Sino-Tibetan Relations 1990-2000:the Internationalisation of the Tibetan Issue

Much had happened to the Sino-Tibetan relations in the decade of 1990-2000, the period this dissertation studies. The Beijing-Dharamsala dialogues initiated in the early 1980s collapsed, China launched extensive economic reforms and infrastructure building inside Tibet that were detrimental to the existence of the Tibetan people, Tibetans started internationalising their issue, and democratically adopted the Middle Way Policy. It was a decade that held many hopeful signs for the Tibetan people—the Berlin Wall had fallen, the Soviet Union had dissolved, the Communism was defeated in Europe, Chinese students rose up against their government for democracy, the Dalai Lama’s Strasbourg Proposal received worldwide support, and the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. For the Chinese Communist Party, the new decade began with serious challenges—improving its tarnished image and regaining peoples’ trust—at home and abroad. On the other hand, the Tibetan struggle was receiving international attention and support. Yet, the Chinese Government succeeded not only in maintaining tight control over Tibet, but also dodging international criticisms. Beijing’s “waiting game tactics”, and its intractable harsh policy inside Tibet, including the re-education campaigns, compelled the Dalai Lama’s government to renounce independence and instead call for “genuine autonomy”. The Dalai Lama and his Government-in-Exile formulated the Middle Way Policy, which received unanimous support from the exile Tibetan communities. It also garnered much support from Western nations, the Chinese intellectual community and democracy supporters. However, the policy has not succeeded in convincing the Beijing government so far. Strategically speaking, the decade of 1990 could be considered as one of the most conducive decades for the Tibetan struggle to make a major headway and as such it deserved close studying. And this dissertation attempts to study the complex factors that impacted the Sino-Tibet issue and reveal the hazardous policies—including population transfer policy, suppression of religious freedom— implemented by the Chinese Government inside the Tibet Autonomous Region in that decade.