Your otherwise excellent editorial on the centenary of the Chinese Communist party (29 June) ignores entirely, as do so many commentaries on China, the appalling suffering of the Tibetan people, citing only the oppression of the Uyghurs. Tibet’s plight under Chinese rule goes back even longer. Tibet was an independent country when invaded by the Chinese army in 1950. Its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to a life of exile and his young successor was kidnapped by the Chinese and never seen again.
Chinese rule is characterised by brutal repression, ethnic cleansing (partly by the mass settlement of Han Chinese and the promotion of Mandarin Chinese over Tibetan), persecution of religious believers, torture, murder, “disappearances”, and incarceration without trial. Tibet evokes little interest from governments (including successive British ones) and none from the left or the right. Its cause is kept alive in the UK largely by Free Tibet.
Terry Philpot
Limpsfield Chart, Surrey
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