104 Part II: Outsiders
After the cataclysm of war with Japan in the 1930s and 1940s, and the ensu-
ing collapse of the Nationalist regime on the mainland, Tibet was violently incor-
porated in the new People’s Republic of China in 1950, and then opposition to
Communist rule led to an uprising in 1959 that was crushed. This conflict led to
the Dalai Lama fleeing the country, and brought about the current tense relation-
ship with Beijing. Far more than its northern neighbor, Xinjiang, Tibet has
become a cause championed by foreign powers and prominent celebrities who
have advocated for increasing its autonomy or even for its outright independence.
A broad spectrum of reflexive anti-Communists politicians, high-profile peace-
loving practitioners of Buddhism from around the world, Tibetan exiles, and oth-
ers have consistently criticized Beijing’s role in Tibet, perhaps most prominently
in protests surrounding the Olympic torch relay in the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing
Summer Games. The Dalai Lama has lamented the use of Tibet as a kind of polit-
ical football, kicked around in the geopolitical contest between Washington, Lon-
don, Paris, and Beijing. But this seems to be in keeping with the theme of Central
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