Enter the Dragon: Chinese Invasion
of Tibet continues..

In February 1951, a fifteen-man delegation of the Tibetan government was sent to pick up Ngabo Ngawang Jigme, already a Chinese collaborator who had just been appointed by the Chinese as ‘Vice-Chairman of the Chamdo Liberation Committee’, and proceed to Beijing for talks with the Chinese Government. Another group joined them later in Beijing.

The delegation had specifically not been given plenipotentiary powers by the Dalai Lama, nor any authority to sign any agreement. They were asked to refer any matter requiring any important decision back to the Tibetan government, the Kashag. The supposed ‘negotiations’ with the Chinese began on 29th April.

The infamous ‘17-Point Agreement’, formally the ‘Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet’ was signed under duress by the delegation in May 1951, unknown to the Tibetan government. It came as a rude shock to them when it was announced by Ngabo over Peking Radio. By this signing, Tibet lost her two-thousand-years old independence. On September 9, 1951, the PLA entered Lhasa in a massive parade, starting the occupation of Lhasa and all of Tibet.

By the beginning of 1952, more than 20,000 Chinese troops had been positioned in the Lhasa area. The Dalai Lama repudiated the 17-Point Agreement in 1959, after crossing over into India to take refuge, but in effect Tibet lost its independence when it lost control over its defence and foreign affairs in 1951.

To be continued...