A Chinese student in France, watching the recent Olympic protest
in Paris, reported the following on his blog: A French girl, aged
five or six, asked her mother why people were trying to snatch the
Olympic torch from Chinese athletes.
Her mother replied: " The Chinese have occupied Tibet by force
for 50 years. Those protesters want to take this chance to express
their wish for freedom."
The Tibet Autonomous Region, like Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region, is one among China's 34 provincial administrative regions.
No government in the world denies this fact. Neverthless, the
French mother imparted her perception of Tibet as " occupied " to
her child.
The French celebrated enthusiastically the Chinese Cultural Year
in 2003. Why, suddenly, has a wall appeared between China and the
West ?
The trigger was the riots in Lhasa on March 14. Rioters
destroyed 908 shops , seven schools, 120 residential homes, five
hospitals and 10 banking network points. At least 20 buildings were
burned down and 84 vehicles were smashed. Eighteen innocents were
burned or stabbed to death and 380 civilians were injured.
The Dalai clique based in India depicted these flagrant criminal
acts as " peaceful demonstrations " and made up a non-existent
" death list " of nearly 100 " protesters ". Western media
broadcast these claims to the world.
The Dalai clique's secessionist activities began after the Dalai
Lama fled China in 1959. Before he fled, he was a member of the
Chinese central government. In February 1951, not long after the
People's Republic of China was founded, the Dalai Lama appointed
Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme as his chief negotiator with the central
government.
On May 23, 1951, the Agreement of the Central People's
Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the
Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was signed in Beijing.
The Dalai Lama sent a telegram to Chairman Mao Zedong to express
his support for the agreement and his determination to implement
it. In September 1954, he was elected vice-chairman of the Standing
Committee of the First National People's Congress and, later in
1956, he became the chair of the Preparatory Committee for the
Tibet Autonomous Region.
The relationship between Dalai Lama and the central government
changed after he fled China. But the fact that Tibet is an
inalienable part of China cannot be changed because of his
defection. As the now 98-year-old Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme has said : "
So-called " Tibet independence " had never existed before the 20th
century. It was fabricated by people with ulterior motives."
The feudal dynasties of China had exercised effective
sovereignty over Tibet centuries before Europeans landed in the
Americas. In the 13th century , the Yuan Dynasty designated Tibet
as an administrative region of China. The Ming Dynasty continued to
exercise sovereignty over Tibet.
From the 17th century onwards, the Qing Dynasty had
comprehensive and sophisticated governance over Tibet. Qing
emperors granted honorifics titles to the 5th Dalai Lama and the
5th Bainqen Lama in 1653 and 1713, respectively, officially
establishing the " Dalai Lama " and " Bainqen Erdeni " titles. It
has since become an established practice that the reincarnations of
all future Dalai and Bainqen Lamas are to be approved by the
central authority.
From 1727 to 1911, altogether 57 Ambans ( ministers in charge of
Tibet affairs in the Qing Dynasty ) were stationed in Tibet to
supervise local administration on behalf of the central authority.
In the early 20th century, the Republic of China set up an agency
for Tibet affairs, with an office in Lhasa, while Tibet sent
representatives to the National Congress, as did other provinces.
The enthronement of the current 14th Dalai Lama was approved by the
then Nationalist government.
Some people say the Dalai Lama wants " high-level autonomy ",
not " independence ", for Tibet. But no government in the world
would allow such " autonomy " in its territory as the Dalai Lama
demands for Tibet.
The so-called " high-level autonomy and real autonomy " he seeks
would involve the following: Withdrawal of Chinese troops and
military installations from Tibet ; Tibet being able to establish
diplomatic ties with other countries and international
organisations ; the establishment of a Great Tibetan Zone of 2.4
million sq km, to include areas inhabited by Tibetans in the
provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan and Yunnan ; non-Tibetans
to move out of this zone, etc.
In essence, the Dalai Lama's " high-level autonomy " would deny
the central government sovereignty over Tibet and would be
tantamount to independence for it. This of course will by no means
be accepted by the central government.
The Dalai Lama argues that Tibetans are being reduced to an
insignificant minority in their own land, and that there is
cultural genocide. The fact is Tibet has made historic achievements
in economic and social development. It has achieved an average
annual of 12 per cent in the past seven years. Its population has
increased from about 1.2 million in 1964 to more than 2.5 million
now, with Tibetans constituting 98.4 per cent of the
population.
Over the past 20 years, the central government has appropriated
more than 700 million yuan ( S$135 million ) for the preservation
and maintenance for monasteries, cultural relics and religious
sites in Tibet.
There are currently 1,787 religious sites and over 46,000 lamas
and nuns in the autonomous region. More than 50 institutes on
Tibetan studies have been set up nationwide. Tibetan TV and radio
services broadcast in both Tibetan and Mandarin.
Newspapers, magazines and books in Tibetan can be found
everywhere. The Tibetan language is taught in all types of schools.
As an integral part of Chinese culture, traditional Tibetan culture
has been protected by the central government.
Where Tibet is concerned, media reports that ignore China's
voice may not be impartial. The Lhasa incident of March 14 was a
serious criminal act; the Dalai clique was behind the riot; the
police showed great restraint without using lethal weapons.
The Chinese media has reported these facts repeatedly.
Regrettably, Western media turned a deaf ear to these reports and
have one-sidedly magnified the voices calling for an independent
Tibet.
As a result, people may have got the impression that Chinese
soldiers cracked down with iron fists on Tibetan monks
demonstrating peacefully, and that many Tibetans died from the
bullets of the conquerors. However, as the Austrian newspaper der
Standard pointed out on March 26, these reports were based in
second-hand information from exiled Tibetans living in India and
Radio Free Asia, a private radio station funded by the US Congress,
have mentioned that neither of these sources is neutral.
More recently, Western media outlets have disclosed that
American and German organisations, together with the " Tibetan
government-in-exile ", jointly worked out a " Plan of Action " in
May 2007 to set off a wave of anti-China demonstrations to coincide
with the Beijing Olympics. This , if true, indicates the
involvement of international politics in the Tibet issue.
Since China's opening-up three decades ago, the Chinese people
have been trying to know more about the world and have tried to be
known. The 2008 Olympics is a golden opportunity in this
regard. Understanding China --a nation of 1.3 billion people-- is
necessary to build a harmonious world. Misunderstanding China or
hostility towards China would favour neither China nor the
world.
We hope that the world can have a comprehensive view of the past
and present of Tibet in particular, and of China in general, so
that the gap in perception between Chinese and Westerners can
be bridged.
