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Tibetan FAQ (3)
B5) What is the historical basis of the Chinese claim to Tibet?
Here is how the Chinese Communist magazine _Beijing Review_ explains it:
From ancient times, the Mongolians had been one of China's
nationalities. In the 13th century, their power expanded rapidly.
Genghis Khan united the tribes under a centralized Khanate in 1206.
The outcome was a unified country [China] and the formation of the
Yuan Dynasty in 1271.
In the process, the Mongol Khanates peacefully incorporated Tibet
in 1247 after defeating the Western Xia and the Jin.
With a unified China, the Yuan Dynasty contributed greatly to the
political, economic and cultural development of the nation's various
nationalities -- in strict contrast to the feuding that had gone on
since the late years of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). To argue that the
Mongolians' campaign to unify China was fundamentally the imposition
of rule by a foreign power is wrong because it misses the basic point
of Chinese history that China is a multi-national country. Whether it
was the Mongolians, the Manchus (who founded the Qing Dynasty), or any
other peoples, it has always been a case of one Chinese nationality
replacing another. It is completely out of the question to claim that
the Mongolians or the Manchus were outsiders who conquered China.
[BR-F89]
The Dalai Lama's view is as follows:
During the Vth Dalai Lama's time [1617-1682], I think it was quite
evident the we were a separate sovereign nation with no problems. The
VIth Dalai Lama [1683-1706] was spiritually pre-eminent, but
politically, he was weak and disinterested. He could not follow the
Vth Dalai Lama's path. This was a great failure. So, then the Chinese
influence increased. During this time, the Tibetans showed quite a
deal of respect to the Chinese. But even during these times, the
Tibetans never regarded Tibet as a part of China. All the documents
were very clear that China, Mongolia and Tibet were all separate
countries. Because the Chinese emperor was powerful and influential,
the small nations accepted the Chinese power or influence. You cannot
use the previous invasion as evidence that Tibet belongs to China. In
the Tibetan mind, regardless of who was in power, whether it was the
Manchus, the Mongols or the Chinese, the east of Tibet was simply
referred to as China. In the Tibetan mind, India and China were
treated the same; two separate countries. [Gyatso89]
B6) What was Tibet's status during China's Qing dynasty (1644-1912)?
The Tibetan view of their relationship with the Qing Empire was expressed
by the 13th Dalai Lama in his 1913 proclamation of independence: "The
relationship between Tibet and [imperial] China was that of priest and
patron and was not based on the subordination of one to the other."
[Walt4]
Subordination was, however, an integral part of the Chinese view of
international affairs. In traditional Chinese legal doctrine, the emperor
was a universal ruler. Any territory that was not under direct imperial
administration was considered to be either tributary or rebellious. In
the official records of the Qing dynasty, _Da Qing Lichao Shilu_, various
countries with a wide variety relationships with the Qing Empire are
listed as vassal states (_shu2guo2_), including Korea, Vietnam, Tibet,
Britain, and even the Papacy. [Walt5]
In Qing documents written during the early years of the dynasty, Tibet is
referred to as a _guo2_ (nation). [Brunnert12] This suggests a status
equivalent to that of, say, Korea or Vietnam. In later years, however, Tibet
was referred to as a _bu4_ (dependency), a term that was also applied to
Mongolia. [Walt6]
In reaction to a British military expedition to Lhasa in 1904, the Qing
government asserted, for the first time, a claim of sovereignty over
Tibet. [Walt7] An atlas published in Shanghai in 1910 helped publicized this
new territorial claim. [Atlas10] In contrast, a popular Chinese atlas first
published in 1879 has a map of the Qing Empire which shows Korea, Manchuria,
Taiwan, and China proper, but not Tibet. [Yang75]
While the Qing (or Manchu) Empire is often referred to as "China," it was
in fact a multi-national dynastic state. Muslims, Mongols, Manchus, Koreans,
and ethnic Chinese (Han) were each governed on a separate basis and no
attempt was made to create a common nationality or citizenship. Since 1911,
however, the Chinese government has based its legitimacy on ethnic Chinese
nationalism.
B7) What was Tibet's status immediately prior to China's 1950-51 invasion?
The International Commission of Jurists, a Geneva-based human rights
organization, issued a report in 1960 which examined the legal status of the
Tibetan government:
The view of the COMMITTEE was that Tibet was at the very least a _de
facto_ independent State when the Agreement on Peaceful Measures in
Tibet was signed in [23 May] 1951, and the repudiation of this
agreement by the Tibetan Government in [20 June] 1959 was found to
be fully justified....In 1950, there was a people and a territory,
and a government which functioned in that territory, conducting its
own domestic affairs free from any outside authority. From 1913-1950
foreign relations of Tibet were conducted exclusively by the
Government of Tibet and countries with whom Tibet had practice as an
independent State. [ICJ2]
Tibet was accorded differing degrees of recognition by various governments.
Mongolia, for example, explicitly recognized Tibet's independence in a 1913
"Treaty of Friendship and Alliance" which was signed by representatives of
both nations in Urga, Mongolia. [Walt8]
Nepal's 1949 application for U.N. membership lists Tibet as a country that
Nepal had full diplomatic relations with. [Walt9] The chief Nepalese
diplomat in Lhasa held the title _vakil_ ("ambassador") up until 1962.
