Ashwini Bhatia / AP

Exiled Tibetan Buddhist monks walk past a banner of photos of Tibetan protesters as they participate in a candlelit vigil organized by the Tibetan parliament in exile in Dharmsala, India, on Thursday.

Chinese authorities detained 70 people in ethnically Tibetan areas Thursday in a bid to crack down on the gruesome spectacle of people setting themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule, state media said.

The operation, the largest of its kind yet reported by Beijing, is part of an intensifying effort to quell the fiery protests. It comes on the heels of a documentary released in China that blames Westerners, particularly Voice of America, for encouraging people to set themselves on fire and then treating those who do as heroes.

Nearly 100 people have set themselves alight since 2009 to protest Chinese rule, and most of them have died from their injuries.

Twelve of the 70 people detained Thursday were officially arrested in connection with self-immolation cases in what China calls the Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province deputy police chief Lyu Bengqian said, according to state media.

Lyu is head of a special police team investigating self-immolation cases. He said efforts would be stepped up to investigate the protests and to "seriously punish" anyone seen as inciting them.

China blames the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile, as well as the West for the increase in self-immolations.

The U.S. State Department has been critical of the recent arrests.

In her Feb. 1 news briefing, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland criticized China's Tibet policies, in particular the heavy sentencing in January of a Tibetan monk and his nephew, who were charged with inciting eight people to set themselves on fire.

"We continue both publicly and privately to urge the Chinese government at all levels to address policies in Tibet -- in Tibetan areas -- that have created tensions and that threaten the distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people."

On Wednesday, Voice of America shot back at China's assertion that it had encouraged Tibetans to set themselves on fire.

"That is totally false," Voice of America Director David Ensor said in a news release. "We do report these tragic stories; we do not encourage these self-immolations, that is wrong."

CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster, produced and aired a documentary that pointed fingers at Voice of America, which is the U.S. government's official broadcaster overseas.

The program showed a Tibetan man in a hospital bed who allegedly attempted to self-immolate.

Apparently prompted to explain why he had attempted to light himself on fire, the man said, "I did it after watching VOA, I saw the photographs of self-immolators being commemorated. They were treated like heroes."

The documentary also sensationally accuses VOA of employing secret codes to send messages to people inside Tibet.

"That is one of the more amazing parts of the CCTV report," Ensor said. "That suggestion is totally absurd."

VOA is asking that both CCTV and the China Daily retract their reports.

Related:

Documentary alleges US broadcaster incites self-immolations

Resounding silence as Chinese dissident wins US award

China's Public Security Bureau

China's Public Security Bureau's graphic announcement about the crackdown on illegal immigrants in Beijing. The Chinese characters say: 'Illegal immigrants, illegal residence, illegal work' and the fist graphically spells out the crackdown.

BEIJING – China has launched a 100-day crackdown against illegal immigration and illegal employment in the wake of a high-profile sexual assault case involving a British national who was videotaped allegedly attempting to force himself on a Chinese woman.

The disturbing three-minute video surfaced on the Internet last week and has been viewed more than 8 million times on the Chinese video-sharing website youku.com, provoking outrage across China’s web-sphere.

The clip of the May 8 incident shows the 25-year-old British man standing over a sobbing  Chinese woman on a street median before a Good Samaritan came to her rescue.  Following a brief scuffle, the attacker was then shown lying unconscious on the street before he is suddenly kicked by another nearby bystander – much to the approval of netizens who commented online.

Police arrived soon afterward and detained the man, who was reportedly intoxicated, for sexual assault. He is allegedly still in detention, pending an investigation.   

Officials from China’s Public Security Bureau told NBC News that their summer-long campaign against illegal immigration and illegal employment is simply an enforcement of procedures already in place and wouldn’t comment on whether this crackdown was the result of the attack.

The tactics the Public Security Bureau announced they would use are similar to the ones employed in 2007 and during the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Namely, spot checks of foreigners in Beijing neighborhoods frequented by expatriates, like the Sanlitun bar district and the university district of Haidian.

Police will also create a special hotline so the public can report suspicious foreigners. Security officials will also conduct door-to-door checks of homes owned or rented by foreigners to check visas and housing permits. Chinese state television, CCTV, also quoted Professor Xiang Dang of the Chinese People's Public Security University as saying that the National People’s Congress Standing Committee was also considering creating special detention centers to hold foreigners found without valid visas.

‘Foreigner vs. Chinese’
All of this is part of a multi-prong campaign ostensibly to rein in immigrants who commit crimes, have over-stayed their visas or work illegally in the mainland.

Despite the claims that this was merely a step-up of routine procedures, the tone of the announcement of the campaign – posted on China’s Twitter-like service Weibo – suggests a renewed urgency on the part of Chinese police.  In the announcement, a fist is seen smashing down on three words: Illegal immigrants, illegal residence, illegal work.

