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why not, Tibet was a independent country, never part of china before the invasion
Mathpianist93 (talk | contribs)
3,837 edits
yes it was, brainwashed bastard: there's a difference between de facto and recognised independence, that you will never understand.
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|place=[[Tibet]]
|place=[[Tibet]]
|date=1950-1951
|date=1950-1951
|result=Decisive [[People's Liberation Army|Chinese Military]] victory.
|result=
*Decisive [[People's Liberation Army|Chinese Military]] victory.
|territory=Signing of the [[Seventeen Point Agreement]] which integrated Tibet to the [[People's Republic of China]]<ref name=goldstein>Goldstein 1989, p812-813</ref> succeeding the ROC government.
*Signing of the [[Seventeen Point Agreement]] which integrated Tibet to the [[People's Republic of China]]<ref name=goldstein>Goldstein 1989, p812-813</ref> succeeding the ROC government.
|combatant1={{flagicon|Tibet}} [[Tibet (1912–1950)|Tibet]]
|combatant1={{flagicon|Tibet}} [[Tibet (1912–1950)|Tibet]]
|combatant2={{flag|People's Republic of China}}
|combatant2={{flag|People's Republic of China}}

Revision as of 01:25, 1 June 2010

People's Liberation Army Invasion of Tibet (1950-1951)
Date1950-1951
Location
Tibet
Result
Belligerents
Tibet Tibet  People's Republic of China
Commanders and leaders
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme (POW)[2] Mao Zedong
Liu Bocheng
Strength
Tibet Tibetan Army:[3] 8,500[4] People's Liberation Army : 40,000[5][6]
Casualties and losses
5,000 killed[5][7] N/A

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) defeated the Tibetan army in a battle at Chamdo on October 7, 1950. This attack marked the beginning of Beijing's campaign to integrate Tibet into the People's Republic of China. This operation was called a peaceful liberation of Tibet by the PRC government[8][9] as the Seventeen Point Agreement was signed by delegates of the 14th Dalai Lama and PRC government affirming Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. It is called an invasion by the Central Tibetan Administration (the Government of Tibet in Exile),[10] the US Congress,[11] military analysts including Jane's,[12][13] media sources and NGOs such as the International Commission of Jurists[14] and the Center for World Indigenous Studies[15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] as the defeated Tibet had little choice but to sign the agreement.

Timeline

The People's Liberation Army first entered eastern Tibet (Chamdo) on October 7, 1950. The highly mobile units of the PLA quickly surrounded the outnumbered Tibetan forces and by 19 October 1950, 5,000 Tibetan soldiers had been killed,[5] and the small Tibetan army had surrendered. After confiscating their weapons, the PLA soldiers gave the prisoners lectures on socialism and a small amount of money, before allowing them to return to their homes.[5]

The PLA then continued on to central Tibet, but halted its advance 200 km to the east of Lhasa, at what China claimed was the de jure boundary of Tibet.[20][23]

Here they stopped and demanded Tibet's "peaceful liberation." The PLA, while possessing overwhelming military advantage, wanted to avoid intervention by other powers such as the United States,[24] and was also set on winning the hearts and minds of the Tibetan populace. At first, they treated the local populace very well, building roads, and paying locals for their labor. According to Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, the PLA did not attack civilians: "The Chinese were very disciplined. They were like the British soldiers (in 1904). Even better than the British, because they distributed some money (to villagers and local leaders). So they carefully planned."[5]

The PLA sent released prisoners (among them Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, a captured governor) to Lhasa to negotiate with the Dalai Lama on the PLA's behalf. The PLA promised that if Tibet was "peacefully liberated", the Tibetan elites would keep their privileges and power. At the same time, Jigme and other released captives testified to their good treatment by the PLA. The Tibetan government asked the UN for help facing the invasion of the Tibet by China. Only El Salvador supported Tibet's cause in the UN.[25] As the PLA had stopped and was asking for peaceful negotiations instead of entering Lhasa unimpeded, the United Nations dropped the issue from the agenda. The combination of military pressure, reports of good treatment from locals and released prisoners, and the lack of international support convinced the Tibetan representatives to enter negotiations with the PLA.[5]

