Chinese claim on Tibet doubted

Re “China’s view of Tibet,” Opinion, April 25

Kishore Mahbubani makes the mistake of viewing Tibet’s history, the recent uprising and the West’s response through the prism of governments instead of people. The Tibetan people developed their own culture, society and political institutions over 1,000 years. There were virtually no Chinese living in Tibet when People’s Liberation Army troops entered in 1949-50. The Tibetans will never view themselves as Chinese and are reacting to the effort by the Chinese government to turn their culture into a museum artifact.

The Tibetan people hardly enjoy meaningful autonomy. They have no say over policies adopted by Communist Party hard-liners, who ensure that political and cultural repression is greater in Tibet than elsewhere in China. Western governments, admittedly, offer only token help to the Tibetan people. The Western public, though, genuinely desires to see the people of Tibet and China enjoy freedoms the Communist Party denies.

Dennis Cusack

Berkeley

The writer is a member of the Tibet Justice Center and the author of “Tibet’s War of Peace.”

According to Mahbubani, China’s claim to Tibet is, in part, based on its control over this area going back to the 13th century. Along this logic, Denmark could lay claim to a large chunk of Western Europe and Mongolia could insist on ownership over much of Eastern Europe.

Peter Weisbrod

Laguna Beach

Mahbubani’s fanciful gloss of Sino-Tibetan history omits one major point: Tibet was independent from the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 until 1950, when China invaded. Whether or not Tibet was part of China dating back to the 13th century is irrelevant. Tibet was independent and wanted to remain independent, and the Chinese denied that.

To argue for Chinese sovereignty is a realistic viewpoint, but it should be recognized for what it is, a concession by the Tibetan people rather than a morally consistent position. (And, by the way, Tibet’s current “autonomy” is a joke -- just look at the “re-education” policy being foisted on the Tibetans by Beijing.)

Brian Gygi

Richmond, Calif.