Tibet has been an inalienable part of China since ancient times. In the mid-13th century, Tibet was formally included into China's territory during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). For more than 700 years, the central governments of past dynasties, from the Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Republic of China through the People's Republic of China, have always exercised effective sovereignty over the region of Tibet.

The titles of the Dalai Lama and Bainqen Lama were conferred by the emperor of the Qing Dynasty respectively in 1653 and 1713, establishing henceforth the political and religious positions of the Dalai Lama　and Bainqen　Erdeni in local　Tibetan govern ment. At that time, the central government also determined the identity of the reincarnated soul boys for various Living Buddhas of Tibet, including the Dalai Lama and Bainqen Erdeni.

In 1951 Tibet was liberated peacefully. On May 23 of the same year, the Agreement of the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was signed. The Dalai Lama, top leader of the local Tibetan government, sent a telegram on October 24 to Mao Zedong, chairman of the Central People's Government, indicating that he fully agreed with and supported this agreement and was willing to work hard for its implementation. The former Tibetan government repeatedly expressed the same attitude.

A handful of national separatists and certain international forces have repeatedly claimed that Tibet was historically once "an independent state". Numerous historical facts, however, have proved the claim to be an adulteration of history and distortion of historical facts.

The so-called "independence of Tibet" was the product of imperialist aggression against China before 1949 and a means used by some Western countries to conduct a virtual "Cold War" against China after 1949.

In fact, the word "independence" did not exist in the Tibetan language earlier in the century. Prior to the Opium War in 1840, there was not such a question as so-called "independence of Tibet" in history. Following the Opium War, Britain and some other countries began to engineer Tibet's separation from China. In 1913, the "Simla Conference", masterminded and manipulated solely by Britain and attended by representatives of China, Britain and the Tibetan region, incited representatives from the Tibetan region to raise the slogan of the "independence of Tibet." The Chinese government refused to sign the treaty at the conference. Britain then immediately agitated putting the slogan into action, fostered pro-imperialist, separatist forces among high-ranking Tibetan officials, provided the local Tibetan government with large quantities of firearms and ammunition, instigating the Tibetan army to attack the Sichuan army. In 1949, Britain and the United States again fanned Tibetan pro-imperialist forces to create the incident of driving out the Han people. Regarding this historical event, the Dalai Lama correctly noted that "the imperialists, who cashed in on Tibetan dissatisfaction with the Manchurian puppet regime and the Kuomintang reactionaries, engaged in various deceitful and instigating activities in an attempt to separate the Tibetan people from the motherland and placed the latter under their oppression and enslavement."

After the founding of New China and the peaceful liberation of Tibet, some Western countries trained Tibetan rebels outside China and then secretly sent them back into Tibet, air-dropped and secretly transported large batches of weapons and ammunition into the region to fan a rebellion aimed at the "independence of Tibet", in an attempt to turn Tibet into a base from which to subvert the People's Republic of China. The 1959 rebellion in Tibet was incited and supported entirely by imperialists.

Establishment of a so-called "unified Tibet autonomous region" is also impossible. China is a united, multi-national country where various ethnic groups have been living in long-term harmony. In establishing the state's administrative divisions, consideration should be given to the history and reality of various regions. Historically Tibet and the Tibetan areas in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces outside Tibet have never been an administrative division. Old local Tibetan authorities have never had jurisdiction over the Tibetan areas beyond Tibet.

Establishment of administrative division calls for consideration to the overall interests of the Chinese nation, and must be discussed and decided by the National People's Congress. It cannot be decided by any individual person. Furthermore, the 55 ethnic minority groups of China have each established autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties which enjoy full autonomy.

China's Constitution and the Law on Regional National Autonomy grant the Tibet Autonomous Region ample autonomy, which mainly includes: the right to formulate autonomous regulations and separate regulations in accordance with local ethnic, political, economic and cultural characteristics; independently arrange and manage local construction work and develop and utilize local resources; independently arrange and use local incomes and the financial subsidies allocated by the central government; and independently develop national education and cultural undertakings characteristic of its own ethnic features, including literature, arts, journalism, publication, broadcasting, films and television.

At the same time, in line with the Law on Regional National Autonomy, the standing committees of the people's congresses in the Tibet Autonomous Region have Tibetans serve as chairmen. The posts of chairman of the autonomous regional government, as well as the leading members of governments at various levels under the autonomous region, are also filled by Tibetans.

Since 1965, the people's congress and its standing committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region have passed 150-odd local laws, regulations and resolutions conforming with Tibet's actual conditions. These laws and regulations have safeguarded the interests of the Tibetan people in the aspects of politics, economics, culture and education. Examples of these laws include: The People's Congress Rules of Procedure of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Procedures for the Formulation of Local Laws and Regulations of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Regulations Concerning Cultural Relics Protection and Management of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Regulations on Forest Protection of the Tibet Autonomous Region, Management Methods for Collective Mining Enterprises and Private Mining of the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Accommodation Regulations for the Implementation of the Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China. Formulation and implementation of these local laws and regulations have provided important legal guarantees for various democratic rights for the Tibetan people and their social and cultural undertakings.

(This article appears on page 17, No. 34, 1996)