Is China's Claim to Tibet Justified?

As much as I would like to take a neutral approach to the Tibetan-Chinese issue, I am concerned it is simply impossible. I remember when I first read Patric French's “Tibet, Tibet. A personal history of a lost land”. I was in my dorm room up all night, shivers constantly running down my spine, from time to time tears running down the cheeks too, I have to confess. Back then I did not know what exactly was going on in this remote and mysterious country, apart from that it is under Chinese occupation and the people are looking for liberation.* But when I read the book I instantly empathized with the story of Tibet. This is probably due to the fact that Estonia, my home country, once was in a similar desperate situation, being succumbed to the power of the Eastern neighbor. Luckily for Estonia, she managed to gain independence from Russia in 1918 though it officially had belonged to the Russian Empire as the Governorate of Estonia since the end of the Great Northern War, 1721 by the treaty of Nystad. Thus, it is even more intriguing, why Tibet, which has never by any kind of treaty or agreement belonged to China1, is still under the foreign rule and has to struggle for independence?

Well, as there is no evidence that Tibet “has been since the very ancient times an inseparable part of Chinese territory” as Sun Wade, the press counselor of People's Republic of China in Washington, claims,2 there is also no evidence that it was not. And this is the reason why in this ongoing dispute Tibet has no luck. Unfortunately for Tibet, this time the David and Goliath myth has not become into life. A good example of China's Goliathan manner- in 1914 the Simla convention was signed where the Great Britain recognized Tibet's independence, but C...

... middle of paper ...

...ry. No matter what proof is provided, the Communist China will never let loose of Tibet, especially now, when the the Asian century is about to begin. Simon Normanton's citation on China's attitude towards Tibet says it all: “But to the Chinese, Tibet's de facto independence was irrelevant, Tibet was simply part of China”.25

Works Cited

The Question of Tibet and Rule of Law. International Commission of Jurists. Geneva 1959. p 75

Tibet. Its History, Religion and People. T.J. Norbu. Pelican Books 1972. p 143

The Forbidden City. R. MacFarquhar. New York. p 91

Tibet: the lost civilisation. S. Normanton. London 1988. p 16

The Question of Tibet and Rule of Law. International Commission of Jurists. Geneva 1959. pp 84-85

No Man's Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet. G. Gyatso. The Tibet Journal vol XXVIII No.1&2 2003. p 147

Tibetan Review Vol.XLIV No.12 December 2009. p 5