Wen Jiabao, China’s premier, on Tuesday blamed the Dalai Lama for the worst unrest in Tibet in nearly two decades, and characterised the protests as a plot to sabotage the Olympic Games in Beijing this year.

The incident “has all the more revealed that the assertions by the Dalai clique that they desire peaceful negotiation are nothing but lies”, Mr Wen said in his annual press conference on Tuesday. “Their hypocritical lies cannot cover the iron-clad facts.”