Peace:

Tibet and China

The plight of the Tibetan people is one of the great human rights tragedies of recent history. The Chinese government has brutally oppressed the people of Tibet and engaged in a conscious campaign to wipe out traditional Tibetan culture.

Unfortunately, the political reality does not currently allow for an independent Tibet state, but the people of Tibet must be given autonomy over their domestic affairs. In addition, the horrific human rights abuses and widespread limitations on free speech, assembly, and movement must end.

Tibet existed as an independent, sovereign nation for hundreds of years prior to the Chinese occupation in 1950. For centuries, Tibet held a strategic position at the nexus of the great historic powers of Asia: India, Mongolia, and China. Tibet had complex linguistic, economic, political, and cultural interactions with each of these surrounding nations, but there is a clear consensus among historians that Tibet was, for many years, an independent nation-state.

The International Committee of Jurists declared in 1960 that “acts of genocide were committed” by the Chinese against the Tibetan people. Only a handful of the over 6,000 monasteries in Tibet have escaped Chinese occupation unscathed. Thousands of Tibetans have been killed, raped, or tortured by Chinese forces in the last half century. Tibet’s natural resources have been unsustainably ravaged to fuel the economy of the Chinese mainland. The transfer of millions of Han Chinese has diluted the cultural influence of Tibetans in their own land. Western multinational corporations continue to fund and encourage the destruction of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, the political and spiritual leader of Tibet, has called for Tibetan autonomy over domestic affairs. The global community must demand justice for the Tibetans. Unfortunately, bowing to the financial interests of predatory transnational corporations, the United States has recently given up its best bargaining chip by ending the annual review of China’s human rights record.

The affronts to human dignity must end. The Chinese Government must:

The international community must take a stand against the continued abuses in Tibet. We should:

The plight of the Tibetans is a human tragedy. The Tibetan people have set an extraordinary example in their organized, non-violent resistance to tyranny. The United States and the world community would do well to follow their example.