REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE

The Making of Red China: A Historiographical Analysis of the Chinese Civil War

Chinese Civil War: Cultural Revolution

Throughout history civil war has been a catalyst for radical upheavals and major paradigm shifts in many societies. Civil wars are often the physical manifestations of ideological battles, battles of ideas, each competing for power. Consequently civil wars have the potential to bring about a new socio-political order in society, yet in order for this to be accomplished; the existing power structure must be sufficiently weakened and susceptible to change. Civil wars and the revolutions in thinking which instigate them, require a power vacuum in order to grow and be successful. The conditions for upheaval were present in Chinese society due to the fall of the dynastic system and the influx of new ways of thinking from abroad. The lack of a strong central authority left the ship of state without a helmsman, causing it to drift out of control due to tumultuous societal currents, bringing about almost forty years of successive revolutions and massive bloodshed.

The emergence of a Communist China in 1949 significantly altered the course of geo-politics for the next half century. China emerged as a competing source of authority in the Communist world leading to the Sino-Soviet split, a split which was exploited by President Richard Nixon’s ‘Ping-Pong’ politics, that led to the opening up of China. With retrospection, the emergence of a Communist China was a highly unlikely event, considering that China like Russia was unsuited for a Marxist revolution, with both lacking a capitalistic societal structure, large proletariat or developed bourgeoisie.

 The Chinese Civil war was the product of the long standing undercurrent of societal dissatisfaction in China. This dissatisfaction led to China’s last emperor Pu Yi being ousted from power in 1911. On January 1^st 1912 Sun-Yat-sen, long-time dissident and advocate of political and social reform, was appointed the first provisional president of the Republic of China. Sun’s sudden death in 1925 lead to an internal power struggle in which Chiang Kai-Shek emerged as the new leader of Sun’s Kuomintang Party (KMT) due to his control over the Whampoa Military Academy and subsequently virtually all of the military. Chiang used his influence to invoke martial law after accusing KMT leftists and Communists of conspiring against the state. This action and the purge of communists which followed it inevitably led to a split between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the KMT who had been in an uneasy alliance since 1923.

General Chiang Kai-Shek

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Li Hung-chang

Li Hung-chang (1823-1901), Chinese soldier, statesman, diplomat, and industrialist, was one of the most powerful and influential officials in China and a leader of the Self-strengthening movement.

During the latter half of the 19th century China had to contend with internal rebellions and everincreasing foreign encroachments. To cope with this twin threat, a few far-sighted Chinese leaders advocated a policy of military and economic development along Western lines which would give China the strength to suppress the rebellions, get rid of the Westerners, and preserve its superior traditional culture. This movement was known as the Self-strengthening movement.

Li Hung-chang was born on Feb. 15, 1823, in Hofei in Anhwei Province. In 1843 he passed the first of the official examinations. Shortly thereafter he set out for Peking. Because Li's father and the soldier-statesman Tseng Kuo-fan both had received their chin-shih degrees (the highest academic degree) in 1838, Li became Tseng's student in the capital, and thus began the long and close association between these two men which was to affect the course of Chinese history. In 1844 Li passed the second examination and in 1847 achieved the chin-shih degree and was made a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy—a signal honor.

Military Career

Li's budding career as a scholar-official in the capital was cut short in 1853, when he and his father were ordered to return to Anhwei to organize the local militia to fight the Taiping and Nien rebels. For the next 6 years he fought the rebels in Anhwei and received honors but was dissatisfied and frustrated in what he considered a backwash area. In 1858 he resigned his position in Anhwei and set out to join Tseng, who was the commander of his own army fighting the Taiping rebels in Kiangsi.

Between 1859 and 1862 Li served under Tseng in various military and administrative capacities. He has been described during this period as "a brash, young genius," and because of this, his relations with Tseng were often strained. Tseng's attempts to discipline and mold Li's character, however, gradually met with success, and in 1861 Tseng sent Li back to Anhwei to recruit an army which came to be known as the Huai Army. In 1862 Li led his new army to Shanghai and was concurrently made governor of Kiangsu Province.

Read more at Encyclopedia.com

Where China Outpaces America.

Here’s a fact about China that you may not know: people in Shanghai today have a longer life expectancy than Americans.

A child in Shanghai is expected to live 82 years. In the United States, the figure is not quite 79 years. (For all of China, including rural areas, life expectancy is lower, 73 years — but rising steadily.)

