China on May 23, 1951, imposed the so-called “17-Point Agreement” to formally annex Tibet. In March, China in its 18th White Paper misleadingly said it laid “firm foundations for the region’s human rights cause.”
The agreement is invalid in international law, because it was signed under threat. Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, head of the Tibetan delegation sent to China for peace negotiations, was not authorized to sign the agreement on behalf of the Tibetan government and the delegation was made to sign it under duress.
After seven decades, Tibet remains intact and there is global outpouring of sympathy for Tibetans. This realization led to China’s imposition of drastic policies aimed at erasing Tibetan identity, such as the use of the Chinese word “Xizang” for Tibet. However, no matter how hard China politicizes the nomenclature of Tibet, facts cannot be forgotten. For example, the Indian government opted to use “Tibet” instead of “Xizang” in its statement extending condolences to the victims of the earthquake in January.
China’s core tactic for erasing Tibet is pressuring “subservient” nations to standardize views on the status of Tibet. The Nepalese prime minister’s joint statement with China read: “The Nepalese side reiterated that Xizang affairs are internal affairs of China, and that it will never allow any separatist activities against China on Nepal’s soil.”
Under China’s debt trap, the Nepalese government has no choice but to appease Chinese authorities when it comes to the issue of Tibet. Similarly, Bhutan did not hesitate to use Xizang for Tibet, as China’s constant aggression at the border leaves it in a difficult situation where accepting Beijing’s mandate comes as no surprise at all. China’s tactics — including using its economic power — attempt to pressure nations into distancing themselves from the three unpleasant ‘Ts’: Tibet, Taiwan and Tiananmen.
Today marks the 74th anniversary of the agreement that buried the independence of Tibet. This agreement was repudiated by the Dalai Lama in 1959 after eight years of trying to find common ground within the agreement’s framework. However, all points in the agreement were never meant to be implemented in Tibet.
The Dalai Lama in his book Voice for the Voiceless recounts an exchange with Mao Zedong (毛澤東) in 1954 about the Tibetan national flag: “One day, Chairman Mao paid an unannounced visit to my lodgings. During this meeting, he unexpectedly asked if Tibet had a national flag. Somewhat nervously, I replied that we did, and he said that it would be fine for us to keep it.”
This promise, made by Mao himself, has become completely illegal in Tibet, let alone granting Tibet genuine autonomy.
Yeshi Dawa is a former bureau chief at Radio Free Asia, Dharamshala, affiliated fellow at Tibet Policy Institute, anchor at Tibet TV and academic administrator at the Institute of Leadership & Governance, MSU Baroda.
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