Tibetan Government in Exile Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay told the Financial Times newspaper that images sent to his government by people in Tibet leads him to believe "the military buildup is increasing rapidly."

"We've seen pictures of hundreds of convoys filled with paramilitary forces with automatic machine guns moving toward various parts of Tibetan areas," he said.

"We're really worried that with such a military security buildup and so many guns in the hands of Chinese police and military personnel, we fear the Chinese government is preparing for something very drastic and unforeseen and tragic."

Sangay's fears come as more reports of self-immolations come out of Tibet.

One Tibetan has died and two others are believed to have survived the latest acts of self-immolation in Tibet, the Free Tibet Web site said last week.

The three set fire to themselves in a village around 90 miles from Serthar in Sichuan province where Chinese forces recently fired on Tibetans, killing at least two, Free Tibet said.

Much of the protest has centered in Sichuan province, in particular near the Kirti Buddhist monastery. The area around the monastery Kirti Gompa, founded in 1472 on the edge of Ngaba or Aba City, has been tense since Rigzin Phuntsog, a monk, set himself on fire and died last March.

Many Tibetans in Sichuan, a province directly east of Tibet, are angry about what they see as a ploy by Beijing to move ethnic Han Chinese into the majority Tibetan areas of Sichuan. Tibetans say it is a direct policy by Beijing to make Tibetans a minority in their own land.

Residents of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region have made similar allegations.

Sangay told the Financial Times that he and the Dalai Lama, the 76-year-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, are on record as calling for Tibetans, many of them monks and nuns, to refrain from extreme actions including self-immolation.

But "their sentiment is so strong they are choosing to die rather than live," Sangay said. "This shows that the Chinese government's repressive policies in Tibet have clearly failed."

In an exclusive interview with the BBC in November, the Dalai Lama denied accusations by Beijing that he is actively encouraging Tibetans to set themselves on fire in public places.

He questioned the usefulness of the acts as a protest tool against the Chinese authorities and their more than 50 years of rule in Tibet.

"There is courage -- very strong courage" by the people who set themselves on fire. "But how much effect? Courage alone is no substitute. You must utilize your wisdom."

Beijing and the Dalai Lama have been waging a war of words since he fled Tibet soon after the Chinese army marched into Tibet in the late 1950s. The Dalai Lama and many of his followers have been living in exile in northern India.

Beijing has never recognized the Tibetan Government in Exile and often blames it and the Dalai Lama for fomenting separatism in Tibet.

In July, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, the man believed to be China's leader-in-waiting, said he will "smash" any plan to undermine Tibet's place within China.

But while asserting the need for social stability, Beijing also stresses its increased aid to help the economy and improve the daily life of millions of rural Tibetans.

Last week, the official government news agency Xinhua reported the Tibet Autonomous Region government had "earmarked more than $1.3 billion this year to improve the living conditions of farmers and herdsmen in the region," which accounts for around 80 percent of the Tibetan population.

The amount is two-thirds more than last year, the Xinhua report said. Money will be used for rural infrastructure construction and agricultural subsidies.

"Some of the money will also be used to encourage farmers to modernize and industrialize their work and to develop Tibetan-featured industries," Xinhua said.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Beijing (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - China said Tuesday it would "resolutely crack down" on any attempts to instigate violence in Tibetan-inhabited areas, where authorities have launched a deadly clampdown on protesters.

At least two people were killed last month in clashes between police and locals in the southwestern province of Sichuan, which has big populations of ethnic Tibetans, many of whom complain of oppression under Chinese rule.

"The Chinese government will resolutely crack down on any attempt to incite violence, disrupt national unity and territorial integrity in accordance with law," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

The unrest in Sichuan -- which borders the Tibet autonomous region -- comes at a time of rising tensions in Tibetan-inhabited areas, where rights groups say at least 19 monks and nuns have set themselves alight in less than a year.

Exile group Free Tibet and US-based broadcaster RFA reported that three self-immolations happened in a remote village of Sichuan on Friday, but local authorities quoted in the official Global Times newspaper denied this.

On Monday, the Tibetan government-in-exile said the wave of self-immolations was a desperate response to "new levels" of Chinese persecution and urged the international community to engage with Beijing to prevent further violence.

