Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Canada Secretly Saw Tibet as "Qualified for Recognition as an Independent State"
TPR Thursday, February 02, 2012 20:24
By the Editorial Board of The Tibetan Political Review
Declassified documents from 1950 through the 1960s show that Canada considered Tibet to be “qualified for recognition as an independent state.” These documents also show how the Canadian government’s concern over the outcome of United Nations votes led Canada to publicly avoid the question of Tibet’s political status in favor of human rights. But while Canada downplayed Tibet’s political status, it also accepted that the issue of human rights includes the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination.
These declassified documents consist of a trove of secret memos, correspondence, and diplomatic cables. They were obtained by the Canada Tibet Committee and are catalogued by the Tibet Justice Center. Some of the highlights of this collection are described below. (In all cases below, the bolded emphasis in the text is added by us).
Canada’s Views on Tibet’s Independent Statehood
One of the most important documents is a November 21, 1950 cable from Canada’s Secretary of State for External Affairs to the Canadian Ambassador in Washington DC (another identical cable was sent the same day to the head of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations). The Secretary of State discloses that the department’s Legal Division had asked and concluded:
“The question is, should Canada consider Tibet to be an independent state, a vassal of China, or an integral portion of China. It is submitted that the Chinese claim to sovereignty over Tibet is not well founded. Chinese suzerainty, perhaps existent, though ill-defined, before 1911, appears since then, on the basis of facts available to us, to have been a mere fiction. In fact, it appears that during the past 40 years Tibet has controlled its own internal and external affairs. Viewing the situation thus, I am of the opinion that Tibet is, from the point of view of international law, qualified for recognition as an independent state.”
More: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?c=4&t=1&id=30814&article=Canada+Secretly+Saw+Tibet+as+%22Qualified+for+Recognition+as+an+Independent+State%22
Tibetan Political Review: http://www.tibetanpoliticalreview.com/the-team
By the Editorial Board of The Tibetan Political Review
Declassified documents from 1950 through the 1960s show that Canada considered Tibet to be “qualified for recognition as an independent state.” These documents also show how the Canadian government’s concern over the outcome of United Nations votes led Canada to publicly avoid the question of Tibet’s political status in favor of human rights. But while Canada downplayed Tibet’s political status, it also accepted that the issue of human rights includes the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination.
These declassified documents consist of a trove of secret memos, correspondence, and diplomatic cables. They were obtained by the Canada Tibet Committee and are catalogued by the Tibet Justice Center. Some of the highlights of this collection are described below. (In all cases below, the bolded emphasis in the text is added by us).
Canada’s Views on Tibet’s Independent Statehood
One of the most important documents is a November 21, 1950 cable from Canada’s Secretary of State for External Affairs to the Canadian Ambassador in Washington DC (another identical cable was sent the same day to the head of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations). The Secretary of State discloses that the department’s Legal Division had asked and concluded:
“The question is, should Canada consider Tibet to be an independent state, a vassal of China, or an integral portion of China. It is submitted that the Chinese claim to sovereignty over Tibet is not well founded. Chinese suzerainty, perhaps existent, though ill-defined, before 1911, appears since then, on the basis of facts available to us, to have been a mere fiction. In fact, it appears that during the past 40 years Tibet has controlled its own internal and external affairs. Viewing the situation thus, I am of the opinion that Tibet is, from the point of view of international law, qualified for recognition as an independent state.”
More: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?c=4&t=1&id=30814&article=Canada+Secretly+Saw+Tibet+as+%22Qualified+for+Recognition+as+an+Independent+State%22
Tibetan Political Review: http://www.tibetanpoliticalreview.com/the-team
To view the documents directly via PDF enter this link manually into your browser: http://www.tibet.ca/_media/PDF/secret_canada_tibet_file.pdf
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's pretty obvious. And it's good that these documents have surfaced because they bolster the idea even more in the face of the deniers.
