By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 25: In a recent edition of ANI Podcast Smita Praksha, Dr. Lobsang Sangay, the former President of the Tibetan government in exile, emphasised the importance of understanding Tibet to comprehend China’s behaviour on the global stage. He labelled China as an ‘expansionist’ empire, by delving into the historical events, particularly Tibet’s occupation by China and its subsequent aggression in multiple fronts.
“If you want to understand China, you must understand Tibet. If you don’t understand Tibet, you will never understand China,” Lobsang remarked. Dr. Sangay delved into the Indo-China war of 1962, attributing it to a surreptitious plan rooted in the Simla Agreement of 1914. He elaborated how India was unwittingly fooled, and signed the Panchsheel Agreement with China in 1954. This decision, according to him, laid the groundwork for China’s strategic plan for the occupation of Tibet and the invasion of India. “The plan of occupation of Tibet and invasion of India was the actual plan behind the Panchsheel Agreement which India saw as a peace agreement. Although it was a peace agreement, China had already planted the year of invasion of both Tibet and also of India,” he said.
He also revealed a significant historical episode during Premier Zhou Enlai’s visit to India. The request made by Zhou Enlai to open the Calcutta port facilitated the supply chain from Shanghai to Calcutta for the Chinese officers and troops stationed in Tibet. India, at the time, agreed to open the port, allowing for the transportation of essential supplies through the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim. Dr. Sangay suggested that by facilitating this supply route, India inadvertently made it easier for Chinese troops to suppress Tibetan rebellions. Additionally, he said that the same supply chain was later utilised to support the Chinese invasion of India in 1962. The opening of the Calcutta port, in essence, played a role in bringing Chinese forces closer to Tibet and, consequently, to the India-China border, he remarked.
The former President further pointed to specific incidents, such as the Doklam standoff in 2017 and the Galwan clash in 2020, as evidence of China’s expansionist designs. According to Dr. Sangay, China’s incursions have led to significant territorial losses for India, with Chinese forces moving miles and kilometers inside Indian territory and establishing permanent military fixtures, such as helipads and camps in disputed regions like Doklam.
Drawing parallels between Tibet’s occupation and the current geopolitical scenario, Dr. Sangay highlighted the Chinese leader’s clear strategy of gradually expanding their influence beyond Tibet. The metaphor of Tibet as the “palm” and the adjacent regions as the “five fingers” alluded to China’s territorial ambitions in Ladakh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh. He noted that this historical narrative was initially met with scepticism, but recent events indicate the realisation of China’s expansionist agenda by India after 60 years.
2 Responses
Dr Lobsang Sangye is doing a good job in highlighting the issue of Tibet at a time when the Tibet issue is in hibernation! He has the high profile since he is a Harvard Graduate and an ex-Sikyong of the exile Government of Tibet. In this world, you need big names to be noticed and his Harvard degree is paying dividends. Besides, he has good knowledge of Tibet and its recent history of invasion and occupation by communist China and overall international situation. To cap it all he has good looks and his father was a Tibetan freedom father. He is trying to fulfil the legacy of his father who fought the Chinese enemy forces during the 1950s. He is determined to do so for the rest of his life!
All Tibetans feel grateful to India because it gave us a second home away from our home! It is only natural some young Tibetans born outside Tibet and who have had no experience of exile life when “we had nobody we knew except the sky and the earth”.! The Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was a “democratic, humane, and cultured man” according to Gyalo Thondup, who met Panditji in person in his book “The noodle maker of Kalimpong. He was an anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism figure. The Chinese communists also gave the same impression of being in the same boat with Nehru. Being an internationalist Nehru envisaged that it was imperative for India and China to stand together against western colonialism and imperialism. Both India and China had suffered from western imperialism. Since the necessity to stand together with China to oppose western imperialism was paramount in his scheme of things, he had to give in to Chinese demands of claim over Tibet. Besides, India had its own problem to deal with such as Hyderabad which was an unrecognised independent state under the Nizam of Hyderabad. There was Kashmir which was independent under Raja Hari Singh and Goa which was separately ruled by the Portuguese. These situation that India was facing at the time and the exigency of having a common front against western imperialism must have forced Nehru to relent to Chinese claims over Tibet to keep the Chinese on his side. He was warned by eminent Tibetan officials such as Tibetan Finance Minister Shakabpa Wangchuk Deden and Sardar Patel about Chinese designs but to no avail. However, according to Gyalo Thondup, Nehru was suspicious of the Chinese communists! Gyalo Thondup writes in his biography. “Nehru seemed genuinely sympathetic to Tibet and knew something about its history”. During a dinner given in Gyalo and his wife Zhu Dan’s honour, Nehru encouraged Gyalo to join the famous military Academy in Dehradun where he could get military training and administrative skills which Nehru must of thought was the need of the hour for Tibet. As the news of Gyalo Thondup’s meeting with Nehru was reported in the Indian Press, the Americans lost no time to contact Gyalo and asked for a luncheon meeting with them. Nehru had conveyed the message through ambassador Panikkar to Gyalo that even though the Chinese communists had not given an overt sign of attacking Tibet, Nehru urged the Tibetan Government to prepare for war. Nehru thought “Tibetans would be foolish not to begin mobilising their military, even if in the end no attack occurred”. He wanted “ the Tibetan Government to know that India was willing to help with arms and military aid”!!!! According to Gyalo, the Tibetan Government did not reply to the message he relayed to Lhasa! Gyalo was not in the good books of the Tibetan Government. He went to Nanjing to study when all Tibetans went to study to India in those days. He was very much anti-establishment just like Bawa Phuntsok Wangyal who was determined to overthrow the Lhasa Government to built a socialist paradise! Gyalo Thondup’s presence in Nanjing with Changkai Shek endangered Tibet’s neutrality to the Chinese civil war and asked him umpteen times to return to Tibet but he never did! Thats why, the Tibetan Government refused to deal with him and instead dealt with India’s ambassador Hugh Richardson who was full of praise for the Government of Tibet. On top it he married a Chinese lady which obviously wouldn’t have gone well at a time of fear, suspicion and intrigue gripped the Tibetan authorities in Lhasa. Tibet therefore expelled all the Kuomintang Chinese from Tibet to declare it had nothing to do with the Republican China or communist China to demonstrate its neutrality and independence. If the assertions of Gyalo Thondup are to be believed, India had overtly supported the Chinese claims but covertly sought to help Tibet to defend its independence!
Maybe Jawahalal Nehru was working against the interest of India. Otherwise he would have defended Tibetan independence in UNO in 1959. But he opposed Tibetan human rights and supported Chinese army, and spread malicious rumours to other countries that Tibet was a bad country and was not independent at all, but some kind of ‘suzereign’ ( very odd word) of China. Tibetan situation is very tragic. If Tibet was a girlfriend, and India a boyfriend in a relationship, then boyfriend had betrayed his loyal girlfriend by cheating on her.