The harsh repression in China these days rightly garners headlines, but health data reflect another side of a nation that could scarcely be more complex and contradictory.

For those who remember Shanghai a quarter-century ago as a dilapidated city where farmers would collect night soil from families without sanitation, it’s extraordinary that among permanent residents of Shanghai, infant mortality is 2.9 deaths per 1,000 births. That is well below the rate of 5.3 in New York City. (Include migrant laborers living in Shanghai, perhaps a fairer comparison, and the rate climbs to a bit higher than in New York.)

That Shanghai child enjoys a world-class education in a public school — the best school system of any in a recent 65-nation survey, although it’s also true that Chinese schools have their own problems such as widespread cheating and stifling of creativity.

Since 1990, the country has reduced infant mortality rates by 54 percent, according to Unicef statistics. On a Chinese scale, that represents more than 360,000 children’s lives saved each year.

Read more at The New York Times

China Allows Dissident Artist’s Wife to Visit Him

BEIJING — The dissident artist Ai Weiwei was allowed a visit from his wife on Sunday, the first time he has been seen or heard from since being detained by authorities 43 days ago and held incommunicado in a secret Beijing-area location, Mr. Ai’s attorney said on Monday.

Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

Ai Weiwei

The attorney and family friend, Liu Xiaoyuan, said he had met on Monday with Lu Qing and that she said her husband appeared to be in good physical condition. Mr. Ai also asked about the health of his mother and family, he said, but the circumstance of the supervised visit offered no chance to discuss how his captors were treating him or other details of his confinement.

News service reports stated that Mr. Ai, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, was receiving needed medications.

Ms. Lu said that Mr. Ai was not being held in a hospital or a jail but did not further describe his living conditions. “It appears he’s not in handcuffs, he was not wearing prison clothes and he was allowed to move freely within where he is living now,” Mr. Liu said. “So I guess it’s a form of house arrest, under supervision.”

Chinese authorities have yet to bring any charges against Mr. Ai, 53, who was seized at Beijing’s main airport on April 3 as he prepared to board a plane to Hong Kong. The government has since said that he was suspected of committing economic crimes, and tax investigators have searched his office records, Mr. Liu said.

Read more at The New York Times

China's Top Leadership

Top Leadership

Hu Jintao

Wu Bangguo Wen Jiabao Jia Qinglin Li Changchun Xi Jinping Li Keqiang He Guoqiang Zhou Yongkang

Other Central Leaders

Largest excavation in history launched at Peking Man site

Chinese archaeologists have launched the largest protective excavation since the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site was first excavated in 1921.

The protective excavation of the No.1 site at the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site was launched on May 16.

The No.1 site of the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site is located on the northeastern slope of Longgu Mountain and is the most important site of the Zhoukoudian Peking Man relics. A total of more than 200 "Peking Man" fossils were excavated at this site since 1921. Currently, the Ape-man Cave still holds one-third of the original accumulations. This is very important for further studies on paleoanthropology, paleogeology and paleoenvironment.

The excavation is being supervised by the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site Administration and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, which falls under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Officials from the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site Administration said that the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Relics Museum began constructing scaffolding for the excavation in February 2011 and the excavation was officially launched on May 16.

According to the Daily Mail, the current excavation is the largest protective excavation since the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site was first excavated in 1921.

"The excavation will last at least one or two years," officials said. (ANI)

China National News

China seeks tips on how to boost Christianity

A section of Christians attending a crusade at Nakuru showground. A delegation from China is in Kenya to “copy good practices” that could help it grow Christianity within its borders. PHOTO/JOSEPH KIHERI

China wants to use Kenya to promote Christianity within its borders.

An 11-member delegation from the Far East country led by State for Religious Affairs minister Wang Zuoan is in Kenya to “copy good practices” that could help it grow Christianity.

The delegation, which is on a seven-day visit, will also find ways in which Christians in China can work with Kenyan churches, Mr Wang said.

There are five main religions in China: Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam and Christianity.

However, Christians have faced persecution.

The majority of Chinese are Buddhists (66 per cent), while Taoists make up 30 per cent of the population. Christians and Muslims are a minority.

Although Mr Wang put the number of Christians at 23 million, other sources say the figure is more than 40 million as many of them do not want to be known for fear of oppression.

But on Friday, the minister, whose team met Anglican archbishop Eliud Wabukhala, said China had adopted a policy of reform.

