"All that Glitters is Not Gold": Tibet as a Pseudo-State

“Old Tibet” is often envisioned as a territory always independent of China or at least enjoying “de facto independence” from 1913-1951 and thus with a “right to independence” today. Applying international law theories of statehood and examining relevant Tibet/China historical connections, it is argued that “old Tibet” was a pseudo-state comparable to several currently existing territories, such as Somaliland and the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. It is demonstrated that whether the declaratory theory or constitutive theory of statehood is applied, Tibet was not a state during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) or subsequently, that no legal category of “de facto independence” exists, and that supposed indicators of Tibetan statehood have all been found at sub-state levels in China and elsewhere. The implications of the continuing claim of Tibetan statehood for relations between India and China and the United States and China are also examined. Throughout history, Tibetans were not a unified people and the concept of a sovereign state in the modern sense never existed in the minds of Tibetans before the People’s Liberation Army invaded Tibet in the 1950s . . . The reason why most Tibetan civilians did not resist when the Chinese army entered Tibet in 1951 was because the concept that ‘our country is being invaded,’ did not exist for them.”