It is indeed tragic that the Chinese are cracking down harshly on unrest in Tibet.

Mass arrests, beatings and shoot-to-kill orders in Lhasa, Tibet’s provincial capital, have followed reports of protesters burning shops and cars to vent their anger against Chinese rule. China overran the previously independent Tibet in 1950 and its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, eventually fled to India.

The violence erupted on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising in 1959 — and just two weeks before China’s Summer Olympics celebration is to be launched with a torch relay that will pass through Tibet.

While China is gambling that its crackdown will not draw an international outcry over human rights violations, we at the Planet are advocating that the United States and other nations sympathetic with Tibet’s plight threaten a boycott of the Olympics.

The current challenge, which initially was led by Buddhist monks demanding the release of other detained monks, escalated into cries for Tibet’s independence.

The scene turned ugly last Friday, when police tried to stop a group of protesting monks. In response, Tibetans directed their long pent-up rage against the Chinese and their businesses in the fiercest challenge to Beijing’s authority in nearly 20 years. The Chinese reportedly responded with gunfire.

Later, Chinese officials said about 10 people died — mainly Chinese. Conversely, the Dalai Lama’s exiled Tibetan government said possibly 80 Tibetans were killed.

China has buckled to pressure in the past. The threat of a Western boycott of the Olympics could work wonders for Tibet.