“We have freedom of religious belief. We used to treat Christians as foreigners but we now treat them as our people. We have come to learn from Kenyans their good practices.

“This is the first religious visit by a Chinese delegation to Kenya. Religion is good for development,” the minister said at Bishop’s Gardens in Nairobi.

Read more at Daily Nations

China launches global 24-hour English TV news

BEIJING (AP) — The news agency run by China's ruling Communist Party launched a global English-language television channel Thursday as part of efforts to expand its influence abroad.

Experts say China's media expansion also results from unhappiness with much of the international coverage of sensitive events in China such as Tibet and human rights. The government has accused international media organizations of being biased and focused on negative news.

China Xinhua News Network Corp. (CNC) began broadcasting its first English TV service, CNC World, around the clock on Thursday, including news segments, feature stories, weather updates and special bulletins, the official Xinhua News agency said.

"The English service will provide international and China news with a Chinese perspective to global audiences," CNC President Wu Jincai said at a news conference on Thursday.

CNC World has begun broadcasting in Hong Kong and will continue to expand to Europe, North America and Africa by the year-end, he said.

CNC World will have about 70 percent international news and 30 percent news about China — with a wide range of topics such as breaking news, travel shows, sports, and weather, Wu said.

Although critics are skeptical of the ability of China's news industry to compete abroad, Yuen-ying Chan, director of the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Center, said the potential impact of China's media expansion should not be downplayed.

"At a time when western media is retreating ... China could be flooding the world with its perspective, giving the country a boost of soft power" said Chan. "With a lot of funding and improvements in its reporting, this new expansion should not be written off."

Read more at Reliable News

Get ready for the tourist gold rush

WITH an estimated 2 billion new middle-class consumers expected to come into the markets from emerging powerhouses China, India and Brazil over the next two decades, the travel industry sees a potential gold rush ahead.

''The growth of China outbound travel is moving at a huge pace - it is about a 20 per cent increase every year. And the number of outbound Chinese travellers hit 58 million last year,'' said David Scowsill, chief executive of the World Travel and Tourism Council, a US industry promotion group.

''And if you look ahead, [with about] 1.6 billion coming out of China and India, there are a huge amount of people coming in with money to burn.''

Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald

New PLA video game pits Chinese against U.S. soldiers

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING – In 2005, I was deeply engaged in an extended military campaign on battlefields across China. Thousands of Chinese and Americans fell each day, but the only real casualty suffered was my bruised ego as I was easily picked off time and again in a blaze of glory playing the videogame, Battlefield 2.

Battlefield 2, a popular first-person multiplayer shooter released that year, pitted U.S. Marines, Chinese forces and a fictional Middle Eastern Coalition against each other in imaginary locations around the world.

The game’s Chinese maps and scenarios were incredibly popular among Chinese players who took great pleasure in blasting me and countless others with a variety of different weapons regardless of whether my character was wearing a Chinese or American uniform.

Which is why it is surprising to see the recent release of Glorious Mission (also known as, Mission of Honor), a military simulation jointly developed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Chinese software developer, Giant Interactive Group. It has generated waves in the U.S. not for its graphics or game play – but for the fact that American soldiers are the main adversary.

Objections don't appear to be focused on the game's existence. After all, the U.S. military is heavily invested in its own acclaimed military training and recruitment game, America’s Army, but it features a generic enemy, so as not to offend anyone.

Read MORE at BEHIND THE WALL

Chinese 9 Yrs Old Girl Shuffling

 

First Song: Fly- Paul Jocket ft. Lary

Second song: Dolly song- Holly Dolly

Third song: Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites- Skrillex(Zedd's Remix)

Last song: Electro Mario - DJ Aleshkin

GalaxyInvaderr

The Post-1980s Generation: China and America

By James Fallows

May 8 2011, 7:23 PM ET

Last month I quoted a note from a young man in Shanghai about the bittersweet perspective of people in his generation. They were beneficiaries of a China that was booming economically, but were often surprisingly nostalgic for the simpler China, real or imagined, of their childhood days.

Two Americans write to say that this may not be strictly a Chinese attitude. First:

I was struck by a portion of the writing from Xiao Shi that was reproduced in your column. As a 23 year old, I wanted to offer my opinion that his observation of nostalgia in youth is prevalent everywhere I can see here in America as well. Sociological evidence of extended adolescence aside, I offer anecdotal evidence: 'Saved By The Bell' on Cartoon Network and the popularity of the new Pokemon games amongst the 18-34 demographic. In other words, I disagree that his experience is a uniquely Chinese one, and probably more so a function of sweeping changes in general that have occurred since the 90's, and the protracted path today to adulthood.

