Read part 1.

Read part 2.

Everyone can have his/her own views on whether to stand on Tibet’s side or on China’s side. The important thing is to educate oneself on the history first before taking a stand. From what I have seen in the western press, I have an impression that the writers of the articles tend to look at the issue with their western eyes. As such information is disseminated to the public who uses it as their primary source of information, the result is that the general public will have their opinions formed along the same line as how the journalist illustrates the topic.

Given the events that took place up till 1949, my view is that China’s claim that Tibet is part of the country is not an illegitimate one. From the overthrow of the Qing dynasty until the end of the civil war between the KMT and the communist party, there was just nobody who had both the power and the bandwidth to consolidate the country’s territory.

When Mao’s communist government came into power, they set their own policies to maintain the country’s integrity. Are these policies good or bad? History has already been written and it is now for people who study the history to debate on it.

I have read claims about the Chinese government suppressing the rights of Tibetan to practice their religion and preserve their culture. Documents of this nature often paint a bleak picture of a people living in repression. I have never been to Tibet myself. So I cannot comment on what the situation is really like.

In any case, this has never been the image of Tibet that I have in my head, which is one of a serene vastness on the top of the world with its peace-loving and contented people, thanks to their Buddhist faith. It is a place where I definitely want to visit in this lifetime. Then, I will be able to learn for myself how people live and experience their culture.

Talking about culture, it is perhaps an irony that tourists like me have a part to play in bringing the so-called foreign elements that contribute to eroding traditional culture to the places we visit. Come to think of it, has this not been a challenge that all civilizations have to face, regardless of time? The world did not have to wait till the 20^th century before globalization started to take place.

I believe this summary of what I read on the topic of Tibet is only scrapping the surface. There are definitely issues that I did not explore and that I still know little about. If the topic interests you, I encourage you to do your own research.

To conclude this section on Tibet, I would like to ask a couple of questions:

- Who are we? Who are we to ask that China free Tibet?

- Who are we? Who are we to say that the Tibetans should not have an administration for themselves?

It is the Chinese nationals and the ethnic Tibetans who are in the most legitimate positions to voice their opinions. As for the rest of us interested in an intellectual discussion, let us make sure we adequately educate ourselves. Be surprised by the amount of knowledge that we do not have.

Read part 1.

Tibet

I have one advice on the subject of Tibet. Do not go into the streets and join the people in crying “Free Tibet” without first trying to understand history.

First, let us look at some key dates in the history of Tibet. Some articles claim that Tibet became independent around 1911-1913 even though the legitimacy of a treaty signed in 1913 with Mongolia for mutual recognition of their independence from China has been questioned.

The 13th Dalai Lama ruled relatively undisturbed in Tibet in the post 1913 period. After his death, the 14th Dalai Lama was recognised as the latest reincarnation in 1937. He assumed political power in 1950, in the midst of what is widely regarded as China’s invasion of Tibet.

In 1951, Tibet and China signed what would be commonly known as the Seventeen Point Agreement, which essentially declared Tibet to be a part of China. It seems that this agreement was not well-received by all the Tibetans.

In addition to that, the then Chinese government was not seen to have kept its promise laid out in the agreement. The Tibetans felt unfairly treated as they saw that the Chinese government tried imposing their authority over the Tibetan government as well as social and economic reforms that altered the fabric of their society. This, together with other events, eventually led to the 1959 uprising in Lhasa, which resulted in the Dalai Lama and his government fleeing to India.

Next, let us look at China’s history. As most people familiar with Chinese history know, 1911 is an important marker in the timeline of China’s history. This was the year when the Xinhai Revolution (辛亥革命) took place, eventually overthrowing the rulers of the Qing dynasty and ended centuries of imperial rule in China. The year marks the beginning of a new era of what I would call contemporary Chinese history.

At this juncture, one important question is – what role has Tibet been playing in China’s history under the imperial rulers? Bilateral relationships between China and Tibet existed as early as the Tang dynasty (618 – 907) and later in the Yuan dynasty (1271 – 1368).

It was in the Qing dynasty (1644 – 1911) that the central government established some form of control over Tibet. In 1751, Emperor Qianlong (乾隆) established the Dalai Lama as both the spiritual and political leader of Tibet. The custom of having the central government choose the future dalai lamas from possible infant candidates was also established around this period of time.

Now, let us look at what happened in China after 1911. Right after the revolution, China was having plenty of woes. China was far from united.

Sun Yat-Sen (孙中山), one of the pioneers of the revolution, became the first Provisional President of the nation, then known as the Republic of China. Unfortunately, he had to deal with another powerful, but ill-intentioned general by the name of Yuan Shikai (袁世凯). Yuan took the power from Sun to succeed him as Provisional President after the latter was in office for barely over 2 months.

Yuan later further consolidated his power and was elected as President in 1913. It was said that to achieve international recognition, he agreed to grant autonomy to Outer Mongolia and Tibet, where foreign interests were already present.

China had to live with Yuan as a leader as revolutionary groups, such as the one led by Sun, worked at overthrowing him. In 1916, resigning to his failed attempt at establishing his own empire, Yuan stepped down after an 80-day stint as self-declared emperor.

