I would like to ask some Pakistani members who support China in Tibet matter. As far as you guys are concerned India occupied Kashmir using its army. And you guys support freedom movement in Kashmir because it is an illegal occupation (according to you guys). Now just tell me how China came into Tibet? And in what way are you guys going to say it is not an illegal occupation ? Can you guys explain?
Ironically, it originates in large part with British imperialism. British forces invaded Tibet in 1904 and administered it until 1947. Their aim was to create what they self-consciously called a buffer state to protect their immense interests in India, then run by the British Raj, from potential advances by Russia and China. Tibet was turned into a guard dog for Britains vast Indian Empire. And the British discovered that the idea of Tibet as a mystical, paranormal land - that is, not a normal state and certainly not a part of those other normal states of China or Russia - was a very useful propaganda tool. As Alex McKay, author of Tibet and the British Raj: The Frontier Cadre 1904 to 1947, points out: The [British] found that the mystical image could serve British interests. The mystical image reinforced Tibets separate identity
furthering the interests of the British cadre. The British had a strict policy of only allowing in writers and explorers who were sympathetic to the mystical image of Tibet and who also would not criticise the severities of British rule or of Buddhist serfdom. And, says McKay, in the absence of a viable alternative, the image of Tibet they constructed became the dominant historical image followed by Western academics (2).
Tibet: still a ‘buffer state’ for posh Westerners? | spiked
role played by the British rulers of Tibet in the 1920s, 30s and 40s in creating so-called Tibetan Independence. Where under the feudal rule of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet had conceived of itself largely as a religious entity, the lamas were convinced by the British to adopt the trappings of nationalism.
As one fascinating historical study points out, the British funded the creation of a national Tibetan flag, a Tibetan football team and Tibetan school uniform, with the explicit, express aim, in the words of one British imperialist, of showing that Tibet had its own art etc and that in some ways Tibet is more closely allied to India than to China (4). In short, the idea of Tibetan independence was born largely from the needs of British imperialism in India, and from British conflict with China, rather than from the demands of the Tibetan masses.
Western pro-Tibet activists also overlook the role later played by Washington, in particular the CIA, in funding and training the Dalai Lamas armed forces in the 1950s. Between Chinas invasion of Tibet in 1951 and the fleeing of the Dalai Lama in 1959, the CIA took a keen interest in directing the Tibetan forces as part of what the Dalai Lama himself later described as Washingtons broader international campaign of anti-Communism (5)
Chinese officialdom embraces ‘Shangri-La’ | spiked
I dont recall the chinese leader asking the UN to intervene in tibet or taiwan and promising a vote to the people like the indian leader did in kashmir.
