A PART I LEFT OUT IN THE ARTICLE:
In Context
The Dalai Lama was offered asylum in India and settled in Dharamsala, in northern India.
He was followed into exile by about 80,000 Tibetans, most of whom settled in the same area, which has become known as "Little Lhasa" and is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile.
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and has become a symbol of peaceful resistance to oppression throughout the world.
He has been making some progress towards dialogue with China over the future of Tibet, and advocates a "middle way" - genuine self-rule for Tibet within China.
China, however, is mistrustful and believes he still seeks independence. The Chinese authorities have banned the Dalai Lama's photographs and writings.
Tibet is still under Chinese control, and the majority of people in Lhasa are not Tibetan. They are ruled by a Chinese-appointed Panchen Lama, who is not recognised by the Dalai Lama.
"China, however, is mistrustful and believes he still seeks independence. The Chinese authorities have banned the Dalai Lama's photographs and writings."
That is simply the public face that the communist Chinese government puts on their opposition to the Dalai Lama. The real opposition is xenophobic and cultural on the part of the Han Chinese. If the nationalists had won the civil war, they would have been equally against Tibeten independence.
The replacment of local people with Han Chinese is what they have been doing since they first arrived in the area now known as China. Research shows that most of the major groups of people in Vietnam, Laos, Combodia and Thailand migrated there from southern China over the last few thousand years, and replaced the original natives. They migrated south because they were pushed out of southern China by the Han Chinese; as they expanded in "China".
In 1949 the native population of the Xinjiang province of China was 80% from the ethnic group known as the Uihgur's. Today they represent less than 40% of the population of Xinjiang.
The centuries old method of Chinese culutral genocide is slow, long, steady and unrelenting. Its not communism, it is simple ethnic pride and prejudice; along with leaders and governments that use, exploit and reinforce it.
It is not even assimilation, because the minority ethnic identities are buried and erased, one generation at a time; not brought into the Han culture. Just imagine the U.S. culture without Jazz, and everything that Jazz grew from and everything that grew from Jazz and you have the difference and substance of what I'm talking about.
The Tibetans are just one of the latest victims of a long, long Chinese practice.