Even after Yuan’s stepping down, China’s woes continued. It entered into a period of warlordism, where no authoritative central governance prevailed. It was towards the late 1920s that Chiang Kai Shek’s Kuomintang (KMT) started to regain control of parts of China. At this time, much of the KMT’s influence was over the eastern part of China. Much of the rest of China was still controlled by warlords. There were other regions of today’s China listed as disputed regions during this period. These included far-fetched corners of Xinjiang and Tibet.

Not long after that, the Chinese found themselves engaged in a war against the Japanese. 1937 – 1945 were the years that saw the KMT allied with the Chinese Communist Party in the Sino-Japanese War. At the same time, however, the formation of the alliance did not neutralize the differences between the two parties and conflicts between the two already developed. This laid the path to further conflicts between the two after the Sino-Japanese War.

Just as it emerged from the Sino-Japanese War, China plunged into another difficult period as civil war broke out between the KMT and the communists. The KMT’s popularity and power were waning at this time while the communists’ influence became stronger.

In 1949, Mao Zedong’s Communist Party came into power. Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT retreated to Taiwan. Mainland China changed its name to the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Soon after coming into power, the communist government led a “Peaceful liberation of Tibet” (和平解放西藏) campaign. The PRC’s rationale for this campaign was to restore equality to Tibet’s social system, where a portion of the population were still serfs, and reunite China. The campaign resulted in the deployment of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Lhasa in 1950 and the signing of the Seventeen Point Agreement.

The communist party’s campaign to establish social equality was not targeted at Tibet specifically. It was part of a larger initiative led by Mao after his party took over China to replace the old feudal system by one that sees a more equal distribution of land in favour of peasants with humble background.

The Seventeen Point Agreement was supposed to protect the interests of the Tibetans, promising them autonomous governance, among other things. As a result, Tibetans residing within the bounds of the autonomous region should not be affected by the communist party’s land reforms.

Complications, however, arise due to the fact that there were ethnic Tibetan regions, which the Chinese government considered to be outside the Tibetan government’s administration. These were regions in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan. The distribution of these regions into the Chinese provinces was initiated by the Qing emperor Yongzheng (雍正) in the 18th century.

Since the PRC government regarded these regions as under their administration, land reform was allowed to take place there. It was reported that land was confiscated from noblemen and monasteries and redistributed to serfs. This led to a rebellion in 1956 by the people who had their land taken away.

Tensions between the Tibetan and PRC government have worsened over these years as the latter launched military crackdowns against the rebels. Unrest in the region persisted in the late 1950s and eventually spread to Lhasa. In March 1959, the Tibetans staged a massive demonstration in Lhasa. Shortly after that, open fighting eventually broke out.

The uprising was eventually crushed by the PRC government. Following the rebellion, the government lowered the level of autonomy of Tibet and implemented full-scale land redistribution throughout Tibet.

China has been the target of international criticism for its unimpressive human rights record. So, should China be hosting the Olympics? Should anybody boycott the Olympics? These are not the questions that I am trying to answer in this series of posts.

In the build up to the games this summer, the subject of China surfaces all the more in my daily diet of current affairs. The intensity of the reports and controversy really peaked after the period of unrest in Tibet, followed by the excessive protests seen at the torch relay in Athens, London, Paris and San Francisco.

Reading the press reports in the western media has left me feeling very unsettled, and I will explain the reason for my feelings later. There were two main motivations for the protests – protesting against China’s human rights records and calling for the freeing of Tibet.

In fact, even before the incidents at the torch relay took place, activists and NGOs have already started holding campaigns targeted at China in light of the summer Olympics that will be held there. Check out the sites of Reporters Sans Frontieres and Human Rights Watch. I also personally know someone, whom I meet and speak to almost every week, who resolved that he will boycott the Games by refusing to watch every single telecast of it on TV.

Now, having grown up in an environment where Chinese culture and history are not totally Greek to me, I am at least aware that the question of Tibet exists. The international community’s disapproval of China’s human rights record is also not news to me.

In the midst of the “Free Tibet” banners that I kept seeing on photographs and TV and the sight of RSF’s rendition of the Olympics emblem, I felt that many western journalists have been reporting on the subject primarily through the eyes of a westerner. That is someone who is pro-liberty, “anti-violence” and who tends to dismiss the other side of the story as “according to the statement released by the communist party” propaganda.

It is the type of reaction that can result from single-sided views like this that unsettles me. I question how many of the people who stand out to protest or speak out against China really know China. Have they ever been to China before? Have they spoken to any Chinese friends to find out how China is like? Have they heard from westerners who are living in China to have their opinion of how it is like to live there?

I am not pro-Chinese. Even though I am Chinese by ethnicity, I consider myself very different from a Chinese national and I am sure a Chinese national would think the same of me too. Hence my reactions to the anti-China sentiments are definitely not driven by a sentiment of nationalism.

I admit that I do not have a deep knowledge of the history of the Tibet issue and how bad China’s human rights issues really are, by measures of “international standards”. The reports that I read made me want to find out more. Why are people protesting? What are the basis to their claims? What is the other side of the story?

I have done quite a fair bit of reading in the past weeks. Though I know that the stories that I read are definitely far from complete, I am glad to say that I am better informed now than in the past. This post has gotten very long since I first started writing it. I am breaking it into a few parts to outline what I learned and my thoughts on these topics.