The recent riots in China's Tibet Autonomous Region were masterminded from abroad and all this kind of political performances never brought any positive results, Russian experts have said.
Tibet has been a part of the territory of China since the 13th century, said an article by Aleksandr Salitzky, an Economics and International Relations researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Vladimir Fisyukov, a commentator at the Voice of Russia radio station.
In the 13th century, under the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), Emperor Kublai Khan (1215-1294) united Tibet and China. "Since then Chinese emperors ruled over the territory, at first by appointing Dalai Lamas, the supreme clerical leaders of Tibetan Buddhists," said the article entitled "Chinese Tibet and European Political Performances".
In 1907, Russia and Great Britain signed a treaty, making an agreement to respect Tibet's territorial integrity and launch cooperation with Lhasa only through the mediation of Beijing, said the article posted on the Strategic Cultural Foundation website.
The 1947 Constitution of the Republic of China featured some members of the Tibetan government and fixed Tibet's location within China as autonomy, the article said.
After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, the Chinese authorities sent troops into Tibet to liberate the region from Kuomintang (KMT) rule, the article noted, adding that the "Agreement on the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" was signed on May 23, 1951, which granted Tibetan territory regional autonomy.
The article said that in the modern world, the independence of a state is not only a political but also a technical issue.
"To exercise control over huge but thinly populated territories, to protect it, to develop infrastructure, the system of education and health care is a too difficult task even for the present day regional authorities, to say nothing of the obscure Buddhist theocracy of the 1940-50s," the article said.
Nowadays, the people in Tibet enjoy more freedoms than ever: they can cultivate their land or become cattle-breeders. Students can become monks or enter universities. Enough job opportunities are also provided in sectors of public transportation, tourist agencies or ecological services.
There are no more serfs in Tibet, the article said, and the Buddhist monasteries have lost any interest in robbing people as they get enough money from tourists, develop traditional crafts and enjoying subsidies from the regional and central authorities, the article said.
Some westerners tried to become "holier than the Pope" and linked politics to the Beijing Olympics. Regretfully, the Chairman of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pottering shares the opinion of boycotting the games with some Hollywood stars.
Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, was even cynical while commenting on the situation in Tibet. Indeed, before delivering her speech, she could have remembered the results of the US invasion in Iraq in 2003 and the number of victims among Iraqi civilians.
"It is clear that the recent unrest in Tibet was directed from abroad," the article noted.
It also was not by chance that US President George W. Bush had talks with the Dalai Lama during the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the March riots were organized exactly during the first session of 11th National People's Congress.
The article said political performances never brought any positive results and caused only annoyance among those who had at least a rough idea of the real state of affairs.
(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2008)