Conflicting accounts of history complicate understanding of Dalai Lama’s relationship with China

Some Chinese students and faculty members raised objections to the portrayal of the relationship between Tibet and China in an article in the March 2 issue of the Northern Iowan.

The article, "Dalai Lama may bring more than just words of peace to UNI," states that China removed the University of Calgary in Canada from a list of accredited universities and refused to recognize degrees from the university after it awarded an honorary law degree to the 14th Dalai Lama.

However, according to associate communication studies professor Joyce Chen, this is not the case. Chen stated that China merely removed the U of C from a list of recommended universities and that degrees from U of C will still be recognized in China.

The Gauntlet, the U of C's student newspaper, states that the legitimacy of students' degrees will not be affected by the university's removal from the recommendation list.

While some may believe that the Chinese government's response to the Dalai Lama's visit was unreasonable, Jeffrey Nie, assistant professor of industrial technology and faculty advisor for the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, believes that the reaction is understandable.

"I think it's kind of a reasonable response," Nie said. "For example, you have a neighbor who invites your enemy to visit his house. Would you still encourage your kid to visit your neighbor? So I think that's a reasonable reaction."

Nie and the CSSA are not against the Dalai Lama's visit provided that it remains an academic issue, but fear it will become a political issue and a threat to Chinese students and faculty.

"It's not easy to keep it purely academic," Nie said. "Because this issue's already there, it's very easy (for it) to become a political issue. So it's not easy to control."

According to CSSA President Nan Liang, Chinese students struggle with a language barrier and biases from both American students and educators, biases that typically intensify at universities after visits from the Dalai Lama.

"We face many biases, not only from American students but from teachers," Liang said. "We actually felt a pressure — there is a negative talk or image to our home country. So we (feel uncomfortable) on that. It's often happened after Dalai Lama's coming that the negative image gets stronger."

According to Nie, this alleged negative bias against China stems from a misunderstanding of Chinese history and an anti-China bias inherent in the media.

"If the majority of people have a very solid understanding of an issue, no matter how the media writes an article, it will not generate a misunderstanding. But if an issue, the majority of people have no solid understanding of it, it will cause a misunderstanding," Nie said.

According to Chen, the Northern Iowan article reflected several such misunderstandings that dominate the media. For example, the article states that China invaded Tibet in 1950, but Chen argued that Tibet was already a part of China and so could not be invaded.

"No government recognized Tibet was an independent country," she said. "So there is no invasion. ‘Invaded' — this verb, you can't use."

"Some people want to just cut history," said Liang. "They just mention (that) in 1959 China takes over or invades Tibet; they say that before that Tibet was an independent country, but it's not true. It's not true. Tibet had been a part of China for a long, long time."

According to Chen, the Dalai Lama was not forced into exile, but rather chose to leave after a failed Tibetan uprising in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, in 1959.

According to www.dalailama.com, however, China invaded Tibet in 1949 and the 14th Dalai Lama was "forced to escape into exile" in 1959. Furthermore, Tibetan officials hold that Tibet has traditionally been an independent country, while Chinese officials state that Tibet has been a part of China since the 13th century.

A full understanding of the issue requires examining the history of Tibet and its relationship to China from the formation of the former to the 14th Dalai Lama's exile in 1959.

Two Histories of Tibet

According to Melvyn Goldstein's book, "The Snow Lion and the Dragon," Tibet came into being during the 7th century, when it was clearly a separate political entity from China. The two came under one power in the early 13th century when conquered by the Mongols under the rule of Genghis Khan.

This moment is the first historical point of dissension between contemporary Chinese scholars, who consider this the period when Tibet first became a part of China, and nationalistic Tibetans, who argued that both Tibet and China were separate powers that were subjugated by the Mongols.

The next several centuries in Tibet were marked by military strife between China and the Mongols, ultimately resulting in China's control of Tibet during the Qing Dynasty's rule in the 18th century. During this time, Tibet was generally ruled by a lay aristocratic family as a Qing dependency, but Chinese rulers made no attempt to absorb Tibet as a province, according to Goldstein.

During the 18th century, Dalai Lamas were selected through a lottery conducted in a golden urn, with the aim being to prevent the selection of incarnations being manipulated to fall in politically powerful lay families. That status of ambans, or Manchu imperial residents, was also elevated to equal political authority with the Dalai Lama for major administrative issues.

Throughout the 19th century, however, the Qing Dynasty experienced threats that resulted in the waning power of the ambans, and the 13th Dalai Lama was selected without the golden urn lottery. At this point, Goldstein argues, Qing Dynasty hegemony over Tibet was more symbolic than real.