Statement of Kalon T.C. Tethong on the 50th anniversary of the 17-Point Agreement
22 May, 2001
May 23 marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 17-Point Agreement between Tibet and China. This controversial document, forced upon an un-willing but helpless Tibetan government, compelled Tibet to co-exist with resurgent China. The People’s Republic of China will once again flaunt this dubious legal instrument, the only one China signed with a “minority” people, to continue to legitimize its claim on the vast resource-rich Tibetan tableland.
China will use the anniversary to showcase its achievements in Tibet to justify its continued occupation of Tibet. China will also use the anniversary to deepen economic development policies designed to further integrate Tibet with China.
Important Tibetan personages will be pulled out of retirement to laud the development brought to Tibet since the “liberation.” Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, Lhalu Tsewang Dorje and other important Tibetan political figures in Tibet are slated to write laudatory articles in newspapers and magazines on the agreement. The Tibetans will be given five days of holiday to observe the anniversary. The showcase of the anniversary celebrations will be held in the plaza before the Potala palace. Starting from 22 May, Lhasa and other cities in Tibet will see a host of cultural shows. The authorities will set its propaganda machinery on high gear to churn out statistics of a wide range of “benefits” the Tibetans have enjoyed since the agreement was signed 50 years ago. Also starting from 22 May, China will send various delegations to different parts of the world to sell the Chinese argument of the supposed benefits brought to the Tibetan people by Chinese rule. Cultural performances and exhibitions are slated around the world on the “progress” made in Tibet since the “liberation.” In Tibet Tibetans are told that their salary or pension would be withheld if they failed to participate in the anniversary festivities.
Why is China making such a fuss over an agreement, terms of which were systemtically violated by the Chinese authorities and which was strongly repudiated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1959?
To find out, we present these research articles from independent scholars, including two by Chinese scholars. These articles constitute the most comprehensive and detailed examination of the background of this controversial agreement and the manner in which China imposed it upon a subjugated people.
Facts of the 17-Point “Agreement” Between Tibet and China clearly prove, as stated many times before, that the agreement “signed” in Beijing on 23 May 1951 was not stamped with the official seal of the Tibetan government. Instead it was stamped with the personal seals of the Tibetan delegation members, seals hastily manufactured in Beijing.
With whatever fanfare China commemorates this infamous agreement, the glaring fact is that the struggle of the Tibetan people to secure a better future for themselves has intensified over the last 50 years. The 50th anniversary celebration of the agreement will not whitewash this vital fact or of the atrocities committed on the Tibetan people in the name of “liberation” by the occupying power.
The Chinese authorities during the period of liberalisation in Tibet tacitly acknowledged the need to resolve the issue of Tibet through a process of negotiations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama when it accepted four fact-finding missions and two exploratory delegations from the Tibetan side in 1979 and early 1980’s. China needs to re-start the stalled talks.
As such, this is as good a time as any for the Chinese authorities to re-examine and re-consider the two proposals His Holiness the Dalai lama announced in Washington, D.C. in 1987 and Strasbourg in 1988.
T C Tethong New Delhi 22 May 2001