NEW DELHI, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- Tibetan refugees in the Indian capital Thursday burnt a Chinese flag and an effigy of President Jiang Zemin to protest the Chinese leader's state visit to India.

As demonstrators chanted "Death to Jiang Zemin," one man ran through the crowd waving a burning Chinese flag above his head in defiance of warnings from Indian police not to set the banner alight.

"We will give our lives and blood but we will not give up Tibet," a middle-aged woman said.

More than 200 school children and hundreds of adults marched down a major thoroughfare with their hands chained behind their backs in a symbol of what they called their political impotence.

"Our protests have been suppressed by the Indian government's pressure," Pema Dhondup, a leader of the Tibetan Youth Congress, said.

Behind the Tibetans' fiery rhetoric and blazing imagery lies fear that the fate of their homeland is being ignored as India seeks to move closer to its economically powerful neighbor.

Chinese troops in 1951 annexed Tibet, formerly an independent province. India subsequently offered asylum to Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the dalai lama, and thousands of his followers. Today, India is home to more than 90,000 Tibetan refugees.

Yet in its desire to avoid conflict with China, New Delhi has remained silent on reports of human rights violations and recent Chinese crackdowns on monasteries and religious practices in Tibet.

"India has allowed lobbies and Western nations to bear the burden of building pressure on China on the Tibet issue," said political analyst A.K. Ray of New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"Tibet has been delinked from our relationship with China," Ray said.

At the demonstration, Tibetan refugees called for Indian officials to reconsider their friendly overtures to China or at least, use Jiang's visit, the first for a Chinese head of state, as an opportunity to press Beijing to relax their controls over Tibet.

Towards the end of the demonstration, Tibetan exiles lined up to donate blood to use for writing an open letter to Jiang.

"Quit Tibet and let Tibetans govern themselves," the dark-red letter said. "Your iron rule and your fantastic propaganda outside will not buy you any legitimacy over Tibet."