| From dark past to bright future（2） author： |
| link China Daily 2011-07-12: |
| 2. So-called Tibetan independence was part of imperialist aggressors' attempts to carve up China. Once Britain started the Opium War in 1840, China was gradually reduced to a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country. At the end of the 19th century imperialist forces began a mad spree to carve up China, and the British aggressors took the opportunity to invade Tibet. British troops went into Tibet twice - in 1888 and 1903 - but failed to overcome the resistance of the Tibetan army and civilians. After their failure to turn Tibet into a colony through armed aggression, the imperialists started to foster pro-imperialist separatists in Tibet and plotted activities to separate Tibet from China, trumpeting "Tibet's independence". On Aug 31, 1907 Britain and Russia signed the Convention between Great Britain and Russia on Tibet, changing, for the first time, China's sovereignty over Tibet into suzerainty in an international document. In 1913 the British government instigated the Simla Conference and engineered for the Tibetan representative to raise the slogan of "Tibetan independence" for the first time, which was immediately rejected by the representative of the Chinese government. The British representative then introduced the so-called compromise scheme, attempting to change China's sovereignty over Tibet into suzerainty and seeking to separate Tibet from the authority of the Chinese government under the pretext of "autonomy". These ill-intentioned attempts met with resolute opposition from the Chinese people and government. In July 1914, upon instruction, the representative of the Chinese government refused to sign the Simla Convention, and made a statement saying that the government of China refused to recognize any such agreement or document. The Chinese government also sent a note to the British government, reiterating its position. Thereupon, the conference collapsed. In 1942 the local government of Tibet, with the support of the British representative, suddenly announced the establishment of a "foreign affairs bureau", and openly carried out "Tibetan independence" activities. With opposition from the Chinese people and the national government, the local government of Tibet had no choice but to withdraw its decision. In 1947 the British imperialists plotted behind the scenes to invite Tibetan representatives to attend the "Asian Relations Conference", and even identified Tibet as an independent country on the map of Asia hung in the conference hall and in the array of national flags. The organizers were forced to rectify this after the Chinese delegation made a stern protest. On July 8, 1949 the local government of Tibet issued an order to expel officials of the Tibet Office of the Commission for Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs on the excuse of "prohibiting Communists from staying in Tibet". In November 1949 the local government of Tibet decided to dispatch a so-called goodwill mission to the United States, Britain, India, Nepal and some other countries to seek political and military support for "Tibet's independence", making it obvious that it was intensifying separatist activities. Around the end of 1949 the American Lowell Thomas roamed Tibet in the guise of a "radio commentator" to explore the "possibility of aid that Washington could give Tibet". He wrote in a US newspaper: "The United States is ready to recognize Tibet as an independent and free country." In the first half of 1950 American weaponry was shipped into Tibet through Calcutta in order to help resist the entry of People's Liberation Army (PLA) into Tibet. These historical facts clearly demonstrate that so-called Tibetan independence was in fact cooked up by old and new imperialists, and was part of Western aggressors' scheme to carve up the territory of China. |
| (2011-7-27 15:26:00hits:891) |