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By Yeshi Dawa
China on May 23, 1951, imposed the so-called “17-Point Agreement” to formally annex Tibet. In March, China in its 18th White Paper misleadingly said it laid “firm foundations for the region’s human rights cause.”
The agreement is invalid in international law, because it was signed under threat. Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, head of the Tibetan delegation sent to China for peace negotiations, was not authorized to sign the agreement on behalf of the Tibetan government and the delegation was made to sign it under duress.
After seven decades, Tibet remains intact and there is global outpouring of sympathy for Tibetans. This realization led to China’s imposition of drastic policies aimed at erasing Tibetan identity, such as the use of the Chinese word “Xizang” for Tibet. However, no matter how hard China politicizes the nomenclature of Tibet, facts cannot be forgotten. For example, the Indian government opted to use “Tibet” instead of “Xizang” in its statement extending condolences to the victims of the earthquake in January.
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