tibet blame game begins
By John Ng
HONG KONG - Hours after Monday's midnight deadline passed for anti-Chinese protesters in Tibet to turn themselves in or face severe punishment, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao clearly laid the blame for the unrest on the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader and temporal head of the Tibetan government in exile.
"There is ample fact - and we also have plenty of evidence - proving that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," Wen said in Beijing at the end of the annual National People's Congress
session in a press briefing that was broadcast live nationally.
Despite Wen's unequivocal accusation against the Dalai Lama of orchestrating events in Tibet, he said China was prepared to talk to the spiritual leader.
"We have repeatedly stated that the Dalai Lama gives up his independence position, recognizes Tibet as an inseparable part of China's sovereign territory and recognize Taiwan as an inseparable part of China's sovereign territory. [Then] our door is open to him for talks ... But the recent events exactly prove he is hypocritical on these two key issues. Even so, I want to reiterate that we still keep our word. Now what is key to this is his action."
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he does not seek independence for Tibet, but true autonomy for the Tibetan Autonomous Region. The Dalai Lama has called for an investigation into the Chinese crackdown and whether it was deliberate "cultural genocide".
Sources close to the Chinese government told Asia Times Online that Beijing believes the Dalai Lama and his supporters want to use the occasion of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing in August to "internationalize" the Tibet issue in the hope it would lead to the ultimate independence of the Himalayan region. "But China is not Serbia and Tibet is not Kosovo. China will never allow any issue concerning its sovereignty to be internationalized or the intervention of foreign forces," one of the sources said.
It is not known how many protesters took up Beijing's offer to turn themselves in as news has been blacked out from the Tibetan capital Lhasa, where officially 16 people have been killed in protests over the past few days. Foreign tourists and journalists have been barred from entering the region.
However, the US government-funded Radio Free Asia on Tuesday quoted an unnamed witness as saying authorities in Lhasa had begun arresting hundreds of people. Tibetan exile groups claim that 100 people or more have died.
Wen, who was re-elected as premier for another five years on Monday, assured at the briefing that the situation in Tibet was returning to normal, and that Beijing would "consider the possibility" of allowing access for foreign journalists, but he did not say when. "Social order has basically been restored in Lhasa," Wen said.
It remains now for China to limit the damage of the events that have dominated world headlines for several days. The chief concern is how the fallout might affect the Olympics.
Again, Wen accused the Dalai Lama of trying to undermine the Games. "They want to undermine the Beijing Olympic Games. We should respect the principles of the Olympics and the Olympic charter. We should not politicize the Games."
A high-level contact who spoke to Asia Times Online stressed China's obsession with staging a successful Games, including a relay for the Olympic torch that will pass through Tibet in June. As Wen said, "I want to reiterate that China is a country with a history of 5,000 years. To hold an Olympic Games is a dream of many generations. Through hosting the games, we hope to strengthen friendship and cooperation with peoples in other countries."
Many nations have called on China to exercise restraint in dealing with the Tibetan protests, but none has indicated it will stage - or call for - a boycott of the Olympics.
So at this stage, Beijing looks to have escaped an Olympic bullet, provided it can keep the lid on any more protests.
As for relations with the Dalai Lama, Beijing has sparred with him ever since he fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against the China-backed government in Lhasa. Despite the rhetoric, the latest events are unlikely to change much.
However, the Dalai Lama was quoted in the media on Tuesday as saying "if things become out of control [in Tibet] then my only option is to completely resign".
A neighbor on edge
Wen admitted that Tibet is a "sensitive" issue between China and India and expressed his appreciation to the Indian government for cracking down on Tibetan protesters there.
The Dalai Lama's government in exile is based in the Indian Himalayan town of Dharamsala, which is also home to thousands of his followers and fellow exiles.
"The Tibetan issue is a very sensitive one in our relations with India. We appreciate the position and the steps taken by the Indian government in handling Tibetan independence activities masterminded by the Dalai clique."
Indian police last week arrested about 100 Tibetan marchers who were trying to get into Tibet from India. Delhi also said it "does not permit Tibetans to engage in anti-China political activities in India".
Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told Parliament during a debate on Tibet that India's policy of non-interference in China was the same despite recent events. "New Delhi's policy on China and Tibet has remained unchanged since 1959 despite various political parties being in power at the center [Delhi] since then," he said.
Economic concerns
Addressing economic issues, Wen said he was worried about the potential global economic and financial fallout from the US subprime crisis, which would make his job of balancing growth and fighting inflation more challenging.
"I am closely watching and feel deeply worried about the global economic situation, especially the US economy. What concerns me now is the continuous depreciation of the US dollar and when the dollar will hit bottom and what measures the US government will take."
Wen said Beijing would have to take the changing international environment into account. "Global economic developments cannot but have an impact on China. Therefore, at the same time as pursuing these policies [tightening monetary policy and prudential fiscal policy], we must pay close attention to international economic developments and, based on changing trends, be flexible and timely in adopting corresponding countermeasures."
His government's top priority was to bring inflation under control while at the same time keep relatively high-speed economic growth, the Chinese premier said. "Number one, we need to ensure fast yet steady economic development in the country and at the same time we need to effectively hold down inflation."
China needs to keep its economy growing fast to curb unemployment. Wen said in the next five years, China needed to create 50 million new jobs, so it could not afford to let its economic growth slow too drastically.
China's gross domestic product grew 11.4% last year, the fifth straight year of double-digit growth. Wen has set a target of 8% for 2008, but economists widely expect this will be exceeded.
Wen said he was confident his government could keep inflation under the target of 4.8% this year, through arduous efforts. "We hope to keep the consumer price index [CPI] this year to 4.8%, though this is not an easy job." China's CPI hit a near 12-year high of 8.7% in February, well above the target for the whole of the year.
John Ng is a freelance journalist based in Hong Kong.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
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