News of the campaign was unfortunately greeted with some anti-foreigner stereotyping – a common “foreigner versus Chinese” practice lamented in a column in the Chinese newspaper Global Times. 

But the police crackdown was generally seen as a positive development online. On Weibo one user wrote: “[The campaign] should have happened earlier! If we don’t do this, there will be more cases of foreigners raping Chinese girls!”

Another user, however, noted, “In fact, we don’t need this campaign now. Any foreigner who has seen the video or heard about this incident will behave. That’s the best lesson.”

Throughout the day on Tuesday, “illegal foreigner” was a Top 10 trending topic on Weibo.

But missing from much of the public discussion online was the fact that the Briton believed to have sparked this new campaign was in China on a valid tourist visa.

Growing issue: illegal immigration
Though the timing of the Public Security Bureau’s campaign suggests a desire to associate the video with a toughening-up on street crime committed by foreigners, the focus of the campaign –checking documentation of foreigners – seems to be centered more on dealing with illegal immigration.

A Global Times article on the crackdown noted that China rounded-up about 20,000 illegal immigrants last year and – just like the United States – had no idea just how many were still in the country.

“It's very difficult for China to deal with the problem,” the Global Times wrote. “China lacks experience, hasn't made full preparations, and does not even know the exact number of illegal immigrants right now.”  

The Global Times – typically a nationalistic leaning paper – appeared to be using the crackdown as an occasion to acknowledge the country’s need for immigration reform.

“China should create favorable and legal conditions for foreigners to live and work in the country,” the article states. “On the other hand, China should be decisive in cracking down on illegal immigrants. It cannot afford to be an immigrant destination at this early stage.”  

If the tenet about citizens of poor countries chasing opportunity in richer nations holds true, the 20,000 illegal immigrants China dealt with this year will very soon pale in comparison to the number of illegal immigrants in the United States as of 2011: 11.5 million.

Correction: May 17, 2012

An earlier version of this post noted that a member of the National People's Congress Standing Committee told CCTV that it was considering creating special detention centers to hold foreigners without valid visas. It was Professor Xiang Dang of the Chinese People's Public Security University, not a member of the National People's Standing Committee who made that comment.

By Adrienne Mong and Eric Baculinao

BEIJING--Elsewhere in the country, the would-be Jasmine rallies seemed to have met the same fate as in Beijing. 

Our colleagues in Harbin said no one turned up at the appointed locations — although that may well have been due to the frigid conditions as the city lies in China’s far northeast.

There was a massive turnout in Shanghai, where at least seven men were detained.  It was not clear whether they were protesters or journalists, but people professing to be participants in the rally were quoted by several news outlets.

Meantime, the crackdown continued on dissidents.

Housing rights activist Ni Yulan said she could not follow the news as authorities have kept her Internet connection cut off since she was released from detention last year.  She revealed that U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr., visited her early last month to express concern over her situation.

“I heard about this “jasmine” thing from others, but I don’t think it is possible in China,” she told NBC News. 

“I don’t really pay much attention to this “jasmine” thing,” said Xu Zhiyong, a human rights lawyer.  “But still the authorities are restricting my movements.”

Others dismissed the “Jasmine rallies” as a joke.

“It was not a call for real revolution," said a veteran from the 1989 Tiananmen protests who did wish to be identified. "It was just to make fun."

Dissident writer and physicist Dr. Jiang Qisheng concurred, saying the whole affair “was really meant to make fun of authorities.”  Jiang spent 17 months in prison after the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and signed the controversial Charter '08, an online petition calling for an end to one-party rule and greater civil and human rights. 

“I was not planning to join this protest, but, just the same, authorities are checking on me almost every day to control my activities,” he told NBC News.

But for the Chinese authorities this is no joke.

In addition to the gravity of the matter demonstrated in the overwhelming police presence in central Beijing today, Premier Wen Jiabao held an online question and answer session with Chinese netizens early this morning.

 It was his third ever such webchat and suggested the Chinese leadership had decided on a two-pronged approach to squelch the would-be protests: a sophisticated propaganda effort as well as a heavy-handed security clampdown.

Wen’s remarks — which focused on the nation’s economic growth alongside social justice and environmental protection and pledged the government would control soaring inflation and real estate prices — were broadcast repeatedly on state radio, television, and the Internet all day.

Some of those issues touched on by Wen are highly sensitive topics that weigh on many ordinary Chinese, especially rising food prices over the past year and sky-high property prices that are out of the reach of most urban residents.

It should be noted this is a sensitive time for the Chinese central government.  Next week sees the start of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).  Both are nominally elected government bodies that rubberstamp legislative and policy proposals.  With such a high-profile gathering of government officials, the capital is typically put on high security alert.