By Maura Moynihan

Wednesday, July 2, 1997 The Washington Post

Now that Hong Kong has been formally incorporated into the People's Republic of China, the international community would be well advised to study China's subjugation of Tibet.

The turnover this week proceeded with impressive ceremonial decorum: Jiang Zemin talked of Hong Kong's "return to the Motherland." Prince Charles referred to the guarantees of Hong Kong's autonomy made in the Joint Declaration and Basic Law that henceforth will govern Hong Kong under China's system of National Regional Autonomy. Commentators spoke of how Beijing ought not tamper with Hong Kong's "magic."

Nowhere was mention made of the "17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet" of 1951, by which Tibet was incorporated into the People's Republic of China under the same system of National Regional Autonomy now being applied to Hong Kong. Tibet was putatively guaranteed political and cultural autonomy. Instead, the agreement became the pretext by which Beijing seized control of the Tibetan plateau.

Mao's annexation of Tibet was an event of seismic proportions in the history of Asia, a conquest that altered the regional balance of power and advanced China's hegemonic ambitions. Occupied Tibet comprises more than one-fourth of the land mass of the People's Republic of China. Tibet is the riverhead of Asia's waters, the source of the Yellow, Salween, Yangtze, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Irawaddy and Ganges rivers. China has already taken some $50 billion worth of lumber from eastern Tibet. Central and western Tibet have enormous mineral resources, including the earth's largest uranium deposits. Tibet's 6 million people are spread over 2.5 million square miles of mountain terrain. Hong Kong's 6 million residents are clustered in a cosmopolitan port. Tibet gave China vast territory and resources; Hong Kong will provide capital and trade.

The annexation of Tibet gave China, for the first time in history, a continuous border with Burma, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Ladhak, Kazakhstan and East Turkestan (now called Xinjiang Province). Tibet no longer serves as a neutral buffer state between Asia's two greatest powers; soon after the 1959 flight of the Dalai Lama, the Chinese People's Liberation Army stationed troops along the Indian border and claimed large portions of territory, an action that resulted in the 1962 Sino-Indian War. With Tibet locked behind an iron curtain, the economies and cultures of the entire Himalayan region have been marginalized and imperiled.

When Mao sent troops into Tibet in 1949, he also assigned cadres to "modernize" the region. The Tibetans initially cooperated, until the Chinese began to usurp traditional leadership, which led to revolt and armed conflict. There was no media coverage of the 1959 Chinese annexation of Tibet and the state-sponsored famine that followed; details of the carnage were collected from refugees who escaped on foot over the Himalayas to asylum in India and Nepal. To this day, journalists, diplomats and tourists can visit Tibet only under severe restrictions.

Hong Kong is a media and financial capital filled with fax machines, cameras and telephones. With the world watching, and presumably negotiating deals, Beijing will consolidate its gains in Hong Kong by steps, even as it did in Tibet without the world watching, from 1949 to 1959. The Politburo already has announced that public assembly and speech in Hong Kong will be curtailed for reasons of "national security." Politburo propaganda officials already hover over Hong Kong's newspapers, magazines and TV stations. Self-censorship will be the trade-off for survival.

When Beijing briefly relaxed its control of Tibet in the mid-1980s, Tibetan Buddhism and ethnic pride rebounded, as did demands for cultural and political rights. In 1987, '88 and '89, troops opened fire on Tibetan demonstrators. Photographs and eyewitness accounts of the slaughter came from tourists, several of whom were arrested and harassed. During a 1989 demonstration, PLA troops shot a Dutch bystander. She nearly died but managed to escape to Hong Kong, where she showed her wounds at an international press conference. (Could that happen now?)

The administrative and military facilities throughout the Tibetan Autonomous Region, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Ninjxia, the Wei Autonomous Region, and Xinjiang, the Uigher Autonomous Region, are identical and report directly to Beijing hardly a representation of genuine regional autonomy. A pervasive security force of the People's Armed Police and the People's Liberation Army is present. Arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and summary execution are routine instruments of state control.

Given that Beijing has consistently violated the terms of National Regional Autonomy in other autonomous regions, policy-makers in the free world must keep a vigilant watch on Hong Kong. It is, at this point, impossible and impractical to isolate China. Thus it is all the more important to compel China to uphold its agreements to honor treaties and respect the law of nations.

The writer, a consultant to Refugees International, has worked for many years with Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal.