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Does Anyone Remember Tibet?
Does Anyone Remember Tibet?
By Maura Moynihan
Wednesday, July 2, 1997; Page A23
The Washington Post
Now that Hong Kong has been formally incorporated
into the
People's Republic of China, the international
community
would be well advised to study China's subjugation
of Tibet.
The turnover this week proceeded with impressive
ceremonial decorum: Jiang Zemin talked of Hong
Kong's
"return to the Motherland." Prince Charles referred
to the
guarantees of Hong Kong's autonomy made in the
Joint
Declaration and Basic Law that henceforth will
govern Hong
Kong under China's system of National Regional
Autonomy.
Commentators spoke of how Beijing ought not tamper
with
Hong Kong's "magic."
Nowhere was mention made of the "17-Point Agreement
for
the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" of 1951, by which
Tibet
was incorporated into the People's Republic of
China under
the same system of National Regional Autonomy now
being
applied to Hong Kong. Tibet was putatively
guaranteed
political and cultural autonomy. Instead, the
agreement
became the pretext by which Beijing seized control
of the
Tibetan plateau.
Mao's annexation of Tibet was an event of seismic
proportions in the history of Asia, a conquest that
altered
the regional balance of power and advanced China's
hegemonic ambitions. Occupied Tibet comprises more
than
one-fourth of the land mass of the People's
Republic of
China. Tibet is the riverhead of Asia's waters, the
source of
the Yellow, Salween, Yangtze, Brahmaputra, Mekong,
Irawaddy and Ganges rivers. China has already taken
some
$50 billion worth of lumber from eastern Tibet.
Central and
western Tibet have enormous mineral resources,
including
the earth's largest uranium deposits. Tibet's 6
million people
are spread over 2.5 million square miles of
mountain terrain.
Hong Kong's 6 million residents are clustered in a
cosmopolitan port. Tibet gave China vast territory
and
resources; Hong Kong will provide capital and
trade.
The annexation of Tibet gave China, for the first
time in
history, a continuous border with Burma, India,
Bhutan,
Nepal, Ladhak, Kazakhstan and East Turkestan (now
called
Xinjiang Province). Tibet no longer serves as a
neutral
buffer state between Asia's two greatest powers;
soon after
the 1959 flight of the Dalai Lama, the Chinese
People's
Liberation Army stationed troops along the Indian
border
and claimed large portions of territory, an action
that
resulted in the 1962 Sino-Indian War. With Tibet
locked
behind an iron curtain, the economies and cultures
of the
entire Himalayan region have been marginalized and
imperiled.
When Mao sent troops into Tibet in 1949, he also
assigned
cadres to "modernize" the region. The Tibetans
initially
cooperated, until the Chinese began to usurp
traditional
leadership, which led to revolt and armed conflict.
There
was no media coverage of the 1959 Chinese
annexation of
Tibet and the state-sponsored famine that followed;
details
of the carnage were collected from refugees who
escaped
on foot over the Himalayas to asylum in India and
Nepal. To
this day, journalists, diplomats and tourists can
visit Tibet
only under severe restrictions.
Hong Kong is a media and financial capital filled
with fax
machines, cameras and telephones. With the world
watching, and presumably negotiating deals, Beijing
will
consolidate its gains in Hong Kong by steps, even
as it did
in Tibet without the world watching, from 1949 to
1959. The
Politburo already has announced that public
assembly and
speech in Hong Kong will be curtailed for reasons
of
"national security." Politburo propaganda officials
already
hover over Hong Kong's newspapers, magazines and TV
stations. Self-censorship will be the trade-off for
survival.
When Beijing briefly relaxed its control of Tibet
in the
mid-1980s, Tibetan Buddhism and ethnic pride
rebounded,
as did demands for cultural and political rights.
In 1987, '88
and '89, troops opened fire on Tibetan
demonstrators.
Photographs and eyewitness accounts of the
slaughter
came from tourists, several of whom were arrested
and
harassed. During a 1989 demonstration, PLA troops
shot a
Dutch bystander. She nearly died but managed to
escape to
Hong Kong, where she showed her wounds at an
international press conference. (Could that happen
now?)
The administrative and military facilities
throughout the
Tibetan Autonomous Region, the Inner Mongolian
Autonomous Region, Ninjxia, the Wei Autonomous
Region,
and Xinjiang, the Uigher Autonomous Region, are
identical
and report directly to Beijing -- hardly a
representation of
genuine regional autonomy. A pervasive security
force of
the People's Armed Police and the People's
Liberation Army
is present. Arbitrary arrest, detention, torture
and summary
execution are routine instruments of state control.
Given that Beijing has consistently violated the
terms of
National Regional Autonomy in other autonomous
regions,
policy-makers in the free world must keep a
vigilant watch
on Hong Kong. It is, at this point, impossible and
impractical
to isolate China. Thus it is all the more important
to compel
China to uphold its agreements to honor treaties
and
respect the law of nations.
The writer, a consultant to Refugees International,
has
worked for many years with Tibetan refugees in
India and
Nepal.
© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company