China will start paying pensions to monks and nuns in its Tibetan areas, the official Xinhua news agency said Thursday, after a run of self-immolations by Buddhist clergy protesting religious repression. Beijing has come under mounting international criticism over its treatment of Tibetan Buddhists in recent months, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling on China to “embrace a different path”. Eleven monks and nuns have set fire to themselves this year in what rights groups say is a sign of the desperation felt by Tibetan Buddhists in China, where some have been subjected to religious “reeducation” and even torture. China, which has invested heavily in development in its ethnically Tibetan regions, maintains that it has brought modernisation and a better standard of living.
