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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