Dave at Mutant Palm has been scanning and translating Chinese tweets (Blogspot -- proxy needed in China) on the Tibet situation from local Twitter clones and comparing them with International ones. It's worth having a look at some of the sentiment zipping around this newest corner of the Chinese Internet (yet one more channel of discourse for the authorities to worry about). The article linked above, from The Economist, notes the likely role of inflation, an old bugaboo, in helping to stoke this week's unrest. Harder times have a way of bringing ethnic tensions an other grievances to the boil.

There will be no way to control the leakage of images from this event. Mobile phone pictures are already being picked up (B) by Tibetan activism sites (that link via Tim Johnson's blog). Opposite End of China has picked up a spectacular bit of old-fashioned, teeth-gnashing propaganda from Xinhua:

The government of Tibet Autonomous Region said Friday there had been enough evidence to prove that the recent sabotage in Lhasa was "organized, premeditated and masterminded" by the Dalai clique.

Zesty. There will be more from this incident. Simon Elegant, in Time's China blog nicely sums up Beijing's dilemma:

Five months before the Olympics this really is a "perfect storm" for Beijing as it appears to be in a no-win situation: if the authorities don't react, the protest will grow larger (remember Tiananmen?); if they do, and there are deaths, as would seem inevitable, they face the possibility of much more serious anti-Olympics/boycott campaigning that will far exceed the limited traction gained by the Darfur activists.

It's been a very bad PR week for China, what with the strange terrorism story and the completely daft banning of Lust, Caution actress Tang Wei. That was a wholly self-inflicted wound. As for the Tibet situation, a response was inevitable but the timing is devastating. The Torch Relay starts in just over a week.

Hard times are coming.