Why does China care about Tibet? They remember well how the Mayor of Moscow brought down the Soviet Union. What's happening in Tibet could lead to a fracturing China, similar to what happened to the USSR.
ABC News
Protests and killing spread across Tibet today, in defiance of the Chinese government's crackdown on the protests in Lhasa that began more than a week ago on the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. There were protests today across the Tibetan plateau, including in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Kham and Amdo.
[..]The fact that the protests are spreading to towns and villages is a significant development. "If it's happening in bigger places, that's understandable. But if it's going to start to spread to smaller rural villages and then towns, then they're really in trouble," said Robert Barnett, a professor of contemporary Tibetan studies at Columbia University. The next question is whether the protests continue, knowing that there is a high level of shooting death," he said. "If the protests go on beyond that point, that's a very serious indicator that people are questioning if the Chinese have earned the position that they've taken to be the rulers."
The Dalai Lama is caught between a rock and a hard place. He is a committed pacifist. Yet he feels for his people's frustration. The young in Tibet are not so tied to his words and have in fact asked him to NOT call for an end to the protests. He has agreed. But he is prepared to do everything else.
Al Jazeera English
The Dalai Lama has said he will resign as Tibet's spiritual leader if the unrest in his homeland worsens, while rejecting Chinese allegations that he was behind it.
He was reacting to a claim by China's prime minister that groups aligned with him are responsible for the violent protests against Chinese rule in Tibet. Wen Jiabao had said earlier on Tuesday that "there is ample fact and plenty of evidence proving this incident was organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique".
The Dalai Lama responded that "if things are getting out of control, then the option is to completely resign. This movement is beyond our control."
The Dalai Lama's comments came as the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, northern India, said 19 Tibetan protesters were shot dead in China's Gansu province on Tuesday. It said that a total of 99 people had died after a week of unrest. China says Tibetan rioters killed 13 civilians during the protests in Lhasa, and that the Chinese government did not use lethal force to quell the rioting. Speaking from Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama said he was not in a position to tell Tibetans living under Chinese rule to "do this or do not do that".
The Dalai Lama also said that independence for Tibet was "out of the question". "We must build good relations with the Chinese," he said. The Dalai Lama appealed for calm in Tibet, saying: "Don't commit violence, it is not good. Violence is against human nature, violence is almost suicide. Even if 1,000 Tibetans sacrifice their lives, it will not help. "We should not develop anti-Chinese feelings. We must live together side by side."
[..]Qiangba Puncog, the Chinese-installed governor of Tibet, set the deadline for midnight on Monday, warning of "harsh" treatment for those who refused to surrender. There was little indication of any protesters having surrendered after the deadline. On Tuesday the US-funded Radio Free Asia reported that hundreds of people were being rounded up by security forces, in a possible sign of an intensified crackdown.
Another good article from Al Jazeera English on the history of the Tibet/China relationship
Once a warlike kingdom, Tibet adopted Buddhism 1,300 years ago and successive reincarnations of the Dalai Lama have been its spiritual and temporal leader over the past three centuries.
China and Tibet have vied for control of the 'roof of the world' since they first established contact in the 7th century. In 1720 China claimed suzerainty over Tibet, but control was often superficial. There is a well-documented history of Tibetan rulers declaring their independence from China. But the Chinese say the presence of a Chinese high commissioner as early as 1727 proved Lhasa owed its loyalty to them.
Later Tibet became caught up in the 'Great Game' between the British Empire and Tsarist Russia when British troops invaded Tibet and occupied Lhasa in 1904. The invasion led to a peace treaty between Britain and Tibet, a document some Tibetan historians claim as recognition of their remote mountain homeland as an independent state. Imperial China was outraged by the invasion but could do nothing to stop it, and waged a diplomatic battle to protect its claims on Tibet.
Following years of Tibet's unsuccessful attempts to gain international recognition as a nation, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong ordered its "liberation," and by 1950 Tibet had become an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. This arrangement was an unhappy one, however, resulting in the suppression of an uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 which led to the death of tens of thousands of Tibetans and the Dalai Lama's flight to his present exile in India.
Today China's government insists it is helping to improve and develop what was once a feudal society.
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