Ever since Dalai Lama's crossing over to India five decades ago, he has consistently received international backing in his struggle against China. However, the recent unrest in Tibet and its outward reverberations has generated an unprecedented and frenzied international support to the Tibetan cause, as exemplified by the protests across the globe against the Olympic torch relay. Protesters thronged the streets of London, Paris and San Francisco to express their solidarity with the Tibetan people, who have for long been suffering under the iron rule of the Chinese Communists.

Before the torch relay started, China managed to crush the spontaneous protests in Lhasa and other cities in central China. But, the way it handled these protests undoubtedly dented its international image so much so that its carefully cultivated perception of being a 'harmonious society' and 'rising peacefully' has been seriously challenged.

During the past eight years, China has assiduously cultivated the Beijing Olympics as a showcase event in Asia-Oceania, concurrent with its rise as a great power. By doing so, China believed that a successful Olympics could propel its power and glory significantly. For this, China had put all contentious issues in the backburner and reached out to the international community by constantly portraying that itself as a "peace-loving" nation, while arguing that the criticism on its human rights record is absurd and untrue.

China has desperately sought to achieve all kinds of support in its endeavour to organise such a big secular event. However, China's iron fist against Tibetan protesters in Lhasa has put a question mark on China's credential about its interpretation of "harmonious" society. China's aggressive action against the protestors had exposed its inability to assimilate with any ideals of democratic dissent that could be practised within the country. Beijing was helpless in peacefully exercising crowd control, managed the media shoddily and denied any scope for meaningful dialogue to overcome the crisis.

It is a known fact that the Communist Party is deeply secretive and highly bureaucratic, and its members are steeped in a long-standing culture of self-preservation. The Tibetan protest has revealed the Chinese preoccupation in defending authoritarianism and demonstrated how collective-decision making constrains a state's ability to be flexible in the face of new challenges.

Hu Jintao is viewed as a ruthless leader by the Tibetans as he crushed their struggle demanding autonomy in 1989 as the head of the Communist Party for Tibetan Province. Since then the Communist party has propounded that China has rescued the Tibetans from feudalism, and ushering them toward modernity with infrastructure and investment. But in real terms, the actual beneficiary of such modernisation process has been the Han Chinese who had massively settled in Tibet, with support from the Communist regime. In due course, the indigenous Tibetans felt that their cultural heritage and religious rights are being marginalized by the flows of Communist materialism through Han settlements. Reeling under political and cultural intimidation, the Tibetan groups saw in the Olympics a great opportunity to vent their anger against the Chinese state as well to reach out to the world on their precarious political subjugation in Tibet.

The Tibetan resurgence prompted US house Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Dharmasala, home of exiled leader Dalai Lama, angering China and provoking it to rebuke Pelosi for meddling in its internal matter. Following her visit, President George W. Bush called President Hu Jintao twice and urged him to "reach out to the Dalai Lama, stop vilifying him, establish a dialogue, and open Tibet to foreign journalists".

Although the international response to the Tibetan issue could not do much to unsettle the Chinese government, China realised the intensity acquired by the Tibet movement and anti-Chinese voices in western capitals. China now fears, that the Tibetan cause would figure prominently in Washington's "tame-China" policy. China, as a result, faces two major impediments in its emergence as a considerable "power" - Taiwan and Tibet. Both the conflict zones have been adroitly utilised by Washington to checkmate China. Moreover, Washington has used the opportunity to convey a terse message to Beijing that without generous US support, China could never achieve its one-China objective.

At the same time, Washington is seen to have played only a marginal role in supporting the Tibetan cause when compared to the proactive support given to the Taiwanese in dealing with Beijing. However, with the spate of changes in the international power structure, the relative decline of US power in Asia, prolonged US-led counter terrorism operations across the globe, and the increasing economic interactions between US and China, has restricted Washington from cornering China on these issues. This is especially true in the case of Taiwan. When Hu Jintao visited US in April 2006, he was assured by the Bush administration that US will abide by the one-China policy and would not support the Taiwanese independence aspirations. But still, Taiwan figures as a thorny issue for China in its efforts to become a great power.

China fears a similar situation may occur in the far-western Xinjiang province, populated by the Uighur Muslims who has cultural and religious link with Central Asia. Human rights groups have reported protests by hundreds of Uighurs over religious issues in late March. The Chinese media had meanwhile reported several recent clashes with separatist rebels in the province. In early March, it was reported that a Uighur woman had attempted to bring down a domestic passenger jet with a homemade bomb. Simply so, China cannot afford another rebellion in its landmass which could jeopardise a successful completion of the Olympics.

The Tibetan uprising and Western response to it have made it imperative for China to tone down its aggressive posturing on internal disturbances and reach out to disgruntled communities within the country and outside. Alongside, Beijing seems to have realised the need to heed international voices on its human rights situation and allowing greater political freedom in its soil. For, Beijing is told clearly that a country hosting an international event should be truly inclusive in its approach to dissent and international opinion. The decision to talk with Dalai Lama's representative illustrates this reconciliation in Beijing's policy towards the outside world.

Dr. Joshy M Paul is Associate Research Fellow at the National Maritime Foundation, New Delhi. He can be reached at mpjoshy@gmail.com.