Authorities have launched a huge clampdown on Tibetan-inhabited areas, increasing surveillance of monasteries and setting up more road blocks.

In a statement posted on its website Monday, Tibet's government said any official found failing in his or her "duty" of maintaining stability "must be fired on the spot and will be subject to disciplinary penalties".

China has accused overseas organisations pro independence for Tibet of distorting facts about what happened in Sichuan, and has blamed the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's exiled spiritual leader -- of fomenting Tibetan unrest.

"We believe the series of incidents are obviously masterminded and incited by someone behind the scenes," Liu said.

Tibetans have long chafed at China's rule over the vast Tibetan plateau, accusing Beijing of curbing religious freedoms and eroding their culture and language, and these tensions have intensified over the past year.

Beijing insists that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and have benefited from improved living standards brought on by China's economic expansion.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Beijing (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - China's hardline political stance, as shown by its veto of a UN resolution on Syria at the weekend, is increasingly clashing with the Asian powerhouse's efforts to improve its image abroad, analysts say.

Beijing and Moscow both came under a barrage of criticism for blocking the UN resolution condemning Damascus for its brutal crackdown on protests, with Washington calling their rejection a "travesty".

Many saw the veto as a sign of Beijing's growing confidence in international affairs and a taste of things to come as China rapidly expands its global reach and becomes increasingly powerful.

But analysts said the veto was part of China's long-standing policy of non-interference in other nations' internal affairs.

"Beijing runs into repeated problems when national policy collides with improving China's image," said Jonathan Fenby, head of the China team at research group Trusted Sources.

"That was the case with the jailing of the Nobel Peace prize winner (Liu Xiaobo) and now with the veto over Syria. China puts its national policy first including defence of 'core interests' and pays a price on the soft power side."

The fact that the UN vote came just hours after Syrian troops were accused of killing hundreds of civilians only exacerbated the international uproar.

China has a unenviable reputation as an authoritarian state that represses freedom of expression and does not tolerate dissent.

Crackdowns on pro-democracy movements, and efforts to stamp out opposition movements in Tibetan and mostly-Muslim Uighur areas have only cemented the view.

But conscious of this reputation, the one-party regime has poured billions of dollars into trying to improve its image abroad.

In 2009, Beijing announced a huge expansion of its state-run television CCTV, radio CRI and news agency Xinhua abroad, with the latter renting a huge billboard on New York's Time Square.

It has also expanded its Confucius Institutes -- designed to promote Chinese language and culture -- with more than 640 outlets now scattered around the globe, including 350 in the United States alone.

Beijing's aid abroad rose by nearly 30 percent every year between 2004 and 2009, according to state media, and China builds infrastructure for poorer countries, such as the recent African Union headquarters in Ethiopia.

On the diplomatic front, it has scored points by participating in UN peacekeeping missions or anti-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia, and by chairing mechanisms such as talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear drive.

"Beijing is pretty successful in promoting a positive image of China to foreign audiences, especially in the non-Western world. People are impressed by its economic success and social stability," said William Callahan, politics professor at the University of Manchester.

"In the West, however, I don't think that Beijing has been so successful."

Communist Party leaders recently acknowledged this, and earlier this year, President Hu Jintao urged more efforts to increase the nation's cultural influence overseas.

But China's alliances with regimes that are out-of-favour with Western countries -- such as Sudan, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe -- do not help in the eyes of many global players.

"CCP (Chinese Communist Party) ruling groups know that many people in the democracies imagine Chinese foreign policy as one of choosing to support cruel pariah regimes," said Edward Friedman, politics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"CCP leaders instead see China as a late-comer to the world market and therefore being forced to go to places which the OECD nations (such as the United States, Britain and France) do not dominate," he said.

This "often means governments suffering from OECD sanctions or conditionalities, from Angola to North Korea".

Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Beijing's Renmin University, said China considered both its own and others' interests when dealing with global issues.

"China has close contact with North Korea (for instance), but China has also twice voted in favour of sanctions against North Korea's nuclear tests, because they threatened safety in Northeast Asia and international peace."

But as China's overseas interests have expanded -- for instance due to its growing energy needs -- it has increasingly become embroiled in complex political disputes, said Sarah McDowall, senior analyst at IHS Global Insight.

"The policy of non-interference has increasingly been put to the test in the last few years," she said, pointing for example to Sudan, where China was quick to recognise South Sudan as an independent state last year.

