On This Day in History: March 28

The annexation of Tibet

AUDIO VERSION HERE

The name “Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet” contains three lies. It wasn’t an agreement, it wasn’t peaceful, and it was the opposite of a liberation. And it would result in a series of guerrilla conflicts that culminated in a mass uprising that led to the killing of tens of thousands of Tibetans by Chinese forces during a horrifically bloody two-week period in 1959.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: March 28, 1959--

The “agreement” was signed in 1951 under duress. But not according to China, which considers it totes legal, even though it was done after its massive army invaded and had kicked the Tibetans’ asses then said, “Here. Sign this.” The “or else” was implied.

Many Tibetans weren’t thrilled with their new Chinese overlords and began an insurgency campaign. The reprisals by China’s People’s Liberation Army (there is another lie for you) grew increasingly vicious. In 1956 the United Nations said hey China cut that shit out and China said haha fuck you come and make me. And being that this was the UN, they did not make anyone do shit. Since they didn’t like commies all that much, the CIA began to give covert support to the Tibetan rebels in the form of commie-killing guns, commie-killing bullets, and commie-killing training.

By early 1959, the situation was a powder keg. On March 10, the sporadic guerrilla movement transformed into a mass rebellion with attacks on Chinese government officials and troops. The Chinese said wow these people really don’t like us perhaps we should leave. Well, maybe one guy said that, and he probably got shot in the fucking head. The rest of the occupying forces laid down the pain.

Over the next two weeks the “Liberation Army,” which was both real large and real good at killin’, took the lives of about 87,000 Tibetans at a cost of only 2,000 of its own soldiers. Another 100,000 refugees fled to India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Sucks to be Tibet.

On March 28, 1959, the Tibetan government, which was headed by the Dalai Lama, was dissolved by the occupying Chinese. Afterward, China began to close Tibetan monasteries and impose Chinese law and customs across the land. Over the next two years another 340,000 Tibetans died in famines caused by the economic reforms thrust upon them.

The degree of repression of Tibet by China has waxed and waned across the subsequent decades.

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