10 Historical Conflicts Still Relevant Today
3. China-Tibet Conflict
The China-Tibet conflict revolves around the issue of Tibetan sovereignty. The first issue is whether Tibet should separate and become a new sovereign state. Many of the points in the debate rest on a second issue, about whether Tibet was independent or subordinate to China in certain parts of its recent history.
It is generally agreed that China and Tibet were independent prior to the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), and that Tibet has been ruled by the People’s Republic of China since 1959. The nature of Tibet’s relationship to China in the intervening time is a matter of debate. PRC claims that Tibet has been a part of China since the Yuan Dynasty. The Republic of China (1912–1949) (ROC) claimed that “Tibet was placed under the sovereignty of China” when the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) expelled Nepal from Tibet in c. 1793. The Tibetan Government in Exile claims that Tibet was an independent state until the PRC invaded Tibet in 1949/50. Some Western scholars claim that Tibet and China were ruled by the Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty, that Tibet was independent during the Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). and that Tibet was ruled by China or subordinate to the Qing during much of the Qing Dynasty. Some Western scholars also claim that Tibet was independent from c. 1912 to 1950, although it had extremely limited international recognition.
