Tibet braces for test of Chinese power

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Tibetan capital Lhasa braced for more possible confrontation on Saturday after independence protesters challenged China's rule in the fiercest protests to have rocked the region in two decades.

China accused followers of the Dalai Lama of "masterminding" the uprising, which shatters its carefully-cultivated image of national harmony in the build-up to the Beijing Olympic Games.

Angry crowds in the remote mountain city on Friday attacked government offices, burned vehicles and shops and threw stones at police in bloody confrontations that left many injured, according to Chinese state media reports.

China has said that Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, engineered what were the biggest protests in disputed region since 1989, a claim he quickly denied.

But while it was unclear whether the clashes would flare or even escalate over the weekend, Beijing has already made it clear that it saw no reason to change its policies in Tibet, where many locals resent a growing Han Chinese presence, especially in Lhasa.

"We are fully capable of maintaining the social stability of Tibet," the Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying in a statement repeated across Chinese state media on Saturday.

"The plots by the very few people against the stability and harmony of Tibet run counter to the will of the people and are doomed to fail."

Chinese authorities were nonetheless also bracing for more possible unrest in Lhasa on Saturday. "Police cordoned off a few downtown sections and are on close lookout for comeback of violence," the official Xinhua agency said.