Willy Lam, an expert in Chinese politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said Beijing risked becoming ostracised, particularly after events in the Middle East where some once-authoritarian nations are moving towards democracy.

"If -- as is likely -- new ideas and global values spread in the Middle East and Africa, then China will find itself in a more and more difficult situation," he said.

"Even from China's point of view, the decision on Syria was a mistake, because I think eventually it will hurt China's position amongst people in the Middle East."

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 5, 2012 - A bitter family feud between Hong Kongers and their northern neighbours sparked by mainland China's increasing financial and political clout has led to an awkward debate about the former British colony's identity.

The glittering southern financial centre has been governed according to the "one country, two systems" formula since its return to Chinese rule in 1997, but recent incidents have made it look more like "one country, two cultures".

As both sides enter a year of leadership change and economic uncertainty, some are questioning whether the jangling nerves are evidence of a deeper unease among freedom-loving Hong Kongers about their status under Chinese rule.

"This is a period of difficult adjustment and confusion," said political analyst Joseph Cheng of Hong Kong's City University.

"About 20 or 30 years ago, Hong Kong people tended to look down on their Chinese cousins. Now there's a sense of inferiority due to the economic boom in China."

It took an incident as apparently small as a mainland girl flouting rules against eating on Hong Kong trains to set off the haters on each side of the Shenzhen River.

A video of Hong Kongers angrily berating the girl went viral online last month, drawing a blistering response from Peking University professor Kong Qingdong.

"What type of people are those who deliberately don't speak Mandarin? Bastards!" the outspoken academic, who says he is a descendent of Confucius, said in interview with a Chinese website.

"As far as I know, many Hong Kong people don't regard themselves as Chinese. Those kinds of people are used to being the dogs of British colonialists -- they are dogs, not humans."

A Hong Kong online forum hit back with insults of their own in the form of a newspaper ad, published last week in the widely-read Apple Daily, depicting mainlanders as "locusts" set to devour Hong Kong's resources.

Millions of mainland tourists and investors pour into Hong Kong every year, adding billions of dollars to the local economy.

But they also fuel property prices and take up limited hospital spaces, particularly in maternity wards which struggle to care for tens of thousands of mainland women every year.

As China's economy has boomed, some Hong Kong natives have come to resent flashy displays of wealth by people they used to look down on as country bumpkins. Terms like "mainland phobia" have entered everyday speech.

Hong Kongers still regard themselves as more civilised and sophisticated than mainlanders, who are often reviled for their poor manners, refusal to stand in queues and penchant for spitting in public.

"I think this tension between Hong Kong people and mainlanders is worsening. This is a ticking time bomb," Hong Kong politician Lee Cheuk-yan said.

The latest incidents have led to some soul searching among Hong Kong natives. Lawmaker Paul Tse raised the issue in the legislature, asking what the government was doing to "minimise as far as possible the conflicts arising from members of the public alienating mainland tourists".

Asked about the locust insults, Chinese tourist Ding Hui said it was "ironic".

"The central government has been supportive of Hong Kong's 'one country, two systems' model, so why do Hong Kong people want to discriminate against us?" she asked.

Under the terms of the handover, Hong Kong's seven million people are guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and civil liberties not seen on the mainland. Fears of a communist takeover have proven unfounded.

But the system is facing renewed scrutiny ahead of March 25 elections for a new chief executive, who will be chosen by a pro-Beijing electoral committee rather than a public vote. Allegations of fraud and vote-rigging marred district polls late last year, in which pro-Beijing parties made strong gains.

In the years immediately after the handover there was a sense that Hong Kongers were patriotically embracing their Chinese cultural heritage, but the honeymoon now appears to be over.

A recent survey found that more than 79 percent of Hong Kong people identified themselves as Hong Kongers instead of Chinese. The number identifying themselves as Chinese was the lowest in a decade.

"There is a realisation that integration is inevitable but there is a backlash at the same time as Hong Kong people would like to retain their autonomy and characteristics," said Hong Kong academic Cheng.

Officials from both governments have had to step in to publicly reaffirm the special bond between Hong Kong and China, amid fears of a downturn in Chinese tourism to the southern city, popular with shoppers.

