What is your first hand insight about what’s happening in Tibet?
It’s a complex situation. On the whole, Tibetans inside Tibet have a good deal of freedom to live their lives and practice their faith. On the other hand, China is completely intolerant of any activity that smells like seperatism. Moreover, China is engaged in an often clumsy effort to “Chinatize” or “Han-itize” (and not in the Sean Hannity sense) the Tibetan minorities and to take control of the many natural resources in the region.
In many ways it’s very similar to what we once did to our American Indians, and I say that not to justify what’s happening but simply as a comparison. One interesting thing I learned was that Tibetan couples are exempt from the “one-child policy.” I also recently learned that Tibetans who live in provinces other than Tibet have recently been forced to adhere to curfews as a “security” measure. China remains highly paranoic about such matters.
On the other hand, it’s clear that there are some nasty seperatist groups out there, some of which have bombed busses and killed people—these seem to be Islamists, not Tibetans, but their acts fuel government paranoia.
This is based on a bit of research and on a lot of conversations with people here.