The Peaceful Liberation of Tibet
Tibet is an integral part of the Chinese territory. After liberating the southwest regions in late 1949, the PLA was ready to march into Tibet. The Central People's Government more than once urged the local government in Tibet to send representatives to Beijing to talk about peaceful liberation. But the Tibetan authorities were hesitant, deceived by their own reactionary elite and the interference of foreign forces. They even deployed Tibetan forces in Qamdo.
In October 1950, the PLA liberated the town of Qamdo, thus opening the strategic pass leading into Tibet. This resulted in a split in the Tibetan ruling group, and peaceful liberation became inevitable.
In April 1951, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme (1910-2009), chief plenipotentiary of the Tibetan local government, came to Beijing to hold peace talks with the delegation of the Central People's Government headed by Li Weihan. Around that time, Panchen Erdeni Choekyi Gyaltsen (1938-1989) and his decision-making committee also arrived in the capital city and expressed their wish for peace. The parties exchanged views on an equal footing and soon reached agreement on many issues of principle. On May 23, the Agreement Between the Central People's Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet was signed. On May 24, Mao Zedong received the Tibetan delegation in Zhongnanhai, the compound of the central government, and held a grand banquet to celebrate the success of the peace talks.
With the peaceful liberation of Tibet, the whole of the Chinese mainland was unified. The Tibetan people were now free from foreign aggression – a significant moment in their history and in the relations among ethnic groups in China.
西藏和平解放
西藏是中國(guó)領(lǐng)土不可分割的一部分。1949年末，中國(guó)人民解放軍在解放西南地區(qū)之后，開(kāi)始準(zhǔn)備向西藏進(jìn)軍?？紤]到西藏地區(qū)的具體情況，中央人民政府多次通知原西藏地方政府派代表來(lái)北京商談關(guān)于和平解放西藏的事宜。因西藏上層反動(dòng)分子和帝國(guó)主義勢(shì)力的阻撓，原西藏地方政府遲遲不派出代表，并在昌都地區(qū)部署藏軍主力。
1950年10月，人民解放軍發(fā)動(dòng)昌都戰(zhàn)役，解放昌都，打開(kāi)了進(jìn)藏的咽喉要道，西藏的上層統(tǒng)治集團(tuán)迅速分化，和平解放西藏為大勢(shì)所趨。
1951年4月，原西藏地方政府任命阿沛·阿旺晉美為首席代表，到北京與李維漢為首席代表的中央人民政府代表團(tuán)進(jìn)行談判。同時(shí)，班禪及其堪布廳的全體官員也到達(dá)北京，表達(dá)其和平的愿望與要求。雙方代表親切會(huì)談，交換意見(jiàn)，平等協(xié)商，很快就許多原則問(wèn)題達(dá)成協(xié)議，于5月23日正式簽訂了《中央人民政府和西藏政府關(guān)于和平解放西藏辦法的協(xié)議》。5月24日，毛澤東在中南海懷仁堂接見(jiàn)參加和平談判的西藏代表團(tuán)并舉行盛大宴會(huì)，祝賀和談成功。
西藏的和平解放，標(biāo)志著中國(guó)大陸獲得統(tǒng)一，西藏人民擺脫了帝國(guó)主義的侵略和分裂，從此走上了團(tuán)結(jié)、進(jìn)步、發(fā)展的光明大道。西藏的和平解放，在西藏民族歷史上和中國(guó)民族關(guān)系史上具有重大意義。
