Published by: World Tibet Network News Thursday, December 11, 1997

By Jay Taylor, Wednesday, December 10, 1997

Tibet is more complex than either Richard Gere or Jiang Zemin would have us believe. As an example, the full story of the Tibetan revolution of 1959 has yet to be told. The accepted version of the uprising is that after popular demonstrations in Lhasa against the Chinese occupation, rumors spread that the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) was about to arrest the Dalai Lama. Tibetans reportedly poured into the streets to protest; the PLA reacted violently; the Dalai Lama fled and the rebellion was on.

Classified papers on this subject are contained in the Foreign Relations of the United States 1958-1960 Vol. XIX published last year. In an unusual commentary in the preface of this volume, the historian of the Department of State notes that because of the CIA refusal to release certain material, the documentation on Tibet "falls short of the standards of thoroughness and accuracy mandated" by law. Nevertheless, despite lengthy deletions, there are numerous references in the material to a CIA covert operation in Tibet before March 1959 to encourage and arm an anti-Communist uprising, apparently in conjunction with Taiwan's Special Operations unit. Former Chinese Nationalist officials privately confirm that Indian intelligence cooperated in this effort.

The fact that the rebellion was stirred up from the outside may explain in part Mao Zedong's animosity toward India at the time. But it does not excuse the grave abuses by the Chinese government in Tibet that followed.

The traditional theocracy of Tibet was not the Shangri-La that many Westerners like to imagine. No doubt it was a spiritual country, at its best perhaps somewhat like that Hollywood portrays. But it was also a society of submissive, illiterate, desperately poor peasants whose labor supported the church-state and its vast priesthood.

Where power concentrates so does its abuse, and this was as true of the abbots and the Lamas of old Tibet as in any theocratic state. But where an outside power seeks forcibly to reform such a system the abuses will usually be greater. The ravages of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and Peking's official effort to shift the ethnic balance in the region warrant the charge of cultural genocide.

During his recent visit to the United States, Jiang Zemin, an avowed fan of "Gone With the Wind," drew the analogy between China's determination to keep Tibet and Lincoln's fight to preserve the Union. In international law and practice, China's claims to Tibet are in fact as good as those of the Union to the south, Canada to Quebec or the United States to Hawaii. But in Canada and America, the original idea of popular sovereignty as espoused by the likes of Thomas Jefferson has returned or is returning. Even in the 1860s, without the moral issue of abolition, Lincoln could not have defeated the southern separatists and probably would not have tried. The American Declaration of Independence asserts the basic premise of a democratic union -- membership must be voluntary. In other words, any people have the right to break the bonds that join them to another unless there is a specific and compelling moral reason to oppose their action.

Thus Canadians will not resist by force the departure of Quebec if that is the wish of most Quebecois. The newly democratic Russians have let most of their empire go. The Czechs said goodbye to Slovakia. But neither China nor the Chinese people have reached that stage of liberality in their thinking about sovereignty and human freedom. Neither have Turkey, India and a few other inheritors of empire. Outside efforts to divide and weaken China are still fresh in memory, including America's covert involvement in the 1959 uprising in Tibet.

Thus the Dalai Lama is wise in saying he will not raise the issue of independence if the Chinese government will hold talks with him about the future of Tibet. But Jiang Zemin is wrong to demand that the Dalai Lama renounce the idea of independence as a quid pro quo for talks. If the Chinese people hope to win the support of the Tibetan people for union with China and to earn the due respect of mankind on this issue, a dialogue with the Dalai Lama is the first step.

The writer is a former deputy assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research.