China said Friday a recent wave of self-immolations by Buddhist monks and nuns should be condemned, a day after the 11th such incident hit the country.

"Not condemning self-immolations but playing them up and inciting others to follow examples is challenging the common conscience and moral bottom line of human kind," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

Buddhist nun Qiu Xiang set herself on fire in the southwestern province of Sichuan on Thursday, calling for religious freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, rights groups said.

She died in the incident in Dawu county -- confirmed by the official Xinhua news agency.

Eight Tibetan Buddhist monks and two nuns have now set themselves alight in Tibetan-inhabited regions of Sichuan since the self-immolation of a young monk at Kirti monastery in Aba county in March sparked major protests that led to a government clampdown.

Many Tibetans in China are angry about what they see as growing domination by the country's majority Han ethnic group.

Most of the suicide attempts have taken place around the Kirti monastery, which has become a flashpoint for mounting anger at the erosion of Tibetan culture.

Xinhua reported that an initial police investigation had shown Thursday's case was "masterminded and instigated by the Dalai Lama clique, which had plotted a chain of self-immolations in the past months for splitting motives."

Hong echoed this, saying the "relevant activities are related to separatist forces overseas."

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, founded a government in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala after being offered refuge there.

He remains revered in China's Tibetan areas but is vilified as a "separatist" by China's communist authorities.

Exiled Tibet PM urges US pressure over protests
Washington (AFP) Nov 3, 2011 - Tibet's prime minister-in-exile urged the United States on Thursday to step up pressure on China after a wave of self-immolations, which he said showed the failure of Beijing's rule.

Lobsang Sangay, who was elected to the government-in-exile's new post as the Dalai Lama tries to ease out of his political role, met lawmakers in Washington while a nun became the 11th Tibetan monk or nun to set herself on fire this year.

Testifying to Congress, Sangay appealed to the United States "to prevail on the Chinese government to make them realize the tragedy unfolding in Tibet, that this kind of a hardline policy of the Chinese government is not working."

"I think it's high time that the international community realizes the gravity and the urgency of the situation," he told a commission on human rights named after late US lawmaker Tom Lantos.

Specifically, Sangay asked the United States to press for a fact-finding mission into the Kirti monastery at the center of the self-immolations, which has been strictly off-limits to visitors since tensions erupted.

Eight Buddhist monks and two nuns have set themselves alight in ethnically Tibetan parts of Sichuan province since the self-immolation of a young monk in March at Kirti monastery sparked a government crackdown.

Activists say that at least five monks and two nuns have died and that Chinese police have at times responded by beating the alight protesters and their colleagues rather than providing assistance.

China has accused the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who fled his homeland for India in 1959, of instigating the self-immolations in a form of "terrorism in disguise."

China has long sought to discredit the Dalai Lama, who enjoys wide popularity in Tibet and abroad. The Dalai Lama has in the past condemned self-immolations, which many Buddhists believe are contrary to their faith, but has kept a low profile over the recent wave of protests.

"Given a choice, anyone would like to live than die," Sangay told the US commission.

"When someone dies -- and dies in such an agonizing way -- the suffering inside and outside ought to be very, very strong and unbearable."

US Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts and co-chair of the commission, criticized China's response to the self-immolations.

"Rather than recognizing that such a desperate and extreme form of protest requires dialogue and reconciliation, the Chinese government has instead increased the level of repression placed on Tibetan monks," he said.

The Tibetan protests come amid a wave of unrest in the Arab world that has toppled three autocratic leaders, initially triggered by the self-immolation of a street vendor in Tunisia.

Tibetan monks in Sichuan, speaking to AFP reporters who managed a rare trip to the region last month, linked the self-immolations to China's refusal to negotiate seriously with the Dalai Lama.

The 11th Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, the spiritual guide of Kirti monastery who lives in exile in India, told the US commission that Tibetans felt a severe lack of freedom, with even mailing a letter enough to warrant arrest.

"Since they don't have any avenues to voice their feelings -- even to voice their feelings of what they do in a day -- therefore in desperation they have resorted to the ultimate way of drawing attention," he said.

"Most of the Tibetan majority lives in a situation which is like house arrest in any other country."

Maria Otero, the under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, said that President Barack Obama's administration has urged China to address its "counter-productive" policies in Tibet.

"Senior State Department officials have consistently and directly raised with the Chinese government the issue of Tibetan self-immolations," Otero, who serves as US policy coordinator on Tibet, said in written testimony to a separate hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

But Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, urged the Democratic administration to do more. He called on Gary Locke, the US ambassador to Beijing, to insist on visiting Tibet.

Locke should "not only go to Lhasa but go through the country and maybe hold a press conference when he's finished," Wolf said.