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Invasion & After :
1949-51 The Chinese Invasion
1949-51 The Chinese Invasion
After 1959: DestructionChina's newly established communist government sent troops to invade Tibet in 1949-50. A treaty was imposed on the Tibetan government in May of that year, acknowledging sovereignty over Tibet but recognizing the Tibetan government's autonomy with respect to Tibet's internal affairs. As the Chinese consolidated their control, they repeatedly violated the treaty and open resistance to their rule grew, leading to the National Uprising in 1959 and the flight into India of Tibet's head of state and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
The international community reacted with shock at the events in Tibet. The question of Tibet was discussed on numerous occasions by the U.N. General Assembly between 1959 and 1965. Three resolutions were passed by the General Assembly condemning China's violations of human rights in Tibet and calling upon China to respect those rights, including Tibet's right to self-determination.
The destruction of Tibet's culture and oppression of its people was brutal during the twenty years following the uprising. 1.2 million Tibetans, one-fifth of the country's population, died as a result of China's policies; many more languished in prisons and labor camps; and more than 6000 monasteries, temples and other cultural and historic buildings were destroyed and their contents pillaged. In 1980 Hu Yao Bang, General Secretary of the Communist Party, visited Tibet – the first senior official to do so since the invasion. Alarmed by the extent of the destruction he saw there, he called for a series of drastic reforms and for a policy of "recuperation". His forced resignation in 1987 was said partially to result from his views on Tibet. In 1981, Alexander Solzhenitsyn still described the Chinese regime in Tibet as "more brutal and inhumane than any other communist regime in the world." Relaxation of China's policies in Tibet came very slowly after 1979 and remains severely limited.