By Eric Margolis
The latest Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule has captured world sympathy and horribly embarrassed China's government just as Beijing has been pulling out all the stops preparing for its summer Olympic extravaganza.
But is there anything the world community can do besides issuing more platitudes?
First, some questions.
Is Tibet historically part of China, as Beijing claims? Yes and no. Tibet was spiritually linked to China from about 1370 in a "priest-ruler" relationship. Tibet's Lamaist Buddhist theocracy recognized the ultimate temporal power of China's emperor, while the emperor recognized Lhasa's spiritual primacy and total autonomy. Lhasa became the Vatican for the Mongol Empire and its successor, China's Ming Empire.
In 1913, while China was in chaos, Tibet, backed by the British Empire, declared independence. So it remained until October 1950, when the People's Army invaded Tibet and declared it "reunited" to China. A year earlier, Chinese troops had invaded and crushed the independent Republic of East Turkistan -- today called Xinjiang -- whose Turkic-Mongol Uighurs, long fought Chinese rule and Han Chinese immigration.
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