Despite the seeming sophistication of the current generation, China's leaders have not changed their stripes: Witness the heavy-handed denunciation of the Dalai Lama and his "clique" ever since the Lhasa riots three weeks ago. Depicting one's opponents as evil beyond compare is a basic Communist Party tactic. Thus far, official organs of the Chinese government have called the Tibetan spiritual leader not only a "separatist" - someone who wants to split Tibet from China - but a swindler, liar, slave owner and "scum of Buddhism." One official newspaper said the Dalai Lama "has never done anything good." Such characterizations are reminiscent of the choice epithets bestowed on Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, who was dubbed a prostitute, serpent, sinner of a thousand years, and tango dancer.

More to the point, they recall the venom heaped on the Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni during the Cultural Revolution after he made a documentary on China - a film banned in the country but widely denounced nonetheless as "anti-Chinese" by those not permitted to watch it.

While such tactics may have worked in the 1970s, they are highly unlikely to be successful today.

For one thing, Beijing is trying to convince the international community, not some captive audience without access to information. China's Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi, has urged Americans to see the "true nature" of the Dalai Lama, and the Chinese embassy in Washington has reportedly sent e-mails to members of Congress containing "material aiding in understanding the true face of the Dalai Lama," which among other things likens him to the Nazis. Given the Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal just last October, it is unlikely that U.S. lawmakers will believe such propaganda. The result, to use a Chinese expression, is that Beijing will lift a rock only to drop it on its own feet.

Meanwhile, for Tibetans, the Dalai Lama is still seen as a god-like figure despite 50 years of Communist propaganda against him. Additional abuses hurled at him are not going to alter their feelings.

The only people likely to be affected are the Han Chinese, and here there already has been some "success," with postings on the Internet showing highly nationalistic sentiments directed against Tibetans. So the upshot of this propaganda exercise is likely to be increased ethnic tensions between Han Chinese and Tibetans - something Beijing surely does not want since its stated goal is social harmony for the country. And yet this is what will happen unless Beijing changes its policy.

To make matters worse, the Communist Party chief in Tibet, Zhang Qingli, has said that the "Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans" because the party is like a parent who takes care of the children. For religious Tibetans, calling the atheistic Communist Party "the real Buddha" is not only the height of arrogance, but also deeply insulting.

Instead of putting pressure on Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama and making it a crime even to possess his photograph, the Communist Party should try to capitalize on Tibetans' devotion by according him respect - rather than heaping insults on him.

Beijing should accept the Dalai Lama at his word - that he does not seek independence for Tibet - and use that as the basis for a dialogue aimed at bringing him back home as the spiritual leader of Tibetans. At the same time, the Dalai Lama should forgo any dreams of a "Greater Tibet" equivalent to a quarter of China's territory that would be governed from Lhasa.

To date, China's policy seems to have been simply awaiting the demise of the 72-year-old Tibetan leader in the hopes things improve after his death. But Beijing should understand that a younger generation of more radical Tibetans will be even more difficult to handle without the Dalai Lama's moderating influence. While he is still alive, there is a window of opportunity for China to act. Forcing Tibetans to denounce him, meanwhile, is an exercise in futility.