The Tibet Issue – A Troubled Neighbourhood

While Sardar Patel had warned Nehru about Chinese irredentism and communist imperialism being different from the expansionism or imperialism of Western powers and Chinese ideological expansion concealed behind racial, national or historical claims, China apparently feels her aggression is warranted because under the Tianxia (天下; “Under Heaven”) concept, Chinese perceive all territories under the sun belonging to them. Hence the ambiguity and deceit, and the ‘Doctrine of Pre-emption and Surprise’ encompassing surprise, deception and shock – plus the façade of peace homilies. That is why China has been providing tacit support to Pakistan’s anti-India jihadist groups in India; ‘Shashou Jian (Assassin’s Mace) incapacitating India from within through insurgencies and terrorism. It is also well understood that Chinese aggression of Tibet and Aksai Chin has been tempered because of the presence of minerals and natural resources like water, including possible thorium reserves.

“Even during the 1962 conflict, Chinese leaders, including Mao, acknowledged that the conflict was not about the boundary or territory but about Tibet. The Chinese consistently tried to obtain reassurance from India that…India would not ‘meddle’ in Tibetan affairs…Boundary infringements by the Chinese continued. Sino-Indian border negotiations are stalemated and progress, if any, is at a snail’s pace. Thus, Tibet still remains the core issue.” —R.S Kalha, IFS (Retd.)

At a recent National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC attended for the first time together by President Obama and the Dalai Lama, as Obama welcomed the Dalai Lama as a ‘good friend’, pressed his hands together in a prayer-like position and bowed his head toward him before giving him a wave and a broad smile, China went into convulsions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China regards the Tibetan spiritual leader as a political exile working to overthrow Chinese rule over the Himalayan region under the cloak of religion. If the mighty CCP having invaded and ravaged Tibet is scared of the Dalai Lama despite China’s massive economic and military might, there can just be one conclusion that the guilty conscience is gnawing China’s innards and to cover the shame of the misdeeds it is perpetuating even today, offence is being used in self-defence. Having reduced the Tibetan population in Tibet to a minority and increasingly strangling them culturally, socially and environmentally, does China expect the Dalai Lama to rake up a religious uprising in the face of Tiananmen-type atrocities especially when all the Dalai Lama has been wanting is peace for his people, religious freedom saving Tibet’s culture and environment.

Ancient Tibet

Tibet should actually be the world’s tenth largest nation. It lies between China and India with extensive mountain ranges East of the Tibetan Plateau bordering China and the Himalayan massif separating it from India, Bhutan and Nepal. So it is rightly called the ‘roof of the world’. The Tibetan Empire historically was established by King Songtsan Gampo in the seventh century by uniting parts of the Yartung River Valley. Under the next few Tibetan kings, Buddhism became established as the state religion and Tibetan power increased even further over large areas of Central Asia, while major inroads were made into Chinese territory, even reaching China’s Tang Dynasty capital.

John Man in his treatise on Kublai Khan wrote that in the seventh century, Tibet was an empire spanning the high heartland and deserts of the Northwest, reaching from the borders of Uzbekistan to Central China, from halfway across Xinjiang, an area larger than the Chinese heartland. Indeed in 763 AD, the Tibetan army briefly captured the Chinese capital Chang-an (today’s Xian) and much later, it was the Mongols who ruled China then occupied Tibet. So should Mongolia claim China and Tibet? Historically until the early 13th Century, China had no claims on Tibet. Indeed the opposite applied - Tibet ruled half of present day China but looked to India for its most significant influence, Buddhism.

From the 780s to the 790s, the Tibetan empire ruled and controlled a territory stretching over modern day Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. In 821/822 CE, Tibet and China signed a peace treaty that included details of the borders between the two countries, details of which are also engraved on a stone pillar in Lhasa.

Status of Tibet – 1914 Shimla Convention Agreement

In 1914, representatives of Britain, China and Tibet attended a conference at Shimla in India and drew up an agreement concerning Tibet’s status and borders. The McMahon Line was decided upon during the 1914 Shimla Convention.

The agreement was signed by representatives of British India, Tibet (Lonchen Shatra Dorje) and China (Ivan Chen), all affixing full signatures to the agreement and the appended maps showing alignment of the McMohan Line on the maps. Copies of these maps and the photograph of the attendees of the 1914 Shimla Convention are on record. Representatives of those days are equivalent to today’s Ambassadors.

But despite the Chinese Representative (Ivan Chen) having affixed signatures to the 1914 Shimla Convention, China reneged on it saying that the Chinese Representative did not have the permission of the Chinese Government, which is a lame and absurd excuse. It is impossible that a Chinese representative affixed his signatures without prior consultation and consent of his government. Where Ivan Chen went wrong is that he should have looked into the future and obtained directions from Mao and his communist China that was to come 35 years later. In any case Ivan Chen was probably executed with his family obliterated to deny any trace of notes or word by mouth.

