TIBET vs. CHINA

By: Gulnoza Khakimova Naomi Daniel Elizabeth Cullum Shane Franklin

Location

Tibet sits high on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on China's southwest border

•Tibet is made up of the three provinces of Amdo, Kham, and U-Tsang

•Chinese occupation began in 1949 and 1950. The political boundaries have been redrawn to include only the U-Tsang and part of western Kham, designated as the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) on Chinese maps in 1965. •The majority of cultural Tibet has been incorporated into China's Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan Provinces.

HISTORY The first great ruler of Tibet was Songtsan Gampo, who established a kingdom in the Zangbo Valley in the A.D. 600’s.

Tibet had great power until wars with China and internal conflict led to its decline.

In the 1200’s Tibet was conquered by the Mongols.

In 1270, Kulbai Khan, the Mongol ruler who became emperor of China, adopted Lamaism as the state religion of his empire.

For the next several centuries, Tibet was ruled by its lamas under China’s protection.

By the end of the 1800s, China weakened and was losing control of Tibet.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Britain tried to establish control over Tibet.

In 1914 a dispute arose between China and India when a boundary between Tibet and India was defined.

China did not recognize this boundary, which led to a border war between China and India.

Britain's colonial flag between 1899-1902

In 1911, Tibet declared its independence.

In 1950 Tibet’s independence was destroyed under the rule of Chinese Chairman Mao.

In 1951 they signed a treaty, making Tibet a self-governing region of China.

In reality, Tibet did not have political power.

In 1959, Tibetans revolted against Chinese rule.

The Potala palace, former home of the exiled Dalai Lama in the heart of Lhasa, Tibet.

An uprising with the ruler Dalai Lama was quickly crushed, and the Dalai Lama fled to India.

In 1965, Tibet was officially made an autonomous region of China.

In 1994, the Chinese government placed a limit on the number of monks and nuns allowed to study in Tibet’s monasteries.

In 1995 Tibet selected its own candidate for Panch’en Lama (second highest teacher of Dharma).

Reasons/Perspectives

China

3 main reasons :

•Chinese rights to Tibet were still valid from the 13th century in Kublai Khan’s empire, as the China/Tibet union was never legally broken.

•China is “helping” Tibet by controlling it; Tibet needs China to help it keep its society in order and keep Buddhism from taking over/influencing Tibetan culture.

•China is overpopulated and will benefit from having more land for its citizens, which Tibet provides.

Tibet

•Tibetans resent the violation rights imposed on them from the past 40 years.

•China has destroyed Tibetan culture, the Tibetan religious freedom, religious symbols and houses of worship. Also, Chinese immigrants have made any hope of a nation-state impossible.

•Tibetans feel that China is violating the international law of Tibet having the right to maintain its own government.

• Let Tibet be sovereign.

•Treaty: Tibet is a sovereign state, but it keeps its borders open for a limited yearly number of Chinese immigrants.

•Limit China’s control of Tibet and gradually take control completely away from China over Tibet, and eventually make Tibet sovereign.

UN Policy Suggestions

In 2008, European Union leader Jose Manuel Barroso stated that the EU recognized Tibet as integral part of China.

On 1 April, 2009, the French Government reaffirmed her position on the Tibet issue: Tibet is an integral part of Chinese territory.

In October, 2008, the British government clarified their official position on Tibet's status: “we do not support Tibetan independence. Like every other EU member state, and the United States, we regard Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China.”The US government recognizes Tibet as part of China, but the US Congress has at times expressed a different perspective, calling Tibet an occupied country.

Statement on Tibet and China“I wish to express my solidarity with the people of Tibet during this critical time in their history. To my dear friend His Holiness the Dalai Lama, let me say: I stand with you. You define non-violence and compassion and goodness. I was in an Easter retreat when the recent tragic events unfolded in Tibet. I learned that China has stated you caused violence. Clearly China does not know you, but they should. I call on China's government to know His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as so many have come to know, during these long decades years in exile. Listen to His Holiness' pleas for restraint and calm and no further violence against this civilian population of monastics and lay people. I urge China to enter into a substantive and meaningful dialogue with this man of peace, the Dalai Lama.”

Desmond Tutu

“China is uniquely positioned to impact and affect our world. Certainly the leaders of China know this or they would not have bid for the Olympics. Killing, imprisonment and torture are not a sport: the innocents must be released and given free and fair trials.I urge my esteemed friend Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet and be given access to assess, and report to the international community, the events which led to this international outcry for justice. The High Commissioner should be allowed to travel with journalists, and other observers, who may speak truth to power and level the playing field so that, indeed, this episode -- these decades of struggle -- may attain a peaceful resolution. This will help not only Tibet. It will help China.And China, poised to receive the world during the forthcoming Olympic Games needs to make sure the eyes of the world will see that China has changed, that China is willing to be a responsible partner in international global affairs. Finally, China must stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing one whose life has been devoted to non violence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Nobel peace laureate.”

China warns ObamaMr. Obama told China's leaders last year in Beijing that he would meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader. China has warned that ties with the US would be undermined if the meeting takes place. The comments came after Communist Party official Zhu Weiqun said such a meeting would "threaten trust and co-operation" between Beijing and Washington. Tibetan monk and President met in Washington in February. The Tibetans repeated their hopes for greater autonomy for the Himalayan region, but Mr. Zhu said there was no possibility of the "slightest compromise" on the issue of sovereignty in Tibet.

www.freetibet.org

Organization which tries to stop torture in Tibet.