His spiritual disillusionment and frustration is common here as well: trying to grow up in a dis-inflationary environment is a recipe for low self-esteem and high self-doubt, and his anxieties are common amongst my friends. In other words, I would be wary of the narrative fallacy in this case, and instead realize that globalization has homogenized 'youth' around the world.

          And from someone half a generation older:

As a thirty-six year-old from the small-town suburbs of Houston, I read your Chinese post-80s correspondent's letter with interest. The generational shared-nostalgia for the recent past and the similarly-shared need to build a spiritual life from scratch in a world of ideologies found wanting echoed many of the facets of my life and the lives of many of my fellow Gen-Xers. Nostalgia for childhood has been with us at least as long as child-labor laws have, but ours has always seemed to me to be for a bubble of time that existed outside the flow of history.

The series of events leading up the end of the Vietnam War and Watergate caused such a sharp inflection point that they don't seem to really be the precursors of what came after, just as the events in 1988 don't really seem to presage the end of the Soviet Union and the rise of the internet. Case in point: practically everyone of my age and 5-7 years older grew up in mortal terror of nuclear war (we were old enough to have seen The Day After when it was broadcast in primetime, for instance), whereas people 2 or 3 years younger have no idea what I'm talking about. I'll be keeping an eye out for other examples of similarities of worldview between my cohort and the kids just now turning 30 in China.

More on this theme shortly.

The Atlantic

Chinese bid to set up East Timor spy base

Strategic threat' ... Chinese officials approached East Timorese authorities about installing a surveillance radar in 2007. Photo: Fiona-Lee Quimby

CHINA failed in its attempt to establish a spy base in East Timor, according to leaked United States diplomatic cables.

The Chinese proposal to build and operate a surveillance radar facility on East Timor's north coast was made in December 2007, but was viewed with suspicion by senior East Timorese officials who consulted the United States and Australia before rejecting the project.

The Chinese initiative, described as "a strategic threat", is revealed for the first time in US embassy cables leaked to WikiLeaks and provided exclusively to the Herald.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/chinese-bid-to-set-up-east-timor-spy-base-20110509-1efwo.html#ixzz1LrqJejCS

China's Rising Wages Propel U.S. Prices

HONG KONG—Wages are rising in China, heralding the possible end of an era of cheap goods.

For the past 30 years, customers would ask William Fung, the managing director of one of the world's biggest manufacturing-outsourcing companies, to make his products—whether T-shirts, jeans or dishes—cheaper. Thanks to China's seemingly limitless labor force, he usually could.

Now, the head of Li & Fung Ltd. says the times are changing. Wages for the tens of thousands of workers his Hong Kong-based firm indirectly employs are surging: He predicts overall, China's wages will increase 80% over the next five years. That means prices for Li & Fung's goods will have to rise, too.

"What we will have for the next 30 years is inflation," Mr. Fung said. "A lot of Western managers have never coped with inflation."

The issue is likely to hover behind talks Monday, between Chinese and U.S. leaders in Washington at their annual Strategic Economic Dialogue. Currency and debt issues are expected to dominate the agenda. But there are signs that the low labor costs—and cheap currency—that led to China's huge trade surplus with the U.S. could be reaching a tipping point. This comes amid pressure from rising wages as China's working-age population begins to decline.

For decades, plentiful Chinese labor kept down costs of a range of goods bought by Americans. Even as politicians in Washington accused China of hollowing out the American manufacturing sector, cheap DVD players, sweaters and barbecue sets were a silver lining for consumers who grew accustomed to ever-lower prices. China also kept down the value of its currency, giving domestic exporters a competitive edge.

"Inflation has been damped pretty dramatically in the U.S. because it exported work to China and other places at 20% or 30% of the cost," said Hal Sirkin, a consultant at Boston Consulting Group. The years of dramatic reductions in costs are over, the firm says.

Li & Fung traces the start of rising wages to the "Foxconn Effect." Foxconn is the trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., maker of iPads for Apple Inc., and computers for Hewlett-Packard Co., among others. After a string of worker suicides last year at one of its China plants spurred Foxconn to defend its treatment of employees, the company raised wages 30% or more in a bid to improve worker conditions. That raise came as workers at other factories, including staff at a Honda Motor Co. parts plant, went on strike for higher pay.

read more at  The Wall Street Journal

Probe in eastern China as dozens living near lead battery plants found poisoned

SHANGHAI — Authorities are investigating heavy metals poisoning in a village in eastern China after discovering that dozens of people living near a lead battery plant were sickened.

