consequences

Looks like the Chinese government is caught between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand, they have civil unrest in Tibet, and of course they want to crush any demonstrations as quickly as possible, per their normal operating procedure.

On the other hand, aggressive use of police force against the Tibetans appears to have significantly swayed Taiwanese voters, who go to the polls in two days to choose their next president.

For me, it's win-win. Either the Tibetans raise a major ruckus and draw international attention to China's total disregard for free speech, or maybe Taiwan elects a president who doesn't want to sell the country to China. Worst case, Taiwan still ends up with a pro-China president, but at least he doesn't have a huge mandate.