ABSTRACT
Efforts to find an agreement between the Chinese Government and the Tibetans under the leadership of the Dalai Lama, first attempted in 1951, were resumed in March 1989. Little progress has been made so far. The positions of the two parties have changed significantly. The Tibetan position has softened and the Dalai Lama now accepts that Tibet is part of China, but claims a considerable degree of autonomy, in accordance with the 17-Point Agreement of 1951. This ‘agreement’ was drafted by China and imposed on the Tibetan negotiators under threat of the military occupation of the entire Tibetan territory (they were already in occupation of a substantive part). It was then repudiated by the Tibetans (the Agreement is reproduced in the Appendix to this chapter). The Chinese Government now rejects that Agreement and offers Tibet a very limited degree of autonomy. There is no consensus either on the scope of the autonomy or its constitutional basis.