Fallacious Chinese Claims

Tibet maintained a unique culture, written and spoken language, religion and political system for centuries though in the modern sense never talked about it as a nation state. In its long history, Tibet was influenced by foreign powers and cultures including British India, the Mongols, as well as China. However, the Chinese claim that Tibet has been part of China for around 800 years is fallacious and not supported by facts. Tibet was not ruled by the Chinese government prior to the 1950 invasion.

In 1912, the 13th Dalai Lama, Tibet’s political and spiritual leader had issued a proclamation reaffirming Tibet’s independence and the country maintained its own national flag, currency, stamps, passports and army. It signed international treaties and maintained diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries. From a legal point of view, Tibet remains an independent state under illegal occupation, a fact that China is trying her level best to whitewash from history.

Invasion and Annexation of Tibet

The sole reason for China’s invasion and annexation of Tibet is contained in Mao Zhedong’s statement endorsed by Deng Xiaoping, in saying, “Tibet is the palm of China and Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and NEFA are its fingers”. It is a pure case of aggression and expansionism, continuing to date with spurious claims in Asia Pacific and claiming/nibbling vast tracts of Indian territories including the laughable claim to entire Arunachal Pradesh put forward as late as 2005.

China arbitrarily extended her EEZ and claims to the ECS and SCS based on what was fabricated by the Kuomintang, a government that the communist regime overthrew in 1949, cashing upon their claims decades later. Getting back to Tibet, the Tibetans wanted to retain their territorial integrity and sought dialogue with PRC since March 1950. Eventually, in September 1950, a Tibetan delegation met PRC’s General Yuan Zhongxian in New Delhi with the latter communicating a three-point proposal that included:

• Tibet be regarded as part of China
• China be responsible for Tibet’s defence
• China be responsible for Tibet’s trade and foreign relations.

He also threatened that acceptance would lead to peaceful Chinese sovereignty, or otherwise war. The Tibetan delegation wanted to maintain the relationship between China and Tibet as one of priest-patron. Tsepon WD Shakbpa, leader of the Tibetan delegation maintained, “Tibet will remain independent as it is at present, and we will continue to have very close ‘priest-patron’ relations with China. Also, there is no need to liberate Tibet from imperialism, since there are no British, American or Guomindang imperialists in Tibet, and Tibet is ruled and protected by the Dalai Lama (not any foreign power).” He, however, recommended that while Chinese troops need not be stationed in Tibet as there was no threat, and in case attacked by India or Nepal could appeal for Chinese military assistance.

But limbless Mao had already decided to acquire a palm for PRC (Tibet) and fingers (Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and NEFA). So, on October 07, 1950, Chinese troops advanced into Eastern Tibet, crossing the border at five places to capture the Tibetan troops in Qamdo, demoralise the Lhasa government, and thus exert powerful pressure to send negotiators to Beijing to sign the terms for a handover of Tibet. Such conditions were naturally not acceptable to Tibet. Qamdo fell on October 19, 1950.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sent released prisoners including Governor Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme to Lhasa to negotiate with the Dalai Lama on the PLA’s behalf. The Government of Tibet then sent representatives to Beijing to negotiate. But no negotiations were permitted by PRC to the already drafted Seventeen Point Agreement. The focal point of the Agreement was that Tibet would agree to be part of China. The Tibetan delegation was not allowed to communicate with their government on this key point, and pressured into signing the agreement on May 23, 1951, despite never having been given permission to sign anything in the name of the government, authorising the PLA presence and CPC government rule politically. This Chinese treachery needs to be compared with her reneging to the 1914 Shimla Convention Agreement maintaining Tibet’s territorial integrity and delineating the McMahon Line on grounds that Ivan Chen (China’s Representative) did not have clearance from the Chinese Government.

Thereafter, the PLA entered Lhasa. In 1956, Tibetan militias in the ethnically Tibetan region of Eastern Kham just outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), spurred by PRC government experiments in land reform started fighting against the government. When the fighting spread to Lhasa in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet and sought asylum in India. Both the Dalai Lama and the PRC government in Tibet subsequently repudiated the Seventeen Point Agreement and the PRC government in Tibet dissolved the Tibetan Local Government.

The case was, therefore, quite simple. If China does not accept the 1914 Shimla Convention Agreement, then similarly the Seventeen Point Agreement signed on May 23, 1951, too has no legal standing. Therefore, technically Nepal and Bhutan continue to border Tibet, not China and India borders China only in North Kashmir East of the Wakhan Corridor on the junction of India-Afghanistan-China, with balance border with Tibet. The Tibetan Army and the Tibetan uprising, however, stood no chance against over 30,000 battle hardened PLA soldiers who had already killed millions of their own countrymen during the ‘Great Leap’.