II. The Dalai clique's separatist activities abroad
The tendency toward separating Tibet from China emerged in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. After the Anglo-Indian Army's invasion into Tibet in 1904, the 13th Dalai Lama fled to the hinterland. Under the threat of Anglo army's bayonet, the Grand Minister Resident of Tibet Oyuthar ordered the representatives of the three leading monasteries in Lhasa to sign the "Lhasa Treaty." He himself didn't dare to sign for fear of the court.
Having pulled out from Lhasa, the British Army yet stationed troops in many areas of Tibet and controlled Tibet's major ports entry. After the Revolution 1911, China entered the period of constant fighting among warlords. At this time, the British quickened the pace of fostering pro-British forces and incited the 13th Dalai Lama to break away from China. Even so, the Chinese government, though experiencing constant changes, still denounced Tibet's separatist tendency from time to time.
In 1913, the British government, as the "mediator", began to interfere with the negotiation between the Chinese Central Government and the local government of Tibet. Lonchen Shatra, a typical pro-British official in Tibet's local government, for the first time proposed "the Independence of Tibet" in the written form at a tripartite conference, namely the Simla Conference, held in India. However, the Chinese government representative Chen Yifan, upon instruction, refused to sign the Simla Convention. In a statement, Chen said, "The Chinese government refuses to recognize any agreement which the British government and Tibet might conclude independently either now or in the future."
In the end, the Simla Convention was signed by the representatives of Britain and Tibet local government. To win Britain's support, Lonchen Shatra reached an agreement privately with the British representative McMahon, allowing Britain to give an area of 90,000 sq km of Tibet to British-Indian government. That is the so-called "Mcmahon Line," resulting in a long-standing dispute between China and India on bilateral borders.
On September 12, 1987, the 14th Dalai Lama was invited to the Hearing on Human rights held in Capitol Hill of the United States. At this Hearing, he distorted the reality in Tibet: "In the past decades, Tibet has suffered a catastrophe. A total of one million Tibetans, namely, one sixth of the whole population of Tibet, were slaughtered. Now at least one million Tibetans are living in misery in concentration camps… Tibet is one of the world's regions witnessing the most serious infringement of human rights. The Chinese are pursuing a policy of segregating and assimilating ethnic groups, and discriminating against the Tibetans. The Tibetan people in their own country are no better than second-rate citizens at best. They are living under the rule of a colonialist government, and are stripped of basic rights and freedom. In that government, all actual powers are in the hands of Chinese officials of the Communist Party and the army."
Meanwhile, the 14th Dalai Lama put forward his "Five-Point Plan on Tibet's Status" which is as follows:
1. Tibet shall be made into a peaceful zone;
2. The Chinese government shall give up the policy to immigrate people into Tibet because this threatens the essential existence of the Tibetan ethnic group;
3. The basic human rights and democracy and freedom of the Tibetans shall be respected;
4. The natural environment of Tibet shall be restored and protected. China shall abandon its plan to produce nuclear weapons and store nuclear wastes.
5. Sincere negotiations shall be held on Tibet's future status as well as the issue of relation between the Tibetan people and the Chinese people.
Soon after Dalai's speech in the United States, on September 27, 1987, the first demonstration "demanding independence" occurred in Lhasa after the Democratic reform was launched in 1959.
On the National Day of People's Republic of China, which fell on October 1, 1987, a demonstration headed by lamas was staged once again, with violence erupting between the rioters and the police.
Subsequently, two riots occurred in Lhasa in March 1988 and March 1989. In order to ensure the people's normal life in Tibet, the State Council decided to enforce a martial law in Lhasa.
Following the riots in Lhasa, the 10th Panchen Lama made a speech in Beijing to express his opposition to the Dalai clique's incitement on the riots. He called the Tashilhunpo Monastery: "The doctrines of Buddhism are to ask people not to do bad things but do good things. One good turn deserves another. Please pass on my order that if anyone dares to do evil, I will punish him without leniency!"
Raidi, vice-chairman of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said in an interview in 1991: "Since the Democratic Reform of Tibet, the most significant change in Tibet is that in Tibetans. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and with the help of fraternal ethnic groups, one million of serfs, accounting for 95 percent of Tibet's population, have been freed from the oppression of the feudal serfdom, winning personal freedom and ideological emancipation."
"Before the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, all the land, pastures, woods and cattle were in the hands of the serf-owners. Serfs were bought and sold, presented as gifts or even killed as their owners liked. Punishments were extremely savage and cruel, including gouging out eyes, cutting off ears, hands and feet, pulling out tendons, and peeling skin. The old Tibet was by no means a pure place, but the region in the world suffering the most serious infringement of human rights."
According to Raidi, the population of Tibetan in Tibet rose to 2.09 million in 1990, almost two times the figure of 1951,and only 80,000 Han people lived there. "How did they say 'A total of 1.2 million Tibetans were slaughtered and one million Han people have immigrated into Tibet.' Just show us the evidence. The purpose of their spreading rumors is to restore their ruling position in Tibet. They have deliberately ignored or even denied and distorted our achievements out of their hatred of socialism."
On December 3, 1978 the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping met with the Dalai Lama's private representative Gyale Dondrup in Beijing.
On December 28, 1978, Deng said to Associated Press correspondents in an interview given in the Great Hall of the People that "the Dalai Lama may return home, but only as a Chinese citizen," "We have but one condition on his return - patriotism. We hold that in terms of patriotism, there is no difference between the early and the late." This indicates the Central People's Government's attitude toward welcoming the Dalai Lama back to the motherland.
On July 17, 1987 the 10th Panchen Lama re-appealed to the Dalai Lama to return to the embrace of the motherland.
He said: "Today when we gather together, we would naturally think of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans residing abroad. They are far from homeland and apart from the compatriots. As a frater of the same ethnic group, I am much concerned all along about their situation. Particularly, both the Dalai Lama and I are Buddhist followers and successors to the Yellow Sect (the Gelug Sect) founder Tsongkhapa, so I care more about him.
"The gate to the motherland has always been wide open to the patriotic people, who are free to come and go and whose personal security is guaranteed. I sincerely hope that the Dalai Lama should make a correct option and I warmly welcome him to come back to the motherland."
In 1989, the 10th Panchen Lama passed away. Zhao Buchu, president of the Buddhist Association of China, wrote to the Dalai Lama, inviting him to return home for the mourning service for the Panchen Lama, to the rejection of the latter.
After going through the procedure of drawing lot from a gold urn in the Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, the soul boy of the 10th Panchen Lama was enthroned in the Tashilhunpo Monastery, southwest Tibet's Xigaze Prefecture.
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