Authorities in Tibetan regions of southwestern China are continuing a recent crackdown against anti-Chinese government activists ahead of this week's celebration of the Tibetan New Year and in advance of the March anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile.

News reports from Sichuan province say a Tibetan writer, identified as 33-year-old Gangkye Drubpa Kyab, has been detained. The reports say he was seized from his home in Seda county this past Wednesday and has not been released.

His detention follows a recent series of self-immolatrions including that of a Tibetan monk who set himself on fire in Qinghai province on Saturday to protest the presence of Chinese security forces in his monastery. Two teenaged Tibetans, a nun and a monk, killed themselves earlier this month.

On Friday, China detained several hundred Tibetans as they returned to China from attending teaching lessons in India with the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese government is blaming overseas organizations, including the London-based Free Tibet movement, of fomenting the unrest.

Over the past year more than 20 Tibetans, most of them monks, have set themselves on fire to focus attention on what they see as Chinese repression of religious freedom and controls on Buddhist monasteries. There have been at least a dozen deaths.