When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) stood in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa on Thursday last week, flanked by Chinese flags, synchronized schoolchildren and armed Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops, he was not just celebrating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the “Tibet Autonomous Region,” he was making a calculated declaration: Tibet is China. It always has been. Case closed.
Except it has not. The case remains wide open — not just in the hearts of Tibetans, but in history records.
For decades, Beijing has insisted that Tibet has “always been part of China.” It is a phrase repeated in textbooks, press releases and UN statements with such numbing frequency that many accept it as fact. However, it is not true legally, politically, historically or conceptually.