Several months later, in May 1951, the Tibetan representatives signed a seventeen-point agreement in Beijing with the PRC's Central People's Government which the Chinese say affirms China's sovereignty over Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.[1][26] Point 15 of the agreement stated that the Chinese government would set up a military and administrative committee and a military area headquarters in Tibet. PLA troops entered Lhasa peacefully in the fall of 1951.[1] An article released by the Tibetan Government in Exile in 1996 states that the treaty was imposed on Tibet by force and it "was never validly concluded and was rejected by Tibetans,"[27] a position that was supported by a UK parliamentary review.[28][29]

Perspective

Chinese Government Perspective

A Peaceful Liberation Monument was raised by the PRC in 2001 to commemorate the event's 50th anniversary.

According to the Chinese government, a portion of the population in old Tibet were serfs ("mi ser"),[30][31] bound to land often owned by wealthy Tibetan monasteries and Tibetan aristocrats. This however was untrue of eastern and northeastern two-thirds of Tibet where the nomads owned their own land.[32] The Chinese government claims that most Tibetans were still serfs in 1951, and have proclaimed that the Tibetan government inhibited the development of Tibet during its self-rule from 1913 to 1959, and opposed any modernization efforts proposed by the Chinese government.[33] Announcements were made via Radio Peking on October 25 to state the troops were there to "free Tibetans from imperialist oppression".[34] First generation Communist party leaders such as Mao Zedong stated that the decision to unite Tibet into the PRC was done to achieve ethnic equality.[35]

In July 2001 a monument was established to commemorate the event.[35] Beijing says that Tibet was under an uninterrupted series of Chinese governments that has ruled Tibet and China since Kublai Khan.[5] In 2005 president Hu Jintao asserted Tibet has been an "inalienable part of Chinese territory" from the time of the Yuan Dynasty conquest onward.[5] This has been taught to Chinese students since 1912.[5] (Scholarship outside China generally regards Tibet as having been independent during the Ming Dynasty.)

Sources from the PRC, or supportive of the PRC, are frequently marked by use of the term "serfs" for the common people of Tibet pre-1950, and "feudal serfdom" for Tibet at that time. For a fuller discussion of this term and its political ramifications, see Serfdom in Tibet controversy.

International Perspectives

The UN General Assembly passed resolutions condemning China for "violations of fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people" in 1959,[36] 1961[37] and 1965.[38] German Federal Parliament held hearings on Tibet on June 19, 1995, and passed a resolution on June 20, 1996 stating they were "deeply concerned that this independent identity has been threatened by destruction since the Chinese action by brutal force of arms in 1950" and that China had deprived the Tibetans of self-determination.[21] The US Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1987 reviewed testimony from Tibetans who detailed human rights abuses, resulting in a congressional motion that condemned Chinese actions in Tibet.[39] In 2006 a lawsuit was filed by the Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet in a Spanish court. The group said that more than one million Tibetans had been killed or gone missing since China occupied Tibet in 1951.[40] The China Quarterly notes that there has been "little easing in Chinese repression there nor any improvement in the anti-Chinese attitude of the local population."[41]

Aftermath

The seventeen-point agreement was initially put into effect in Tibet proper. However, Eastern Kham and Amdo (the provinces of Xikang and Qinghai in the Chinese administrative hierarchy) were outside the administration of the Tibetan government in Lhasa, and were thus treated like any other Chinese province with land redistribution implemented in full—a peculiar idea given that the Khampas and nomads of Amdo traditionally owned their own land.[32] Unsurprisingly, resistance broke out in Amdo and eastern Kham in June 1956.

