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Regarding military presence, it is there (though not extremely heavy) in all Chinese cities. It is rather disturbing to an outsider to be walking around the cities and see military personnel all over the place watching everyone. I am a very obvious looking westerner (blonde hair, white) from the US, and my wife is from China- when she still lived there before we got married I was there in Guangzhou with her and we had engagement photos taken at a studio. We then went down the street to some beauty salon where we both sat in the waiting area before my wife was called in. While we were there we were looking through the prints that were taken at our photo session. This military guy who was dressed in his uniform sat down at the table with us, and didn't say a word to my wife and I- he just took the package of pictures from us and looked through them for a minute or two. He then gave them back to us and left. I looked at my wife in disgust when he did that, and she just gave me a look of "let's not even acknowledge it". It was the most bizarre thing to me, that these guys can just be so invasive like that without even having to say a word to us!
"China" didn't appoint Tibetans to administer the region, the Mongols did, back when China was part of greater Mongolia. It was the Mongols who coined the term "Dalai Lama".
The Chinese have done a lot for Tibet. Their improvements would have been taken with more gratitude if they hadn't been accompanied by mass incarcerations and torture, destruction of many monasteries, and other human right abuses. The Cultural Revolution didn't do China's image in Tibet any favors. Old Tibet was also full of its own human rights abuses and unspeakable torture. Replacing one abusive regime with another is hardly the way to win supporters.
It is a very educational read. Most westerners are clueless about Tibet's history and the relationship between Dalai Lama, China and western countries but they simply buy everything their government says. Moreover, they even volunteered to be engaged in all those "free Tibet" movement, thinking they are doing a noble deed. But do they really know the truth?
For those who are too lazy to read, I summerize some key points/facts below:
The Dalai Lama is neither the spiritual leader of Tibet nor does he represent the region. He is the leader of just the Yellow Hat (Gelug) sect of Tibetan Buddhism, which is dominant in Lhasa.
Tibet has been an autonomous region ruled by local kings serving Chinese emperors since the 8th century. The duties of the Dalai Lama, as well as the Panchen Lama, were prescribed relatively late by the Chinese rulers for helping them with the administration of the remote region.
Prior to 1950s, Tibet had a slavery system. Only about 5 percent of the Tibetans were monks or nuns belonging to the small noble class. The rest were slaves who had to toil to feed the non-productive elite of the population.
In 1957, the Chinese leaders decided to end slavery in Tibet. The monasteries, the house of the elites, saw the abolition of slavery as a catastrophe.
Since he wanted slavery to continue to maintain his status as a god, the Dalai Lama began spreading rumors that he could be jailed and even executed, which led to an uprising in 1959.
Security forces soon brought it under control. It was then that the Dalai Lama fled the country and was “installed” by the British and Americans, who used him as a weapon against Mao.
The CIA created the myth of the “father of the nation” fighting for the “freedom” of Tibet
Tibet is China’s autonomous region like the Aland Islands are Finland’s (or Scotland is to the United Kingdom). The region has an autonomous government, local laws and regulations, and a governor that is necessarily an ethnic Tibetan.
More Facts:
Up to 1959, Tibet could be reached only through some horse-trails. The local economy was in tatters and education was the privilege of the elite.Normal schools were forbidden. Only schools in monasteries that taught religious scriptures were allowed. Worse, the slaves were called “talking cattle” and treated no better than cattle.
Today Tibet has a modern railway and airports. There are schools and colleges for everybody in Tibet, and Lhasa even has a modern university.
Schools are free for ethnic Tibetans, who comprise 90.48 percent of Tibet’s 3 million population, whereas Han Chinese have to pay for education.
The truth is, Dalai Lama is simply a puppet used by the American/British government for ideological reasons. His resistence to the PRC is more out of resentment due to losing his slaves and God status than "freedom" of Tibet. In fact, it was the 95% Tibetans who received freedom from him, and Tibet hasn't been "free" from China since 8th century, just like Scotland for the UK.
Never trust a communist....because you'll end up at the other end of the gun of the People's Liberation Army as shown in the above quote.
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