London (CNN) -- While President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping enjoy the Californian sunshine this week, a different kind of heat threatens Xi in his troublesome backyard, Tibet. Nearly 120 Tibetans have doused themselves in gasoline and set themselves alight in protest against Chinese occupation and repression. Most have died. Theirs is not the only form of protest. In November, students gathered in their hundreds in Chabcha (known in Chinese as Gonghe) county, Qinghai province, to protest the use of Mandarin, rather than Tibetan, as the language of education. In April, unemployed Tibetan graduates in Machu county, Gansu province, protested that Chinese immigrants were taking jobs, while last month, thousands of Tibetans converged on a pilgrimage site on Naghla Dzambha mountain to prevent a Chinese company mining it.
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Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren: Obama should raise issue of Tibet during meeting with Xi
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She says world leaders have been silent, despite wave of Tibetan self-immolations
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China has accepted the need to improve its human rights performance, she says
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"China, the U.S. and Tibet all stand to benefit" from addressing the issue, she says
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But you will search in vain for any stirring words on @placeholder freedom from President Obama or other world leaders.
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Those who elect them want them to speak out for freedom and human rights; China, reported to hold more than one-fifth of the @placeholder' total foreign-held debt, wants them to shut up.
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There have been countless official "expressions of concern" about the situation since the self-immolations started to spread two years ago, and we are constantly reassured that private channels are being used to apply pressure to @placeholder.
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Western policy on Tibet is pleasing no one -- not China, not the electorates, and certainly not @placeholder.
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Between 250 to 500 public protests are already estimated to take place every day in China -- foreign trade and investment will dry up if @placeholder starts to look like an unstable place to do business.
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But bringing @placeholder to the table will show China and the American people he represents that he recognizes the old model has failed.
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But bringing Tibet to the table will show @placeholder and the American people he represents that he recognizes the old model has failed.