By 1957, Kham was in chaos. PLA reprisals against Khampa resistance fighters such as the Chushi Gangdruk became increasingly brutal. They included beatings, starving prisoners, and the rape of prisoners' wives in front of them until they confessed.[42] Monks and nuns were forced to have sex with each other and forcibly renounce their celibacy vows. After torture, these men and women were often killed.[42] Numerous cases of children being forced to shoot their parents to death were reported to the International Commission of Jurists.[43] By the late 1950s, the number of Tibetan freedom fighters numbered in the tens of thousands.[44] Kham's monastic networks came to be used by guerrilla forces to relay messages and hide rebels.[45]

Lhasa continued to abide by the seventeen point agreement and sent a delegation to Kham to quell the rebellion. After speaking with the rebel leaders, the delegation instead joined the rebellion.[46] Kham did an end run around Lhasa and contacted the CIA directly, but the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under President Dwight D. Eisenhower required an official request from Lhasa to support the rebels. Lhasa did not respond.[46] Finally, the CIA ignored Lhasa's official stance and supplied the rebellion. By then the rebellion had spread to Lhasa which had filled with refugees from Kham.[44]

China's intended "peaceful liberation" of Tibet had gone badly awry. It culminated in the Lhasa uprising on March 10, 1959. Chinese warned and then shelled with artillery a crowd of 30,000 Tibetan civilians who had gathered outside the Dalai Lama's Potala palace.[44][47] Captured PLA documents estimated the casualties to be as high as 85,000.[44] Under the new Kennedy administration special operations Air Force planes ready to drop supplies and ammunition were ordered to stand by, resulting in the massacre of between six and eight thousand Tibetan resistance fighters.[44] According to the Tibetan Government in Exile tens of thousands of Tibetans were killed in the struggle.[48]

The 14th Dalai Lama and other government principals fled to exile in India.[49] Isolated resistance continued in Tibet until 1972 when President Nixon pursued a new policy towards China and withdrew military and financial support.[50] The month of fighting along the Dalai Lama's escape route had decimated the fighters and, according to the CIA, "the backbone of the rebellion had been smashed."[44] According to the rebel leaders they were overrun by the PLA and focused on protecting the route for Tibetan refugees to India.[47]

Statistics of casualties during subsequent Chinese rule

Deaths claimed by Tibetan Government in Exile[51][52][53]
433,000 military action
343,000 famine
173,000 imprisonment
157,000 execution
93,000 torture
9,000 suicide
Total: 1,148,000 deaths.

Tibetans

Samdhong Rinpoche, the 14th Dalai Lama, and other Tibetans in exile have accused the PRC government of a campaign of terror which led to the destruction of monasteries and disappearance of up to 1.2 million Tibetans. By 1962 only 70 of the original 2,500 monasteries in the Tibet Autonomous Region were left and 93% of the monks were forced out. The "1.2 million" figure for deaths since 1950 dates to a figure from the Tibetan Government-in-exile which they break down to 433,000,00 through military action, 343,000 through famine, 173,000 through imprisonment, 157,000 through execution, 93,000 through torture and 9,000 through suicide.[54]

The high casualty reported by the Tibetans has been questioned by sinologist Tom Grunfeld, who finds that the figure is "without documentary evidence."[55]

According to Patrick French, ex-Director of Free Tibet Campaign in London and supporter of the Tibetan cause, who was able to view the data and calculations from the archives of Dharamsala, the estimate is not reliable. French says this total was based on refugee interviews, but when he examined the raw data, he found no names, but "the insertion of seemingly random figures into each section, and constant, unchecked duplication."[56] French estimates that half a million Tibetans died as a result of Chinese policies, "a devastating enough figure, in all conscience, which in no way diminishes the horror of what was done in Tibet."[57]. Prior to 1950, population figures for Tibet, estimated by the Lhasa government and foreign visitors[clarification needed], generally ranged from 1 to 1.5 million. The official Tibetan census in 1953 recorded a population of 1,273,969.[58]

The Dalai Lama claimed to have seen a secret PLA document stating 87,000 deaths in the 1959-60 revolt period.

International

Robert Webster Ford, a Briton who was present during the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, wrote in 1957 an eye-witness account of how the Chinese treated Tibetans who fought them. (Ford was employed by the Tibetan government when the Tibetan town Chamdo was captured by the PLA in 1950. He had been under investigation for espionage activities and for causing the death of Geda Lama, a prominent Tibetan Living Buddha and peace emissary sent by the Communist Chinese to Tibet to negotiate for peaceful unification. The lama's death contributed to the Chinese decision to capture Chamdo by force).[59]

There was no sacking of monasteries...the Chinese took great care not to cause offense through ignorance...The Chinese had made it clear that they had no quarrel with the Tibetan religion. Nor with the Tibetan people, who were treated with equal care...

