As more and more pictures, video clips and witness accounts accumulate, the once thick clouds of uncertainty surrounding the latest riots in Tibetan-inhabited areas disperse. And the roles of all those involved are now in broad daylight.

The Chinese government, the most blamed party throughout the entire farce, turns out to be a lot more tolerant and restrained than some of its hysterical critics had anticipated. It goes against common sense that the well-trained and equipped riot police squads can be bullied by the stone-throwing mobs. The only explanation for that is restraint.

While dumping dirty water on the Chinese government, critics should ask themselves how they would expect their own governments to respond, should similar riots occur on their soils.

The most ridiculous part of the international hypocrites against alleged Chinese violation of Tibetan human rights is that it totally confounded black with white - the brutal motley, who looted and killed became heroes and heroines braving government violence.

But lies are lies, no matter whether they are told by the Dalai Lama's government in exile, whose religion calls for truthfulness, or the Western media, whose professional ethics proclaim balance and neutrality in reporting.

It takes extraordinary brazenness to portray the looting, burning and killing in Lhasa and elsewhere as "peaceful". But to our surprise, quite a few have done exactly that, boldly and assuredly.

We are sorry that some of our overseas colleagues were caught cropping, or misrepresenting visual images to fit obviously biased allegations. Instead of denigrating the Chinese government, they have ended up humiliating themselves.

We are not sure whether or not the 2008 popular Chinese lexicon will actually include the netizen invention that makes some Western media an equivalent to hypocrisy. But we do wish our colleagues there do a credibility check. There are many things in China not to the tastes of our foreign colleagues. But it is quite another thing to bend facts to suit their own preoccupations.

We do not aspire to have die-hard China-bashers to repent and change course. Such people have little concern about reality. If necessary, they can always call a stag a horse.

But for their own credibility's sake, we suggest they do not stray too far away from obvious truths. It was an egregious folly that their accusing fingers were pointed at the victims, instead of the rampant thugs.

(China Daily March 27, 2008)