[Savada93]
In 1943, the British embassy in Washington told the U.S. State Department
that, "Tibet is a separate country in full enjoyment of local autonomy,
entitled to exchange diplomatic representatives with other powers." [Walt10]
In a note presented to Chinese Foreign Minister T. V. Song a few months
later, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden described Tibet as, "an
autonomous State under the suzerainty of China" which "enjoyed de facto
independence." [Goldstein89]
Yuan Shikai, the first president of the Republic of China, issued the
following order in 1912:
Now that the Five Races [i.e. Ethnic Chinese, Manchus, Mongols,
Tibetans, and Muslims/Turkestanis] are joined in democratic union,
the lands comprised within the confines of Mongolia, Tibet and
Turkestan all become a part of the territory of the Republic of China.
[Walt11]
The CCP drew up a proposed constitution for China in 1931 which stated that
"national minorities," including Tibetans, "may either join the Union of
Chinese Soviets or secede from it." [Grunfeld3] By 1949, however, a CCP-
controlled Radio Beijing was expressing quite a different view:
The Tibetan people are an indivisible part of the Chinese people.
Any aggressor who fails to recognize this point will "crack his skull
against the mailed fist of the PLA." [Walt12]
Section C: HUMAN RIGHTS
C1) Are Tibetan women being forced to have abortions?
The following account is from _Sky Burial_ (1993) by Blake Kerr. Kerr is
an American physician who visited Tibet in 1987.
I spoke with a Tibetan nurse named Chimi who had worked for three
years at Lhasa's People's Hospital. She explained to me China's
family-planning policy for urban Tibetans....
"If a woman has a second child," she continued, "the child will have
rights. But this is discouraged. Sterilization is done automatically
on many women delivering their second child at Chinese hospitals.
"Having a third child is strongly discouraged. An illegal child has
no ration card for the monthly allotment of Tibetan dietary staples
at government stores: seven kilos of _tsampa_, one-half kilo yak
butter, and cooking oil. Without a ration card a child cannot go to
school, do organized work, travel, or own property....
My stomach felt queasy as Chimi described how "unauthorized"
pregnancies were routinely terminated with lethal injections. Chimi
said that she herself had given hundreds of these injections....[Kerr93]
C2) How are Tibetan political prisoners treated?
The following quote is from a 1988 news story that appeared in _The
Washington Post_. It is based on the statements of two former prisoners
arrested on March 5, 1988 during a large pro-independence demonstration.
Both former prisoners were held at the Gutsa detention center near Lhasa.
[The released lay prisoner] said that interrogators beat seven monks
from one monastery, and then stuffed all seven into a small confined
water channel. The guards then "stomped all over their bodies," he said.
"They beat us with whatever was at their disposal, including wash
basins and mugs," he said. "They kicked us and used pistol butts and
...wooden sticks on us."
The released prisoner said that interrogators used electric cattle
prods as an instrument of torture. Some prisoners also underwent the
"Chinese rope torture," he said.
"I saw people hanging from ropes tied to their arms behind their
backs, suspended with their feet off the ground. Two of the people I
saw had their shoulders dislocated by the rope. Many became
unconscious as a result."
Both former prisoners said that those who were treated most harshly
in the prisons were Tibetan nuns. Most of the imprisoned nuns have
been released from prison but were said to be reluctant to talk about
the experience.
The most brutal of the guards were said to be Tibetans, not Chinese.
[Southerland88]
A recent Amnesty International report includes a list 628 Tibetans who spent
at least some time in prison during the period 1992-94 as result of their
political beliefs. [Strib95]
The 10th Panchen Lama gave the following account of human rights conditions
in Tibet in a 1987 speech delivered in Beijing:
In 1959 there were rebellions in Tibet.... People were arrested and
jailed indiscriminately. There were no interrogations. On sight
Tibetans were taken to jail and beaten. Things like this are still
common in Tibet....
If there was a film made on all the atrocities perpetrated in Qinghai
province, it would shock the viewers. In Golok area, many people were
killed and their dead bodies were rolled down the hill into a big
ditch. The soldiers told the family members and relatives of the dead
people that they should all celebrate since the rebels had been wiped
out. They were even forced to dance on the dead bodies. Soon after, they
were also massacred with machine guns. They were all buried there....
In Amdo and Kham, people were subjected unspeakable atrocities. People
were shot in groups of ten or twenty. I know that it is not good to
speak about these things. But such actions have left deep wounds in the
minds of the people. [Donnet94]
C3) How many Tibetans have died as a result of the Chinese occupation?
The following table was made up by the Bureau of Information of the
Tibetan government-in-exile:
TIBETAN DEATHS UNDER CHINESE OCCUPATION (through 1988)
CAUSE OF DEATH U-Tsang Kham Amdo Total
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prisons, Labor Camps 93,560 64,877 14,784 173,221
Torture 27,951 48,840 15,940 97,731
Execution 28,267 32,266 96,225 156,758
Uprisings 143,253 240,410 49,042 432,705
Starvation 131,072 89,916 121,982 342,970
Suicide 3,375 3,952 1,675 9,002
TOTAL 427,478 480,361 299,648 1,207,387
Source: [Kewley90]
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