ABSTRACT
The manner in which China's economic reforms have impacted on Tibet's 1 rural farmers is one of the least-understood aspects of the controversy over China's management of Tibet. Many in the West have criticized China, arguing that Beijing's overall development policy in Tibet benefits Han (Chinese) rather than Tibetans. Pierre-Antoine Donnet, for example, states, "From the point of view of economic performance, after forty years of Chinese Marxism, Tibet's situation looks disastrous from any angle." 2 Gabriel Lafitte similarly argues that despite large inputs of development funds from Beijing, Tibet would rank at the very bottom of the United Nations' list of nations (if it were a nation), along with countries like Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Mozambique. 3