Local authorities in Deqing, a village near the scenic city of Hangzhou, west of Shanghai, said Monday they ordered that nearly 2,000 people be given free blood tests. Initial results for 317 people found that 31, including 11 children, had lead levels exceeding safety standards.

Some of the children were sent to Shanghai for treatment.

Heavy metals poisoning is an urgent concern in China, where safety standards have often been disregarded by manufacturers and local officials.

Zhejiang Haijiu Battery Co., a major producer of motorcycle batteries, was ordered to suspend operations in Deqing after it discovered late last month that some people living near its factory were suffering from lead poisoning.

Over the weekend, authorities sent a working group to the village to “rectify” the situation, the local government said in a statement.

Read more At Washington Post

Chinese author grounded again

                       Silenced ... Liao Yiwu. Photo: AP

The Chinese government has cited ''security reasons'' for banning the dissident author and poet Liao Yiwu from travelling to Australia to attend the Sydney Writers' Festival next week. Liao joins several leading Chinese writers and artists who have been victims of a recent crackdown on people speaking out against the regime in China, including the jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and the detained artist Ai Weiwei. Liao was to be a key guest at the festival. He is a poet, musician (Chinese flute player), novelist and documentarian from Sichuan province, whose book The Corpse Walker, which documents the lives of people on the fringe of Chinese society, was published in Australia by Text Publishing last week. The Chinese government, which has called Liao's writings subversive, has also ''advised'' him not publish his work overseas. Liao was jailed in 1990 for four years for writing his epic poem Massacre, which condemned the government's bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Sydney Writers' Festival organisers told the Herald's acting literary editor, Marc McEvoy, they were deeply disappointed by the ban on Liao. This follows China's earlier decision to stop Liao from travelling to the US to take part in the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature. The artistic director, Chip Rolley, said: ''Liao Yiwu … has been denied the fundamental right to express his views freely. We are astonished by the Chinese government's additional demand that he not publish his works internationally. These actions highlight the need for Australians to better understand the growing power of China, including its reach into other countries.'' Linda Jaivin, a Sydney author and Sinologist who was to discuss Liao's work with him at the festival, said: ''The crazy thing is that by denying Liao Yiwu permission to travel the Chinese government has given his work a massive publicity bonus overseas - just as few outside China knew about Liu Xiaobo before his arrest and subsequent Nobel prize, or the artist Ai Weiwei before his detention on April 3 this year. Despite numerous such examples, the Chinese government still doesn't seem to understand that they are simply creating a new cause celebre every time they do this sort of thing.'' The Chinese government allowed Liao an exit permit to attend a literary event in Germany last year, his first after 14 attempts.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/the-diary/chinese-author-grounded-again-20110509-1efsy.html#ixzz1LrhwgXgt

Feb. 18, 1979: China Invades Vietnam

                                 ABC NEWS

1979: China invades Vietnam

1979: China invades Vietnam

China has sent hundreds of troops into Vietnam after weeks of tension and a military build-up along the border.

Vietnamese Vice-Foreign Minister Nguyen Ko Tach has told ambassadors in Hanoi the Chinese troops have occupied nearly all Vietnamese border positions and are advancing southwards.

He did not give any idea of casualties or whether he would be calling on the assistance of the Soviet Union.

Vietnam and the USSR signed an alliance last year, but military analysts think it unlikely the nine Russian ships in Indochinese waters would be of much value in a land campaign.

An official statement from China has expressed a willingness to negotiate peace "after counter-attacking the Vietnamese aggressors as they deserve."

Deteriorating relationship

The assault follows months of exchanges between Chinese and Vietnamese authorities about illegal occupation of the ill-defined frontier territory.

Foreign observers have reported a quadrupling of the Chinese force there, numbering up to 150,000 troops and 300 aircraft, in the past three weeks.

Vietnam appears to have fewer soldiers as up to 100,000 of their troops are currently serving in Cambodia and another 25,000 are in Laos.

The Chinese Government in Peking (later Beijing) claimed the Vietnamese had made over 700 armed incursions into China and killed or wounded over 300 Chinese soldiers and civilians over the last six months.

