Protests against Chinese rule in Tibet have spread into neighbouring provinces in China and cities around the world.

The outbreak of deadly riots has also sparked calls for a boycott of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

James Miles, a journalist from The Economist magazine, was in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, when the protests began.

A long-time China correspondent, he was also in Beijing at the time of the Tiananmen massacre. Jim Middleton spoke to him on his return to the Chinese capital.

Jim Middleton: James Miles, welcome to the program.

James Miles, The Economist: Thanks, Jim.

Jim Middleton: What was it like in Lhasa? How peaceful were the demonstrations when they first began?

James Miles: They began around March the 10th, when hundreds of monks from one of the main monasteries near Lhasa staged a protest and that involved, it seemed, some sort of skirmishes with the police, but nothing terribly violent. And again similar demonstrations on the next day. But it wasn't until March the 14th that we saw the unrest spread into Lhasa itself, and those protests were very violent indeed.

I was there at the beginning of the protest, as they started in one of the main streets in Lhasa. First of all, as I saw it, involving a crowd of 100 or so people, many of them throwing stones at Chinese shops along that road. Then very rapidly the protest spread across the old Tibetan area of the city.

Through the narrow alley ways, which are lined with little shops, most of them run by ethnic Han Chinese, the ethnic group to which most Chinese people belong. They went systematically from shop to shop destroying those which are run by ethnic Chinese. And saving those which are run by Tibetans, the minority of shops. And they had marked those that are Tibetan-owned with a white traditional scarf.

"it was quite a systematic operation, and very violent."

So it was quite a systematic operation, and very violent. Many of the ethnic Chinese ran, fled, as soon as this began, but some were caught up in the early stages of this and I saw members of the crowd throwing stones at a boy cycling past and a couple of other ethnic Han Chinese. I saw one Chinese boy run into a small monastery off the main road and prostrate himself before the Abbott and beg for some sort of help to get him away from the mob, and the Tibetan Abbott did help him find a little room where he could hide himself.

It was that kind of fear - it was ethnically targeted violence on a huge scale.

Jim Middleton: The Chinese authorities have been insisting all through this that whatever level of violence they face, whatever level of protest they face, they always acted with restraint.

Do you think the Chinese response has been as much controlled, as calibrated as that?

James Miles: Well, with restraint I think suggests there was a plan from the start and they executed it. I don't think there was. I think this caught them by surprise. I think they had to then relay that information up through the political structure, and then a decision, I think, must've been taken that the security forces would remain aloof, essentially, until the riots have played themselves out. And what I saw in Lhasa, for about 24 hours was utter lawlessness.

It wasn't a question of troops moving in and killing people. It was troops standing back and allowing this violence to continue on a huge scale. It wasn't just the old Tibetan quarter. When I was able, after security had been imposed, to get out and about and see a bit more of the city, I realised it had spread right into ethnic Han dominated parts of the city.

"…for several hours you had the security forces doing essentially not much of anything…"

So what happened was, for several hours you had the security forces doing essentially not much of anything, then during the night putting a cordon around the old Tibetan area, but still within that cordon, there was a huge part of the city which was still lawless. Into the second day, rioting continued even as the troops were surrounding that part of the city.

It wasn't until the afternoon of the second day that you began to see troops, members of their riot control force I think, with automatic rifles, moving into these alley ways, letting off the occasional shot and thus bringing an end to the unrest. But it was a mystery to a lot of people in Lhasa. Ethnic Han Chinese in particular, were so angry about this as to why the security forces were standing back. That was the big question.

Jim Middleton: Just how serious a threat are the Chinese authorities, just how serious a challenge, are they now facing?

James Miles: Well, a very big one indeed, because the Olympics looms over all of this. That's what this is all about and why it happened in the first place to the extent it did. It's because so many Tibetans are now focused on this event as a crucial opportunity to bring the world's attention to their problems.

You might argue they chose a rather strange way of doing it in the form of this most unpleasant violence, but it has worked to an extent. The world is now looking at Tibet and wondering what the nature of the problem is and why people were so angry there that they went to the extent they did in terms of destroying all these properties and attacking people. I think for the next five months in the build up to the Olympics, if they begin withdrawing this security and trying to restore things to normal, then we still face a risk of continuing unrest in Lhasa.

Jim Middleton: James Miles, thank you very much for the unique insights you've brought back from Lhasa. Thanks very much for your time.

James Miles: Thank you.