Chinese anger and terror warnings cloud Olympics

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said it was outraged by a resolution by U.S. lawmakers urging an end to a crackdown in Tibet as a Beijing-run newspaper linked al Qaeda to claimed plots to attack the Beijing Olympics.

The condemnation came in response to a U.S. House of Representatives resolution urging China to open dialogue with the Dalai Lama, end a crackdown on nonviolent Tibetan protesters and halt repression in the region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said her government was "strongly indignant and resolutely opposed" to the resolution passed on Wednesday with the backing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Jiang said the U.S. lawmakers should instead direct their ire at what Beijing calls the Dalai Lama's clique, which China has blamed for deadly rioting in Tibet's regional capital, Lhasa, on March 14 and subsequent protests.

"It is confusing black with white and is vicious-minded of certain members of the U.S. House of Representatives to not only fail to condemn the attacks, smashing, looting and arson in Lhasa ... but rather to point the spear at the Chinese government and people," Jiang said.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, has rejected claims that he orchestrated the violence, and Western governments have urged China to open up conciliatory contacts.

But China has underscored the gulf in perceptions over Tibet by saying that groups campaigning for independence there have joined militant Muslim Uighurs fighting for an independent "East Turkestan" in the northwest region of Xinjiang.

China said on Thursday it had foiled "terrorist" plots to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide attacks around the Beijing Olympics in August.

COLLUSION

The Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong newspaper backed by the mainland, said Uighur extremists were colluding with the exiled Tibetan Youth Congress and even al Qaeda to target the games.

"Al Qaeda, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and Tibetan Youth Congress are all planning to make the Beijing Olympic Games the target of terror attacks, and have strengthened collusion and collaboration," the paper said in a commentary.

"The Dalai clique is not only implicated with al Qaeda, it is colluding with the East Turkestan organization

."

Human rights groups have said Beijing is using the perceived terror threats, denied by exiled Uighur groups, to justify tough controls in Xinjiang.

Konchok Yangphel, a New Delhi-based spokesman for the Tibetan Youth Congress, said the Wen Wei Po report was ridiculous.