Cleverest of all was the way the Chinese solved their prisoner-of-war problem. They simply had the Tibetan troops lined up and gave them all safe-conduct passes and money and told them to go back to Lhasa with their wives and children. Another newsreel was made of this, and the soldiers did not have to be told to smile. Nor would they need to be told to spread the news of what friendly people the Chinese were...[60]

A Khamba survivor of the garrison of fifty told us..."They are strange people, these Chinese...I cut off eight of their heads with my sword, and they just let me go." [60]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Goldstein 1989, p812-813
  2. ^ Mackerras, Colin. Yorke, Amanda. The Cambridge Handbook of Contemporary China. [1991] (1991). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521387558. pg 100.
  3. ^ The Tibetan Army, Gyajong, was established according to the 29-point reform installed by Emperor Qianlong. See Goldstein, M.C., "The Snow Lion and the Dragon", p20
  4. ^ Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama, 14th Dalai Lama, London: Little, Brown and Co, 1990 ISBN 0-349-10462-X
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Laird 2006, pp. 301-307
  6. ^ Shakya 1999, pg. 43
  7. ^ Shakya 1999, pg. 45
  8. ^ Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
  9. ^ 50 Years In Tibet
  10. ^ The Status of Tibet: "At the time of its invasion by troops of the People's Liberation Army of China in 1949, Tibet was an independent state in fact and law...."
  11. ^ US Congressional Concurrent Resolution dated May 21, 1991, "To express the sense of the Congress that Tibet, including those areas incorporated into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai that have historically been a part of Tibet is an occupied country under established principles of international law" ... "Whereas in 1949-50, China launched an armed invasion of Tibet in contravention of international law..."
  12. ^ Jane's 'Intelligence Review', 001122: 'China invaded the country in 1959 and has since been accused of bloody tactics to reduce the indigenous population and ensure it is outnumbered by the Chinese.'
  13. ^ Reborn supremacy: China's control of Tibetan reincarnation, 21 January 2008: 'Since invading the then-independent Tibet in 1950, Beijing has ensured tight military and political control over the strategically important area.'
  14. ^ International Commission of Jurists, June 5, 1959, "In 1950 China assured India that China had no intention of incorporating Tibet into China by force or otherwise and was willing to negotiate with Tibet regarding the future relationship of Tibet with China. But a few weeks later the invasion of Tibet took place..."
  15. ^ Snellgrove, David L. and Hugh Richardson. A Cultural History of Tibet, Orchard Press, (c)2003, pg 267
  16. ^ Missions to Tibet, University of Texas, Dallas, May 29, 2006: "When Communist China invaded Tibet in August 1950...."
  17. ^ Margolis, Eric. War At The Top Of The World. Routledge, (c)2002 ISBN 978-0415934688
  18. ^ Global Security: "On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was formally proclaimed in Beijing and the following year launched an armed invasion of Tibet..."
  19. ^ Tibet's Sovereignty and the Tibetan People's Right to Self-Determination, June 1, 1998
  20. ^ a b Rinpoche, Samdhong. Roebert, Donovan. The 14th Dalai Lama. [2006] (2006). Samdhong Rinpoche: Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today's World. World Wisdom, Inc. ISBN 1933316209. pg 116-117
  21. ^ a b "Improving the Human Rights Situation in Tibet." German Bundestag parliamentary resolution, Bonn, Germany, 20 June 1996
  22. ^ Richter, Conrad. "Tibetan Response to China's White on Tibet." Center for World Indigenous Studies, Olympia, WA, 1999
