ABSTRACT
Chinese reciprocating and trying to help the Russians where they have difficulties: in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea zone.
This is an area of south-western China, which was finally absorbed by Mao Zedong’s communist army in 1950 and is now an integral part of China as the province of Xizang. The population is both of Tibetan (c. 6 million, an ethnicity whose origins are unclear) and Chinese (7.5 million) origin. In the Middle Ages Tibet was dominated by the Mongols, although it was never absorbed into their empire. A significant moment in the evolution of the Tibetan tradition of priestly rule began in 12th century, when Gyatso paid a visit to the Mongol court in China, becoming the educator of the Mongol Emperor. The Dalai Lama was firmly established as the supreme theocratic authority in the 17th century. In the modern era, it was the British who first became interested in Tibet, basically in order to check Russian advances in the region, an extension of their policy in Central Asia at the time (the ‘great game’). In the early 1900s the British managed to sign a treaty with the Tibetans, which stipulated that Tibet could make no major foreign policy decision without clearing it first with the United Kingdom. Thus, when the Chinese entered Tibet in 1912, the British had to interfere and strike an agreement with the Chinese, confining them to the eastern part of the country (inner Tibet). The Chinese were then distracted from their own claims by civil war. When Tibet was invaded by Mao’s army in 1950, the Dalai Lama began working closely with India in order to counter-balance Chinese influence and presence. In March 1959 Tibetan rebels fought against Mao’s troops and the Dalai Lama escaped to India. The death toll was high: some 90,000 Tibetan rebels were killed. China has militarized Tibet and this is seen by India as a direct threat to its security. There are also environmental concerns: there are waste products from nuclear stations and research centres and also from the Amdo uranium mine. Such products contaminate most of the rivers that flow from Tibet to India.
