BEIJING — A clash between protesters and police in western China has left at least two people dead, state media and a rights group said Tuesday, as a top Chinese police official called for stepped-up "patriotic campaigns" in Tibet to boost support for Beijing.
The demonstration in Garze, a predominantly Tibetan prefecture in Sichuan province, started Monday as a peaceful march by monks and nuns but grew violent when armed police tried to suppress the crowd, which ballooned to about 200 after residents joined in, the Dharmsala, India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.
It said an 18-year-old monk was killed and a 30-year-old monk was critically injured when security agents fired into the gathering.
Meng Jianzhu, the minister of public security, ordered Tibet's security forces to remain on alert for further unrest and said "patriotic education" campaigns would be strengthened in monasteries, according to the Tibet Daily newspaper.
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