  23. ^ Li T.T., "Historical Status of Tibet"(New York, Columbia University Press, 1956) saying: "Chamdo is in Kham and outside of Tibet proper. The Chinese Communist army, though it had captured Chamdo, which was considered a part of Sikang, could not be said to have entered Tibet proper"
  24. ^ Shakya 1999, pp. 33-45
  25. ^ Tibet: The Lost Frontier, Claude Arpi, Lancer Publishers, October 2008, ISBN 0981537847
  26. ^ Gyatso, Tenzin, Dalai Lama XIV, interview, 25 July 1981.
  27. ^ Invasion and illegal annexation of Tibet: 1949-1951
  28. ^ House of Commons Publications and Records, August 13, 2006
  29. ^ The Status of Tibet
  30. ^ Goldstein, Melvyn, An Anthropological Study of the Tibetan Political System, 1968, p. 40
  31. ^ Rahul, Ram, The Structure of the Government of Tibet, 1644–1911, 1962, pp. 263–98
  32. ^ a b Grunfeld 1996, pg. 9
  33. ^ Jiawei, Wang, "The Historical Status of China's Tibet", 2000, pp. 194–7
  34. ^ Gill, Farrer-Halls. Dalai lama. The World of the Dalai Lama: An Inside Look at his Life, His People and His Vision. [1998] (1998). ISBN 0835607682. pg 30-32
  35. ^ a b News.China.com. "News.China.com." Monument to the Peaceful liberation of Tibet. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
  36. ^ UN Resolution 1353 (XIV), 21 October 1959
  37. ^ UN Resolution 1723 (XVI), 20 December 1961
  38. ^ UN Resolution 2079 (XX), 18 December 1965
  39. ^ Sanchez, Renee. "Dalai Lama Urges Tibetan Freedom; In D.C. Visit, Exiled Leader Tells China to End `Great Destruction'." The Washington Post, Sept. 22, 1987
  40. ^ The Independent on-line.
  41. ^ Feinerman, James V. "Chinese Participation in the International Legal Order: Rogue Elephant or Team Player?," The China Quarterly, March 1995
  42. ^ a b Knaus 1999, pg. 134.
  43. ^ Mary Craig. Tears of Blood: A Cry for Tibet Counterpoint LLC, 2000. ISBN 1582431027 p. 121
  44. ^ a b c d e f Roberts, John. "Inside Story of CIA's Black Hands in Tibet." The American Spectator, December 1997
  45. ^ Knaus 1999, pg. 86.
  46. ^ a b Chushi Gangdruk
  47. ^ a b Chushi Gangdruk (2)
  48. ^ Official Website of the Tibetan Government in Exile. History Leading up to March 10th 1959. 7 September 1998. Retrieved March 24, 2008.
  49. ^ "Witness: Reporting on the Dalai Lama's escape to India." Peter Jackson. Reuters. Feb 27, 2009.[1]
  50. ^ Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison, The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, page 247
  51. ^ Rinpoche, Samdhong. Roebert, Donovan. The 14th Dalai Lama.
  52. ^ Free Tibet Campaign
  53. ^ The government of Tibet in Exile
  54. ^ Robert McCorquodale, Nicholas Orosz (eds.) The Position of Tibet in International Law, Serindia Publishers.
  55. ^ Grunfeld 1996, pg. 247
  56. ^ Barry Sautman, June Teufel Dreyer, Contemporary Tibet: Politics, Development, And Society In A Disputed Region pp. 239
  57. ^ TIBET, TIBET, A PERSONAL HISTORY OF A LOST LAND By Patrick French Reviewed by Michael Rank
  58. ^ See Leo A. Orleans,"A Note on Tibet's Population."
  59. ^ Ford 1957, pp 234-236
  60. ^ a b Ford 1957, pp178-179,204

References

  • Ford, Robert. Wind Between The Worlds The extraordinary first-person account of a Westerner's life in Tibet as an official of the Dalai Lama (1957) David Mckay Co., Inc.
  • Goldstein, Melvyn C. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State (1989) University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520061408
  • Grunfeld, A. Tom. The Making of Modern Tibet (1996) East Gate Book. ISBN 978-1563247132
  • Knaus, Robert Kenneth. Orphans of the Cold War: America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival (1999) PublicAffairs . ISBN 978-1891620188
  • Laird, Thomas. The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama (2006) Grove Press. ISBN 0-80211-827-5
  • Shakya, Tsering. The Dragon In The Land Of Snows (1999) Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11814-7
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