"Irrespective of our origins, we all expect ourselves to be treated fairly, and that our dignity is respected," Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission chief Lam Woon-kwong said.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Dharamshala, India (AFP) Feb 6, 2012 - A continuing spate of self-immolations by Tibetans in China are a desperate response to "new levels" of Chinese persecution, the Tibet government-in-exile said Monday.

In a statement from its seat in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, the exiled government urged the international community to "directly and immediately engage" with the Chinese leadership to prevent further violence.

At least 19 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the past year in protest against what they see as repressive policies in Tibetan-inhabited areas, which were hit by deadly unrest last month.

"Drastic actions, such as the self-immolations, indicate to us that the Chinese policies in Tibet have reached new levels of repression," the statement said.

"The international community must let leaders in Beijing know unequivocally that the world is concerned and closely watching events inside Tibet," it added.

The London-based group Free Tibet and US-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA) said three Tibetans were badly injured after setting themselves alight Friday in a remote village in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan.

Tibetans have long chafed at China's rule over the vast Tibetan plateau, accusing Beijing of curbing religious freedoms and eroding their culture and language, and these tensions have intensified over the past year.

Beijing, however, insists that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and have benefited from improved living standards brought on by China's economic expansion.

It blames the Dalai Lama -- a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule -- for fomenting much of the unrest.

In a rare public statement on Monday, the Karmapa Lama, a senior Tibetan religious leader who fled China in 1999, said Beijing's vilification of the Dalai Lama was misplaced and counter-productive.

"Constantly depicting His Holiness the Dalai Lama in hostile terms is an affront that benefits no one," the 27-year-old Karmapa said.

"In fact, striking at the heart of Tibetan faith damages the prospect of winning Tibetans' trust. This is neither effective nor wise," he added.

The Karmapa, who lives near Dharamshala, is seen by many Tibetans as the best candidate to take up the spiritual leadership of the Tibetan movement when the Dalai Lama dies.

Speaking of his "immense pain and sadness" at each report of another self-immolation, the Karmapa said he understood the desperation that drove some Tibetans to such acts, but also appealed for calm.

"In these difficult times, I urge Tibetans in Tibet: Stay true to yourselves, keep your equanimity in the face of hardship and remain focused on the long term.

"Always bear in mind that your lives have great value, as human beings and as Tibetans," he said.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Washington (AFP) Feb 4, 2012 - Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo has been hailed as a bold champion of democracy, but a new compilation of his writings shows him also to be deeply introspective and doubtful of the West's model.

Liu has been in forced silence despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Chinese authorities sentenced him the previous year for subversion for spearheading Charter 08, a major petition for political reform.

In a bid to offer a fuller picture of his thought, a new book -- published in English as "No Enemies, No Hatred" by Harvard University Press -- collects not only Charter 08 but also years of essays and poetry by Liu.

In one defining experience, the now 56-year-old writer explained in 1989 of a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and how he was "struck with how superficial my thinking was."

"I suddenly realized how insignificant the China issues I have been wrestling with are, if one measures them in terms of true spiritual creativity," Liu wrote in 1989, on the eve of Beijing's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.

"My tendency to idealize Western civilization arises from my nationalistic desire to use the West in order to reform China," Liu wrote.

Liu was also critical of the West's views of China. While welcoming those who seek academic or spiritual pursuits in China, Liu said that most Westerners "still maintain deep-rooted feelings of superiority toward non-Western people."

Two decades before he won the Nobel Peace Prize, Liu dismissed Westerners who praised him as a "rebel."

"When I hear such praise, it makes me feel as if I am not really a visitor from China so much as a person who has been stuffed into a leather case and loaded onto an airplane to be displayed, as and where my hosts see fit, as a novel object from a distant land," he wrote.

Yet Liu struck a different tone after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, saying that Americans' ability to vote into power a member of a historically disadvantaged minority group showed "the greatness of the American system."

In one of his most provocative essays, Liu wrote that China should follow the lessons of Obama's election and appoint the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's exiled spiritual leader who is constantly criticized by Beijing -- as China's president.

Thanks to the Dalai Lama's global prestige, his appointment "could "do a huge amount to improve China's international image" and serve as a model for resolving other disputes such as Taiwan, Liu wrote.

