I am writing in response to Friday's letter submitted by Mr. Jianlin Li regarding the Chinese occupation of Tibet. It is a shame to see individuals, such as Mr. Li, not taking advantage of the opportunity to access and review uncensored news and historical publications.
In Mr. Li's response to the previous Monday's guest column reviewing the current situation in Tibet, he related the Chinese government's current propaganda expounding their supposed legitimate claim to Tibet and how the Tibetan people have benefited from their control. Unfortunately for Mr. Li, the "approved facts" he related were untrue and severely biased.
If he spent some time in Library West, Mr. Li would discover quite a few things. First, Tibet has been considered a sovereign country for much of its history in addition to being a part of the Mongol Empire and China during the few years it was occupied by past Khans and Chinese warlords. Secondly, the position of the Dalai Lama as political leader of Tibet was first established by Altan Khan in 1578, not by the Chinese in the 17th century.
The current Dalai Lama and religious leaders of Tibet also had very good cause to fear the communist takeover as the communists carried out a policy to eliminate them and the practice of Buddhism in Tibet by destroying more than 6,000 monasteries and killing thousands of monks and nuns.
The current Tibetan natives are not allowed to take advantage of all of the "wonderful improvements" that the Chinese government has brought to the country, so those that are still alive by and large do not consider these things of benefit.
