China’s Tibet policy under scrutiny over broken 1951 autonomy promise: Report

IANS | May 15, 2026 9:32 PM

Beijing, May 15 (IANS) Tibet’s autonomy was not merely an abstract expectation but a commitment explicitly set out in a signed political document - the Seventeen Point Agreement of May 1951, formally titled the 'Agreement of the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet'. The rapid breakdown of those guarantees underpins the contemporary arguments that China violated its own commitments and fundamentally reshaped Tibet’s political and cultural identity through "force rather than consent".