"The dawn of true political reform in China can arrive as soon as Chinese authorities sit down at the negotiating table with the Dalai Lama," Liu wrote.

Perry Link, a scholar of Chinese literature and one of the book's editors, said that Liu was certainly aware that his proposal was far-fetched but that Liu employed the idea to draw attention to China's treatment of minorities.

But Link believed that Liu was writing from the heart and not using a literary device in other writings in which he expressed deep disappointment over his own role in the Tiananmen Square uprising.

Liu returned to China from New York during the protests and encouraged students to flee the military offensive that left hundreds if not thousands dead. Liu received his first prison sentence over his role in the protests.

In a poem in homage to a 17-year-old who died at Tiananmen, Liu wrote: "In the face of your death, living is a crime, and writing this poem for you is an even greater shame."

"I am not worthy to write poetry for you. Your 17 years are more precious than any work of words or hands," Liu wrote.

Liu's works are banned in China. Link, a professor at the University of California-Riverside, said that some Chinese readers who discover Liu's writing might see his approach as "wimpiness" as younger Chinese prefer triumphalism.

But Link said that other Chinese readers might be impressed by the modesty of the leading dissident.

Many Tiananmen Square leaders "have come in for criticism as being too posing and trying to be heroes too much," Link said. "He's doing the exact opposite."

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Beijing (AFP) Feb 5, 2012 - A Tibetan died and two others were seriously hurt when they set themselves on fire in a remote Chinese village in the latest protests against Beijing's rule, an exile group and US-based broadcaster said.

This brings to at least 19 the number of Tibetans to have set themselves on fire in the past year in protest against what they see as repressive policies in Tibetan-inhabited areas, which were hit by deadly unrest last month.

The London-based group Free Tibet and US-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA) said the three set themselves alight Friday in remote Phuhu village in the southwestern province of Sichuan, which has big populations of ethnic Tibetans.

AFP was unable to independently confirm the information, as phone lines to the area of western Sichuan were the incident reportedly happened appear to have been disabled, with calls being met with a rapid beeping tone.

RFA on Saturday quoted an unnamed source as saying the protesters "had called for freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama," the predominantly Buddhist region's exiled spiritual leader.

Both RFA and Free Tibet named the two Tibetans who were seriously injured, adding they were aged around 60 and 30, but the identity of the Tibetan who died was unclear.

Phuhu is part of Seda county and around 145 kilometres (90 miles) away from Seda town -- where rights groups say police fired on Tibetan protesters on January 24, killing at least one person.

The shooting was one of at least three deadly protests in Sichuan over the course of a few days, in which rights groups say at least three were killed and scores of others injured.

China has only acknowledged two of the incidents, and says that in one case, police were forced to fire on violent demonstrators. It has accused "trained separatists" of fometing the unrest.

Calls to local government and police offices and hotels in Seda would not go through on Sunday, and were met with a rapid beeping tone. AFP reporters who tried to get to Seda last month were turned around by police.

One driver who makes regular trips from the provincial capital of Chengdu to Seda said security was still very tight after the unrest.

"Tourists are allowed to go, so long as they carry their ID cards, and armed police check the registrations of every car and drivers' licences," she said Sunday over the phone.

Tibetans have long chafed at China's rule over the vast Tibetan plateau, accusing Beijing of curbing religious freedoms and eroding their culture and language, and these tensions have intensified over the past year.

Beijing, however, insists that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and have benefited from improved living standards brought on by China's economic expansion.

It blames the Dalai Lama -- a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule -- for fomenting much of the unrest.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Beijing (AFP) Feb 3, 2012 - A rights lawyer who has defended some of China's most prominent dissidents said Friday police prevented him from meeting the visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mo Shaoping, whose clients include jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, said he was invited to a reception at the German embassy to be attended by Merkel Thursday, but police arrived at his office and stopped him going.

"They were in my office for over three hours. They had no legal basis for stopping me, but they would not let me go," Mo told AFP.

"I had been invited on Monday to discuss with the chancellor China's situation concerning the law and the plight of lawyers."

Mo said police told him he was not allowed to attend the meeting due to concerns over social stability ahead of a key Communist Party meeting slated for late this year that will usher in a 10-yearly leadership transition.

The German embassy in Beijing did not immediately comment on the absence of Mo, who also defended the jailed rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

Merkel, who has held talks with Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao during her visit, had said that she would raise human rights issues during her visit.