The official Chinese Hsinhua News Agency said: "We do not want a single inch of Vietnamese territory. All we want is a peaceful and stable border."

Chinese vice-premier Deng Xiaoping has also threatened the Vietnamese Government in Hanoi with "punishment" for its engagement in Cambodia.

Hostilities between Hanoi and the Chinese-backed Cambodian Government broke out last year and culminated in the Vietnamese invasion on Christmas Day and collapse of Pol Pot's regime.

Vietnam has appealed to the United Nations and has not cut off diplomatic relations with China.

Read more at the BBC

China has threatened to punish Vietnam for its engagement with Cambodia

Buddha’s Warriors: The Story of the CIA-Backed Tibetan Freedom Fighters, the Chinese Communist Invasion, and the Ultimate Fall of Tibet

Reviewed by Vibha Arora

Mikel Dunham’s Buddha’s Warriors is not a Shangri-La story about Tibet, but a sensitive historical account of the valiant warrior Khampas armed resistance to Chinese colonialism: a tribute to Tibet’s freedom fighters. This heart-rending and gripping account is based on interviews of persons who actively participated in the armed resistance in Kham and are now living in refugee camps and settlements in India and Nepal.

The fierce, independent, and intimidating Khampa brigands are anything but the gentle stereotyped image of a peace-loving religious Tibetan group, nevertheless “To be a Khampa was [is] to be a Tibetan Buddhist” and whole monasteries in Kham armed themselves and waged war against the Chinese forcible occupation of Tibet (pp. 8, 10). The Bhutias among whom this reviewer conducted research in Sikkim migrated from Kham to Sikkim in the fourteenth century; they are Khampas. During my own fieldwork in Sikkim I inadvertently heard stories of Tibetan resistance, the flight of the Tibetans in 1959, and their subsequent settlement into Sikkim as refugees.

These stories prompted me to compare the fate of Tibet with that of the Buddhist kingdom of Sikkim, which became an Indian state in 1975 (see Vibha Arora, “Changes in the Perception of Tibetan Identities in Contemporary Sikkim, India,” in Tibetan Borderlands, edited by Christian Klieger, 31–52 [Leiden: Brill, 2006]; and Vibha Arora, “The Roots and the Route of Secularism in Sikkim,” in Economic and Political Weekly 16: 38 [2006], 4063–71). In 2005, China officially acknowledged Sikkim as part of India, and during the Chinese Premier’s visit the Tibetans vociferously protested. It has taken more than forty-four years for Sino-Indian internal trade to be resumed through the Nathula pass of Sikkim. Yet the solution to the Tibet problem has not been found. Will Tibet ever become free?

The loss of Tibet is epic and monumental. Despite prima facie evidence of genocide in Tibet, economic interests between Western nations and China have precluded any strategic criticism or questioning of this totalitarian occupation and monumental violation of human rights. During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, nearly 95 percent of the monasteries and temples of Tibet were razed to the ground and about 1.2 million Tibetans died.

There are now over 7.5 million Chinese in Tibet compared with an indigenous population of 6 million (p. 6). What led to this sordid state of affairs? Did the Tibetan government and people oppose the Chinese annexation? What was the reaction of the international community to the Tibet issue? Organized into eight chapters with an epilogue, this enthralling book seeks to provide us with a historical account of the events and negotiations leading up to the annexation of Tibet, the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959, as well as the lesser-known resistance in Eastern Tibet.

The book begins by giving us insights into the history and functioning of the Tibetan religious polity, the history and geography of Kham, and the Khampa psyche and lifestyle—along with biographical sketches of the key men who participated and led the CIA-backed Khampa armed resistance. Aptly titled “Leopard Cubs,” the first chapter introduces General Gonpo Tashi, Athar Lithang, Kalsang Gyatotsang, and Wangdu Gyatotsang; the men who formed the core of Khampa resistance.

The second chapter describes the Chinese occupation of Eastern Tibet in 1950 and the weak and strategically damaging response of the Tibetan government of Lhasa to this invasion. The third chapter narrates the ineffective efforts of Tibet to get international support for their cause, the shunning response of the United Nations, India, Great Britain, the US and other countries to the Tibetan appeal, the complicity of some members of the Tibetan nobility, and the tragic events leading to the Dalai Lama’s acceptance of the May 1951 17-point Agreement with China that recognized the suzerainty of China over Tibet.

Read more at Planetizen