While China claims that Tibet
has always been a part of China,
Tibet has a history of at
least 1300 years of independence from China. In 821 China and Tibet
ended almost 200 years of fighting with a treaty engraved on three stone
pillars, one of which still stands in front of the Jokhang cathedral in
Lhasa.
The treaty reads in
part: Both Tibet and China
shall keep the country and frontiers of which they are now possessed. The whole
region to the East of that being the country of Great China and the whole
region to the West being assuredly the country of Great Tibet, from either side
there shall be no hostile invasion, and no seizure of territory... and in order
that this agreement establishing a great era when Tibetans shall be happy in
Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China shall never be changed, the Three
Jewels, the body of Saints, the sun and the moon, planets and stars have been
invoked as witness.
The three stone
pillars were erected, one outside the Chinese Emperor's palace, one on the
border between the two countries, and one in Lhasa.
During the 13th and
14th centuries both China
and Tibet
came under the influence of the Mongol empire. China
claims today that Tibet and China during
that time became one country, by virtue of the Mongols domination of both
nations. In validating this claim, it must first be remembered that virtually
all of Asia was dominated by the Mongols under
Kublai Khan and his successors, who ruled the largest empire in human history.
Second, the respective relationships between the Mongols and the Tibetans and
between the Mongols and Chinese must be examined. These two relationships were
not only radically different in nature, but they also started and ended at
different times. Tibet came
under Mongol influence before Kublai Khan's conquest of China and regaining complete independence from
the Mongols several decades before China regained its independence.
While China was
militarily conquered by the Mongols, the Tibetans and the Mongols established
the historically unique "priest patron" relationship, also known as
CHO-YON. The Mongol aristocracy had converted to Buddhism and sought spiritual
guidance and moral legitimacy for the rule of their vast empire from the
Tibetan theocracy. As Tibet's
patrons they pledged to protect it against foreign invasion. In return Tibetans
promised loyalty to the Mongol empire.
The Mongol-Tibetan
relationship was thus based on mutual respect and dual responsibility. In stark
contrast, the Mongol-Chinese relationship was based on military conquest and
domination. The Mongols ruled China,
while the Tibetans ruled Tibet.
The Mongol empire ended in the mid-14th century.
In 1639, the Dalai
Lama established another CHO-YON relationship, this time with the Manchu
Emperor, who in 1644 conquested China and established the Qing Dynasty.
By the middle of the
19th century, the Munchu influence in Tibet had waned considerably as the
Manchu empire began to disintegrate. In 1842 and 1856 the Manchus were incapable
of responding to Tibetan calls for assistance against repeated Nepalese Gorkha
invasion. The Tibetans drove back the Gorkhas with no assistance and concluded
bilateral treaties.
In 1911 the CHO-YON
relationship came to its final end with the fall of the Manchu Dynasty. Tibet formally declared its Independence in 1912 and continued to conduct
itself as a fully sovereign nation until its invasion by Communist China an
1949.
1. Tibet governed
itself without foreign influence, conducted its own Foreign affairs, had its
own army and operated its own postal system. Tibet
sovereignty was recognised by its neighbours as well as by Britain, with whom Tibet entered into a series of
treaties regarding travels and trade.
2. 1904 Britain invaded Tibet
and subsequently Convention agreed between Tibet
and Britain.
3. 1912 The last of
the Chinese troops expelled from Tibet and Dalai Lama proclaims
Tibet Independence.
4. During the Second
World War Tibet remained neutral, despite strong pressure from the USA, Britain
and China to allow the
passage of raw materials through Tibet.
5. Tibet conducted its international relations
primarily by dealing with British, Chinese, Nepalese and Bhutanese diplomatic
missions in Lhasa,
but also through government delegations traveling abroad. When India became independent, the British Mission in
Lhasa was
replaced by an Indian one.
6. When Nepal applied for membership of the United
Nations in 1949, it cited its treaty and diplomatic relations with Tibet to
demonstrate its full international personality.
7. If Tibet was part
of China, then there was no need for the 17 point agreement which was forced
upon the Tibetan delegation to sign in China in 1951 and then China announced
to the world that Tibet was liberated (from whom?).
8. From 1951 to 1959 China broke every promise that she made towards Tibet, resulting in the Tibetan uprising against
China
in March 1959. His Holiness the Dalai Lama and 100,000 Tibetans escaped into
exile. From that day onwards Tibet
affectively became an occupied country.
9. Today from the
legal standpoint, Tibet
to this day has not lost its statehood. It is an independent state under
illegal occupation. Neither China's
military invasion nor the continuing occupation by PLA has transferred the
sovereignty of Tibet to China.
As pointed out
earlier, the Chinese government has not claimed to have acquired sovereignty
over Tibet
by conquest. Indeed, China
recognises that the use or threat of force (outside the exceptional
circumstances provided for in the UN charter), the imposition of an unequal
treaty or the continued illegal occupation of a country can never grant an
invader legal title to territory. Its claims are based solely on the alleged
subjection of Tibet to a few
of China's
strongest foreign rulers in the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries.
How can China -
one of the most ardent opponent of imperialism and colonialism - excuse its
continued presence in Tibet, against the wishes of Tibetan people, by citing as
justification Mongols and Manchu imperialism and its own colonial policies?
- Dr. Michael C
Van Walt Van Pragg (International Lawyer) The Status of Tibet
10. 28th October
1991, US Congress under a Foreign Authorisation Act passed the resolution
wherein they recognised "Tibet,
including those areas incorporated into the Chinese provinces of
Sichuan, Yunnan,
Gansu and Qinghai,
AN OCCUPIED COUNTRY under the established principal of international law".
The resolution further stated that Tibet's true representative are the
Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile as recognised by the Tibetan
people.