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 Invasión del Tíbet
>> Treaties
in international law are binding on the countries signing them,
unless they are imposed by force or a country is coerced into
signing the agreement by the threat of force. This is reflected in
the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which is regarded as a
reflection of customary international law. The People's Republic of
China (PRC) feels strongly about this principle, particularly as it
applies to treaties and other agreements China was pressured to sign
by Western powers at a time when China was weak. The PRC is
particularly adamant that such "unequal" treaties and
other agreements cannot be valid, no matter who signed them or for
what reasons.
 After
the military invasion of Tibet had started and the small Tibetan
army was defeated, the PRC imposed a treaty on the Tibetan
Government under the terms of which Tibet was declared to be a part
of China, albeit enjoying a large degree of autonomy. In the White
Paper, China claims this treaty was entered into entirely
voluntarily by the Tibetan Government, and that the Dalai Lama, his
Government and the Tibetan people as a whole welcomed it. The facts
show a very different story, leading to the conclusion that the so-called
"17 Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet"
was never validly concluded and was rejected by Tibetans. The Dalai
Lama stated Tibetan Prime Minister Lukhangwa as having told Chinese
General Zhang Jin-wu in 1952:
It was
absurd to refer to the terms of the Seventeen-Point Agreement. Our
people did not accept the agreement and the Chinese themselves had
repeatedly broken the terms of it. Their army was still in
occupation of eastern Tibet; the area had not been returned to the
government of Tibet, as it should have been. [My Land and My
People, Dalai Lama, New York, Fourth Edition, 1992, p.95]
Diplomatic
activity and military threats
Soon
after the Communist victory against the Guomindang and the founding
of the PRC on 1 October 1949, Radio Beijing began to announce that
"the People's Liberation Army must liberate all Chinese
territories, including Tibet, Xinjiang, Hainan and Taiwan."
Partly in response to this threat, and in order to resolve long-standing
border disputes with China, the Foreign Office of the Tibetan
Government, on 2 November 1949, wrote to Mao Zedong proposing
negotiations to settle all territorial disputes. Copies of this
letter were sent to the Governments of India, Great Britain and the
United States. Although these three Governments considered the
spread of Communism to be a threat to the stability of South Asia,
they advised the Tibetan Government to enter into direct
negotiations with Chinese Government as any other course of action
might provoke military retaliation.
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