At Odds: China and Tibet

By: Anna Ziering

Since winning the Nobel Prize in 1989, the Dalai Lama has become an
almost universal symbol for peace. His policies of non-violent resistance,
like Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Mahatma Gandhi’s, are praised by much
of the Western world as the best response to oppression and injustice.

To some, though, the Dalai Lama
is not a saint but a soldier – a
rebellious one. The People’s
Republic of China claims that
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai
Lama and head of the Government
of Tibet in Exile, has encouraged
Tibetan rebellions against China
in an attempt to overthrow a
virtuous Chinese government that
has brought Tibet from an outdated,
poverty-stricken way of life to a
modern, improved standard of
living.

The key to understanding why these two countries see this issue so
differently lies in the historical relationship between China and Tibet.
China insists that Tibet has been a part of China for over 700 years, and
that the establishment of Communist Chinese control of Tibet in 1951 was
a peaceful liberation of Tibetans who were living under a “dark…[and]
backward” religious government. In 1959, a failed uprising resulted in the
exile of the Dalai Lama and his government to India, where they remain
today. Recently, China has accused the Dalai Lama of having started
another round of riots in Lhasa on March 14, 2008.

The Government of Tibet in Exile admits that Tibet was not always free
and self-governing, but rejects China’s claim that it always in sole control
of Tibet, insisting that “the degree and duration of foreign influence and
interference was relatively limited” and that it was not China’s work
alone. They admit that Tibetan society was "backward" and in need of
reforms in the late 1940s, but they also point to how economically
advanced they were as well. Tibetans see the 1959 riots as a people’s
movement in reaction to the Chinese failure to fulfill its 1951 promises
not to interfere with the Tibetan social system or the Dalai Lama’s power.

With the Olympics taking
place in Beijing, the Lhasa
riots caught the world’s
eye, sparking protests
against the Olympic torch’s
progression through Tibet,
and causing President
Nikolas Sarkozy of France
to consider boycotting the
Games unless progress is
made in the current peace
talks between China and
Tibet.

Although the talks are shrouded in secrecy for security’s sake, it seems
likely that the agenda will include some discussion of the Dalai Lama’s
Middle-Way Approach, which calls for Tibetan autonomy within the
People’s Republic of China. This would give China the right to claim Tibet
as its physical property while allowing Tibet cultural freedom.

“There is a growing effort and awareness to preserve, enhance, and
promote Tibetan culture,” the Chairwoman of the Louise T. Blouin
Foundation told Wang Jiangang of China Daily. But the Dalai Lama
disagrees. “Subjects involving Buddhism are being withdrawn from
schools...Monasteries are forced to emphasize Chinese political
education…Two-thirds of Lhasa is now Han Chinese."

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