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1983
Special> China's Tibet: Facts & Figures> Beijing Review Archives> 1983
UPDATED: May 7, 2008 No. 26, 1983
Tibet: History and Anecdotes (II)
By Lobsang and Jin Yun
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Soon after this incident, Lowell Thomas, a US special agent, visited Lhasa. After his return to the United States in October 1949, US press called for US government support for Tibet's appeal to join the United Nations. Thomas himself said that he had told the officials of the Tibet local government to resolutely oppose the People's Liberation Army's entrance into Tibet. He said that they could stop the PLA by organizing a trained guerrilla force.

On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded in Beijing. In order to completely liberate all of China's mainland, the Central People's Government decided to send troops to Tibet. Proceeding from the aspiration of safeguarding the unification of the motherland and national unity, the Party Central Committee set the principle of striving for a peaceful liberation of Tibet. The government then told the Tibetan local government to dispatch a delegation to Beijing for negotiations. However, the reactionary elements of Tibet's upper strata rejected this proposal.

It was only after the People's Liberation Army defeated the major force of Tibet, that tried to block PLA's advance, in the battle of Chamdo in October 1950 that the Tibetan local government agreed to send a delegation to Beijing for negotiations. In April 1951, the Tibet local government's delegation headed by Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme arrived in Beijing and entered into negotiations with the central government. On May 23, the Central People's Government and the Tibet local government signed an agreement for the peaceful liberation of Tibet, which smashed the long-standing scheme for "Tibet's independence" by the British and US imperialists.

World Recognition

The imperialists and a small number of reactionary elements in Tibet's upper ruling clique could not reconcile themselves to the peaceful liberation of Tibet and its return to the embrace of the motherland. The reactionary elements were intent upon launching an armed rebellion, negating the agreement and detaching Tibet from China. Abetted by the imperialists, they continued to carry out sabotage and create disturbances. Despite the central government's consistent persuasion and education, they finally launched an armed rebellion in March 1959.

But, contrary to their desires, this rebellion accelerated the destruction of the Tibet's reactionary forces and brought Tibet on to the bright democratic, socialist road sooner than expected.

"Tibet's independence" advocated by a handful of Tibet's and foreign reactionaries both in the past and at present has always been a dirty trick of imperialist aggression against China, including Tibet.

Today, a number of people with ulterior motives spread the nonsense that "Tibet is an independent state." Their aim is to draw Tibet away from the motherland, which will never be allowed by any of the Chinese people, including the people of Tibet.

The indisputable fact that Tibet is an inalienable part of China is universally recognized throughout the world. Even the officials of the British and US governments do not deny it.

In 1903, George Hamilton, the British Secretary of State for India, said: "(Tibet) must still be regarded as a province of China." On June 14, 1904, in his instruction to the British plenipotentiary to Russia, the British Foreign Secretary also admitted that Tibet was a province of the Chinese Empire.

After the 1959 rebellion, a spokesman for the US State Department stated on March 24,"The United States never regarded Tibet as an independent state." A spokesman for the British Foreign Office also reiterated on March 31 that Britain recognized China's sovereignty over Tibet.

After its independence, India repeatedly expressed that it respected China's sovereignty over Tibet. On the basis of mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, the two governments signed an agreement to establish trade relations and open transport and communication services between China's Tibet and India on April 29, 1954.

The two governments also reached agreement on the noted Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. On May 15,1954, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru denounced remarks that attempted to negate China's sovereignty over Tibet while addressing the House of the People. He said, "Over the past hundreds of years, as far as I know, at no time has any foreign country denied China's sovereignty over Tibet."

China's sovereignty over Tibet is indisputable. This is the conclusion history demands.

(This article appears on page 25, No. 26, 1983)

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