60th Anniversary Timeline
1950
October 1, 1950
40,000 Chinese troops invaded Tibet; an independent nation the size of Western Europe.
1951
May 23, 1951
China consolidated its military occupation of Tibet forcing the Tibetan government to sign the ’17 Point Agreement’.
1959
March 10, 1959
Tens of thousands of Tibetans took to the streets of Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, rising up against China’s illegal invasion and occupation of their homeland.
March 12, 1959
15,000 unarmed Tibetan women came together and rose up against the forced occupation of Tibet by the communist Chinese government.
March 30, 1959
April 1, 1959
Three resolutions raising grave concern at the suppression of fundamental human rights in Tibet were passed by the UN.
1960
January 1, 1960
China’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans.
1966
January 1, 1966
Chairman Mao’s communism campaign led to the destruction of 6,000 Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and cultural sites.
1987
September 21, 1987
The Dalai Lama presented his ‘Five Point Peace Plan’ as a solution to the situation; China flatly rejected his proposals.
September 23, 1987
In response to China’s rejection of the Dalai Lama’s ‘Peace Plan’, large protests broke out in Lhasa.
1988
March 1, 1988
September 1, 1988
December 1, 1988
A well-planned protest erupted in Lhasa. Chinese police opened fire on protesters, including foreigners, and Dutch national Christa Meindersma who was shot in the shoulder.
PHOTO – Tibet Watch
1989
March 10, 1989
Widespread protests broke out in Lhasa with tens of thousands of Tibetans taking to the streets. Chinese used brutal force to quell the protests, expelling all foreigners and declaring martial law.
December 10, 1989
1995
January 1, 1995
Six year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognised as the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Lama. He was kidnapped by Chinese authorities becoming the world’s youngest political prisoner. He remains missing today.
1996
January 1, 1996
Religious repression across Tibet intensified and China launched a brutal patriotic re-education campaign.
2001
January 1, 2001
2007
October 1, 2007
The Dalai Lama received the US Congressional Gold Medal. As Tibetans celebrated the award, China marshalled troops in a show of force
2008
March 10, 2008
Tibetan Uprising – Protests broke out in Lhasa and rippled across Tibet. Hundreds of Tibetans were killed and over 2,000 arrested.
August 1, 2008
China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Pro-Tibetan protests took place around the globe including in Beijing.
2009
February 1, 2009
In February 2009 a young monk named Tapey set fire to himself in Ngaba, eastern Tibet.
Over the next 9 years, more than 150 Tibetans in Tibet self-immolated, protesting China’s rule in Tibet, the majority dying as a result.
2019
March 10, 2019
Large protests continue sporadically across Tibet but Tibetans have sought new ways to defend their identity and basic rights; environmental protection, student protests, cultural resistance with music, poems and writings celebrating Tibet’s culture and nationhood.
2020
January 1, 2020
Rights experts have analysed that torture in Tibet is endemic and is used systemically and routinely by Chinese authorities against Tibetans in custody. An alarming number of Tibetans continue to die in custody or shortly after release from detention, and incriminating signs of torture and other clues to the reasons for death raise serious concern.
2021
January 1, 2021
Chinese government’s tolerance for Tibetans’ rights has diminished dramatically in recent years and we have seen a marked increase in state control over everyday life, an escalation in the criminalization of nonviolent forms of protest, and a heavy crackdown against freedom of expression, association, and assembly. Since February 2021, Beijing has escalated a crackdown across Tibet and a new wave of arrests, including the detention of a number of prominent Tibetans.
2022
January 1, 2022
Chinese government policies are forcing three out of four Tibetan students into a vast network of colonial boarding schools, separating 800,000-900,000 children aged 6-18 from their families and communities. This number does not include an additional, unknown number of four- and five-year olds. The schools are a cornerstone of Xi Jinping’s campaign to eliminate Tibetan identity and supplant it with a Chinese nationalist identity in order to neutralize any resistance to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule.
