Fresh rioting broke out in an ethnic Tibetan area of southwest China last night, leaving one official seriously wounded, state media reported today.
"The riot took place at the seat of the Donggu township government," the official Xinhua news agency reported. The official was attacked, the report said.
Donggu is in Ganzi (Garze) Prefecture of Sichuan province, an area that has experienced intense anti-Chinese protests and riots since unrest broke out in Lhasa, the regional capital of neighbouring Tibet, in mid-March.
Meanwhile Chinese official media said Tibet will be reopened to foreign tourists next month after a six-week closure.
The Tibet Autonomous Region government will resume giving foreigners permits on May 1st, for the first time since March 16th, which was two days after deadly riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, it was reported.
Foreigners have been barred from Tibet tours for their safety and because of riot damage to tourist spots, Xinhua news agency and the English-language China Dailynewspaper reported, quoting Tibetan regional officials.
Foreigners who were in Tibet during the riots also gave accounts to the international media, frustrating China's efforts to control information.
Agents, hotels and shops in Tibetan areas of western China have reported seeing hardly any visitors to the heavily militarised area.
Trouble in the remote Himalyan region began with a series of Buddhist monk-led protests that touched off the Lhasa riots. Protests have since hit other Tibetan areas of China.
China says 18 civilians died in the Lhasa violence but exiled representatives of Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, say about 140 people died in Tibetan areas.
China blames the Dalai Lama, whom it labels a separatist, and his followers for stirring up the Lhasa violence to try to discredit the Olympics. The 72-year-old Buddhist leader has repeatedly expressed support for the Beijing Games.