September 9, 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of an entity labeled as “Tibet Autonomous Region” (TAR), a province-level administrative division in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) which encompasses merely roughly half of Tibet. While Chinese state media is striking a predictably upbeat tone on the anniversary, the reality is that Tibetans have little to celebrate.
“For our brothers and sisters in Tibet, the last sixty years have lurched from one calamity to another,” said International Campaign for Tibet President Tencho Gyatso. “Instead of forcing Tibetans to put on a performance of gratitude, China must change course and put the interests of the Tibetan people ahead of their own compulsive need for power and control.”
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The PRC’s invasion of Tibet, and subsequent illegal occupation, was accompanied by promises of regional autonomy, freedom of religious belief, the development of Tibet’s languages, and a clause stating that there would be no compulsion on the part of China’s government over Tibet.
These promises were immediately violated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After the Dalai Lama’s 1959 flight from Tibet all pretenses were discarded, and in 1965 the Chinese authorities unveiled the “Tibet Autonomous Region”. In the time since, no Tibetan has ever been appointed to rule the TAR as the Party Secretary; every single Party Secretary has been Chinese, a list which includes prominent human rights abusers such as Chen Quanguo (the architect of China’s mass internment campaign in East Turkestan/Xinjiang) and hyper-corrupt cadres such as Wu Yingjie (recently arrested and sentenced to accepting over ¥343 million in bribes).
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While Chinese state media is striking a predictably upbeat tone on the anniversary, the reality is that Tibetans have little to celebrate.
It’s always stuck me as bizarre to claim Tibet, under the Qing Dynasty, was part of China but, after the Revolution, was an independent territory that needed to be conquered.
Lhasa High School - the only high school in Tibet at the time - was the locus of a slave revolt the toppled the vestigial autocracy in '59. This, on the back of famine relief supplied by the PLA, which ended centuries of abuse and misrule.
This reads like the Hong Kong folks who insisted they were UK residents long after an illegal British armed occupation of the city had ended.
no Tibetan has ever been appointed to rule the TAR as the Party Secretary
Gama Zeden, is a Chinese politician of Tibetan ethnicity who is a current chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee
Yan Jinhai is a Chinese politician of Tibetan ethnicity who was the deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Tibet Committee and chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, in office from October 2021 to November 2024.
Che Dalha, is a Chinese politician of Tibetan ethnicity who served as Chairman (Governor) of the Tibet Autonomous Region between January 2017 and October 2021.
Crisis of credibility: China’s leaders in Tibet selected for loyalty to CCP over welfare of Tibetan people – [May 2025]
An analysis of developments relating to Tibetan officials working for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system […] reveals that China is facing an acute crisis of nurturing credible Tibetan officials who can command the respect of the Tibetan people while doing the CCP’s bidding […]
When looking at the Tibetans who are currently being thrust into leading positions in all Tibetan areas, it is clear that China is doing so with the sole focus on loyalty to CCP rather than any consideration of their capability to deliver to the Tibetan people.
Is the argument that the Tibetans appointed to the Party Secretary position are not “Real Tibetans” because they’re friendly with the central government? Can we play that game with any bureaucrat, or just Chinese officials?
