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Seven decades ago this week, the Chinese army invaded Tibet, a region that had been effectively independent since the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912. But since no country recognized Tibet’s independence, China was able to enter the region without hindrance. , shaping Tibet into dependence on the province that it is today.
After a fierce civil war with the nationalists that ended with the victory of the Communist Party of China (CCP) in 1949, Mao Zedong moved contingents of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) westward to conquer Tibet, an area that China had claimed for centuries. .
After the fall of the Qing dynasty, central control had weakened and the Tibetans had tried, in vain, to establish their own state.
But since none of the Chinese troops were strong enough to occupy the territory, Lhasa, ruled by religious lamas, operated as a de facto Independent state for four decades.
Even the Chinese will grudgingly accept that it was de factoin practice, regardless of at least 1912, “says Robert Barnett, currently a visiting fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) in London.
But in October 1950, the the status quo came to an abrupt end.
“The PLA was on the border of Tibet and China, and they had to try to carry out that invasion before the winter of 1950 began,” says Barnett.
“It was quite difficult for them.” Troops, exhausted after years of civil war, did not reach central Tibet. The rest of the region and the capital, Lhasa, remained intact, for “at least another year.”
“During that year, they persuaded the Tibetans to agree to surrender,” says Barnett.
“They had no other choice,” since none of the great powers of the time, the United Kingdom, the United States, India or neighboring Nepal, had recognized Tibet as an independent state.
At first, the Chinese were prudent. “Before arriving in the capital, Lhasa, and for the next eight years or so, the Chinese were very careful not to interfere in Tibetan affairs except foreign affairs,” says Barnett.
“They let the Tibetan army remain; they let the Dalai Lama still run their government.”
Brutal repression
But the Tibetans grew increasingly nervous and suspicious of the Chinese presence.
This sentiment intensified when reports reached central Tibet that Chinese troops in adjacent regions, such as in the Tibetan areas of China’s Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, were using increasingly aggressive methods to subdue Tibetans, confiscating land, breaking the traditional class system. , arresting landowners and bombing monasteries.
“Word spread quickly, and in 1958, Tibetans were terrified of Chinese plans for their society and began to organize rebellions and resistance,” says Barnett.
The Chinese response was a brutal crackdown in 1959, which resulted in the destruction of hundreds of monasteries and the murder of thousands of Tibetans. Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India, where he continues to live in exile.
“Autonomous regions”
During the decades that followed, Tibetans staged numerous demonstrations protesting China’s presence, the most important of which took place in 1989 and 2008. China has always responded with brutal force.
Today, Tibet, as well as other “autonomous regions” that are formally ruled by members of China’s minorities, but in practice controlled by the CCP, are coming under increasingly strict scrutiny by Beijing.
This is a direct result of current Party Secretary Xi Jinping’s apparent attempts to integrate China’s minorities with the dominant Han-Chinese through “ethnic contact, exchange and mixing,” a slogan initially invented by the predecessor. of Xi, Hu Jintao, but today turned into a national policy aimed at further subduing minorities, in some cases, such as Xinjiang, by brute force.
How will the Dalai Lama be reincarnated?
The only crucial element that Beijing does not control despite its seven decades in Tibet is the Dalai Lama. The spiritual leader fled in 1959. Today he is 85 years old. According to Tibetan Buddhism, his successor is his reincarnation.
But who decides which newborn is the true reincarnation?
According to Barnett, Beijing “demands full control of the process.” A registry of all possible reincarnations is being established and “a huge number of committees and organizations” were established within the Beijing-controlled Tibetan areas, “designed to persuade the lamas to support China’s decision” on the successor of the Dalai Lama.
“Of course the Tibetans in exile say they want nothing to do with this process,” which they will decide through their own traditional religious methods.
“It is going to be a great battle. And it means there will be more than one Dalai Lama,” suggesting that the fight for control of the minds of Tibetans is far from being won.
