I. Realizing the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
1. Tibet has been an inseparable part of China since an-cient times.
China is a unified, multi-ethnic country, and the Tibetan people are important members of the family of the Chinese nation. China’s territory and history were created by the Chinese nation; the Tibetan group, as one of the centuries-old ethnic groups in China, has made important contributions to the crea-tion and development of this unified, multi-ethnic country and to the formation and evolvement of the Chinese nation. Arc-haeological and academic research findings show that since ancient times the Tibetan people have been closely connected with the Han and other ethnic groups in blood relationship, lan-guage, culture and other aspects, and economic, political and cultural exchanges between Tibet and inland China have never been broken off. In the 13th century the central government of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) formally incorporated Tibet into the central administration by setting up the Supreme Control Commission and the Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Af-fairs to directly administer the military and political affairs of the Tibet region. Following this, the Yuan central government gradually standardized and institutionalized the administration of Tibet, including directly controlling the local administrative organs of Tibet and exercising the power of appointing local officials in Tibet, stationing troops there and conducting censuses. Following the Yuan system, the Ming (1368-1644) government implemented such policies as multiple enfeoffment, tributary trade and establishment of subordinated administrative divisions. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) strengthened the central government’s administration of Tibet. In 1653 and 1713 the Qing emperors granted honorific titles to the 5th Dalai Lama and the 5th Panchen Lama, officially establishing the titles of the Dalai Lama and Panchen Erdeni, and their political and religious status in Tibet. From 1727 the Qing court established the post of grand minister resident in Tibet to supervise local administration on behalf of the central authorities. In 1751 the Qing government abolished the system under which the various commandery princes held power, and formally appointed the 7th Dalai Lama to administer the local government of Tibet, and set up the Kashag (cabinet) composed of four Kalons (ministers). In 1793, after dispelling Gurkha invaders, the Qing government promulgated the Ordinance by the Imperial House Concerning Better Governance in Tibet (29 Articles), improving several systems by which the central government administered Tibet. The Ordinance stipulated that the reincarnation of Dalai Lama and other Living Buddhas had to follow the procedure of “drawing lots from the golden urn,” and the selected candidate would be subject to the approval by the central authorities of China. In the Qing Dynasty five Dalai Lamas were selected in this way, but two did not go through the lot-drawing procedure as approved by the Qing emperors. The Qing emperors deposed the 6th Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, in 1706 and the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, in 1904, and again in 1910.
The Revolution of 1911 toppled the Qing empire, and the Republic of China (1912-1949) was founded. On March 11, 1912 the Republic of China issued its first constitution — the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, which clari-fied the central government’s sovereignty over Tibet. It clearly stipulated that Tibet was a part of the territory of the Republic of China, and stated that “the Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui and Ti-betan peoples are of one, and the five ethnic groups will be of one republic.” On July 17 the government set up the Bureau of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs under the State Council. After the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was set up in Nanjing, the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs was established in 1929 to exercise administrative jurisdiction over Tibet. In 1940 the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs opened an office in Lhasa as the permanent mission of the central government in Tibet. The central government of the Republic of China safeguarded the nation’s sovereignty over Tibet in spite of frequent civil wars among warlords in the inte-rior. The 14th Dalai Lama, Dainzin Gyatso, succeeded to the title with the approval of the national government, which waived the lot-drawing convention. No country or government in the world has ever acknowledged the independence of Tibet.
2. So-called “Tibet independence” was part of imperialist aggressors’ attempt to carve up China.
Since the Opium War Britain started in 1840, China had been gradually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country. At the end of the 19th century imperialist forces set off mad spree to carve up China, and the British aggressors took the op-portunity to invade Tibet. British troops intruded into Tibet twice — in 1888 and 1903 — but failed due to the resistance of the Tibetan army and civilians. After their failure to turn Tibet into a colony through armed aggression, the imperialists started to foster pro-imperialist separatists in Tibet，plotted activities to separate Tibet from China and trumpeted “Tibet independence.” On August 31, 1907 Britain and Russia signed the Convention between Great Britain and Russia on Tibet, changing, for the first time, China’s sovereignty over Tibet into “suzerainty” in an international document. In 1913 the British government engi-neered the Simla Conference to instigate the Tibetan representative to raise the slogan of “Tibet independence” for the first time, which was immediately rejected by the representative of the Chinese government. The British representative then introduced the so-called “compromise” scheme, attempting to change China’s sovereignty over Tibet into “suzerainty” and separate Tibet from the authority of the Chinese government under the pretext of “autonomy.” These ill-intentioned attempts met with resolute opposition from the Chinese people and government. In July 1914, upon instruction, the representative of the Chinese government refused to sign the Simla Convention, and made a statement saying that the government of China refused to recognize any such agreement or document. The Chinese government also sent a note to the British government, reiterating its position. Thereupon, the conference collapsed. In 1942 the local government of Tibet, with the support of the British representative, suddenly announced the establishment of a “foreign affairs bureau,” and openly carried out “Tibet independence” activities. With opposition from the Chinese people and the national gov-ernment, the local government of Tibet had no choice but to withdraw its decision.
In 1947 the British imperialists plotted behind the scenes to invite Tibetan representatives to attend the “Asian Relations Conference,” and even identified Tibet as an independent country on the map of Asia hung in the conference hall and in the array of national flags. The organizers were forced to rectify this after the Chinese delegation made a stern protest. On July 8, 1949 the local government of Tibet issued an order to expel officials of the Tibet Office of the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs on the excuse of “prohibiting Communists from staying in Tibet.” In November 1949 the local government of Tibet decided to dispatch a so-called “goodwill mission” to the United States, Britain, India, Nepal and some other countries to seek political and military support for “Tibet independence,” making it obvious that it was intensifying separatist activities. Around the end of 1949 the American Lowell Thomas roamed Tibet in the guise of a “radio commentator” to explore the “possibility of aid that Washington could give Tibet.” He wrote in a US newspaper: “The United States is ready to recognize Tibet as an independent and free country.” In the first half of 1950 American weaponry was shipped into Tibet through Calcutta in order to help resist the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in its entry into Tibet.
Historical facts clearly demonstrate that the so-called “Tibet independence” was in fact cooked up by old and new imperial-ists, and was part of Western aggressors’ scheme to carve up the territory of China.