On Friday, Merkel departed for south China's manufacturing hub, where she is slated to meet Gan Junqiu, the state-backed Catholic bishop of Guangzhou, according to a German diplomatic source.

Police in China rounded up scores of human rights lawyers and activists early last year amid online calls for protests in China similar to those that toppled governments in North Africa and the Middle East.

Mo said it was not the first time police had stopped him meeting western leaders or diplomats.

Last year he was prevented from seeing French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe and Beijing-based diplomats from Germany, the Netherlands and the European Union, he said.

But he was allowed to meet US Ambassador Gary Locke in October, he said.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Cape Town (AFP) Feb 3, 2012 - A South African court on Friday dismissed a case brought by two opposition parties challenging the government's failure to grant the Dalai Lama a visa last year.

The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader had sought a visa to attend fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations in Cape Town in October.

But influenced by trade worries with China -- which frowns on the Dalai Lama's overseas travel, Pretoria dragged its feet until the Tibetan spiritual leader cancelled his trip and withdrew his application as it became clear that he would not be able to travel in time for the event.

On Friday, the Western Cape High Court dismissed the complaint brought by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Congress of the People, noting that it was the Dalai Lama himself who withdrew his visa application.

The court also ordered the parties to pay costs.

But the IFP slammed the ruling.

"What is the civilized, free and democratic world to feel today looking at the South African system's incapability of correcting such a grave injustice and international outrage?" the IFP said in a statement.

"This is a grave indictment on our entire system of government which has not yet been able to find mechanism to correct what everyone perceives as an injustice."

Pretoria already denied the Dalai Lama a visa once in 2009, admitting at the time it was afraid of jeopardising ties with Beijing.

The issue is likely to come up again. IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has invited the Dalai Lama to attend a prayer breakfast in March.

China became South Africa's top trade partner in 2009. The Asian giant imported goods worth 78.4 billion rand ($10.1 billion, 7.6 billion euros) from South Africa last year and exported 94.2 billion rand worth there.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Shanghai (AFP) Feb 2, 2012 - Chinese netizens voiced anger Thursday over a Hong Kong advert portraying mainlanders as "locusts", sparking a call for calm in a state newspaper after an increasingly bitter exchange of words.

The advert was published in Hong Kong's widely-read Apple Daily Wednesday by an anonymous group in retaliation for comments made by Chinese professor Kong Qingdong, who called locals of the former British colony "dogs" and "bastards".

"How dare Hong Kong people have the courage to say we are locusts. No one should go to Hong Kong," said Reneeshou on Sina's popular microblog service.

"This shows a limited sense of appreciation (towards China) and a lack of tolerance of an international city," another commented.

The full-page advert demanded action to stop mainland Chinese "infiltration" of the territory, showing a huge locust overlooking Hong Kong's skyline with the words "Hong Kongers have had enough!" and "This city is dying, you know?"

Mainlanders are a key source of revenue for Hong Kong, but there is growing discontent over the thousands of mainland women who come to give birth in the territory every year, taking up limited beds and pushing up costs.

Many Hong Kongers also dislike the shadowy role that Beijing plays in local politics and the flashy displays of wealth by mainland Chinese tourists.

Mainlanders, for their part, complain people from Hong Kong -- which is part of China but enjoys more economic and political freedom -- look down on them.

Kong made the comments in an online, broadcast interview last week after a video of Hong Kongers scolding a mainland woman for disregarding rules and eating on a train went viral on the Internet.

"Originally, I didn't agree with Kong Qingdong, but after seeing the Apple Daily ad, I just want to say that these people really are mad dogs," one outraged web user wrote.

However, others admitted the behaviour of mainland Chinese travellers in Hong Kong could be improved.

"I do not like the Apple newspaper ad, but I think people who have been to Hong Kong should reflect on what they did. The quality of behaviour should be improved," another comment read.

The recent, barbed exchanges have prompted the official Global Times newspaper to call for calm.

In an editorial Thursday, the newspaper said China and Hong Kong should grow closer on the basis of a "shared identity".

"The mixed mutual feelings are making things more complicated. More efforts are needed from both the mainland and Hong Kong," it said.

]]> Wed, 08 FEB 2012 08:53:57 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D