PRC-Tibet Historically

Power struggles around Tibet can be traced back 14 centuries, but today’s wave of conflict can be said to have begun with the events that led to the 1914 Simla Convention and China’s actions there.

In the 20^th century, Russia, China and Great Britain were all attempting to establish control in the Himalayas, leading Tibet to repeatedly reassert its independence. Undeterred, a number of officials in Britain and China continued to press for a forceful takeover, but when the strategizing began to look like it could turn to violence, leaders in all three countries decided that an official agreement must be made.

In 1914, representatives from Britain, China and Tibet met in Simla, India to negotiate a treaty over Tibet’s status. In broad terms, the treaty names “Outer Tibet” (roughly the same area as today’s Tibet Autonomous Region) as an independent region under Tibet. Part of Tibet’s eastern region, named “Inner Tibet”, would go to China. It was widely assumed that the three countries would come to an agreement; however, instead of negotiating further, China flatly rejected the document, and Ivan Chen, her representative, withdrew. The delegates from Tibet and Great Britain decided that would count as China’s refusal to sign, and the two countries proceeded to finalize the agreement without granting China any rights under the treaty.

Today, China’s actions at the convention add another layer of dispute in the controversy surrounding the conflict. China, now officially the People’s Republic of China (PRC) asserts the entire treaty is unrecognizable by law, as Tibet was never independent. The claim is that, as only a region under China, Tibet had no right to sign any treaties without China’s consent, and therefore, both Inner and Outer Tibet “remain” Chinese. Tibet’s position is completely different, as it is based on the view that Tibet was independent before the 1914 Simla convention. The Tibetan parliament has ruled that China’s lack of agreement at the convention means that the Dalai Lama, until recently Tibet’s religious and political leader, still has legal control over both Inner and Outer Tibet.

Soldiers of the PLA from 2011.

Source: "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff" (Public domain) at Wikimedia

The lack of consensus around the Simla Convention led directly to the domestic and international controversy surrounding China’s invasion of Tibet in 1950. Official and unofficial pressure on Tibet to incorporate increased almost immediately after the Communist PRC was founded by Mao Zedong in 1949. Weak attempts at negotiations went in circles over the next year, during which China began to build up the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

In 1950, the pressure after a fiery series of failed negotiations became too much for the already seriously strained PRC-Tibet relationship. The PLA invaded Qamdo in October of 1950 with the goal to either capture or kill the Tibetan Army that was situated nearby. The battle was a massacre. The 8,500 Tibetan volunteers were utterly destroyed by the well-trained, well-equipped 40,000 soldiers in the PLA. The optimistic calculations of the PRC estimate 140 killed or wounded on the Chinese side, and 180 killed on the Tibetan side. Tibet claims 5,000 Tibetans were killed in the battle, more than half of their entire army.

Though statistics like the casualties must necessarily be secondhand, the fact that the invasion preceded a devastating aftermath for the Tibetans cannot be hidden even by the formidable talents of the PRC. Without even the limited firepower of their few thousand volunteer soldiers, Tibetan negotiators inevitably lost more and more ground. Eventually, Tibet was incorporated into the PRC by the Seventeen Point Agreement, a document that gave China sovereignty with Tibet as an autonomous region. (Link: Wikipedia article on Seventeen Point Agreement)

Tibet and many international governments, officially or unofficially, view this document as unwillingly signed under duress. Tibet’s fourteenth Dalai Lama has repeatedly issued official statements that he and the Tibetan government regard the Seventeen Point Agreement as invalid. China’s official position, however, is succinctly summarized by an editorial on the China Daily website. “The Agreement of the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (otherwise called the Seventeen Point Agreement) was the treaty that peacefully returned Tibet to the motherland, to the great welcome of both the People’s Republic and the people of the Tibet Autonomous Region”.

(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/tibet2011/2011-05/23/content_12559789.htm)