Chinese media slammed top US politician Nancy Pelosi as "the least popular person in China" for her stance on Tibet in an editorial today, and said the Beijing Olympic games would be a triumph of justice over evil.
The belligerent commentaries came the day after Beijing announced the arrest of nine Buddhist monks for bombing a government building in Tibet.
A Tibetan source with strong contacts in its capital, Lhasa, said the city was swirling with rumours of fresh clashes between monks and security forces at a key monastery on Lhasa's outskirts.
China has gone on the offensive in the face of mounting international criticism of its handling of violent riots in Tibet and a subsequent crackdown, which is clouding the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games in August.
China considers a growing number of boycott threats and chaotic protests that have marred a global torch relay as an unfair mix of sports and politics ahead of an event it hoped would be a celebration of three decades of economic reforms and opening.
"Though the torch relay was disrupted by 'Tibetan independence' factions, no power on earth can block the dreams of the people of China and the world for peace and their pursuit of the Olympic spirit," the People's Daily, the newspaper of China's Communist Party, said today.
"The lighting of the Olympic flame in the Bird's Nest stadium on August 8th will be a moment of pride for China and also for the whole world, as justice will finally defeat evil."
The official Xinhua agency targeted Ms Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, after she backed a resolution urging dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the end of a crackdown on non-violent protesters and a halt to repression in the region.
The People's Daily accused the California Democrat of cynical double standards and said she would likely top any Chinese poll to find "the most disgusting figure".
"The Chinese are fully justified to call her 'a protector of mobsters, arsonists and murderers'. Why doesn't she give a thought to Iraq?" Xinhua said in an English language commentary, an apparent reference to US policy in Iraq, of which Pelosi has in fact been a strong critic.
"Pelosi would remain the least popular person for China if she stiff-neckedly clings to her double standards and an anti-China stance," it added.
Chinese authorities have meanwhile put out a wanted list naming a total 143 people suspected of involvement in the riots, many of them monks, said a source who saw a Tibetan-language local television report.
Lhasa is also swirling with rumours that security forces clashed with monks on Friday at the major Drepung monastery, and roads leading to it have been blocked, the source said.