Autonomy in name, oppression in reality.
On September 9, 2025, the Chinese state will mark the 60th anniversary of what it calls the founding of the “Tibet Autonomous Region” (TAR). But for the Tibetan people, there is no cause for celebration—only six decades of sorrow, betrayal, and struggle.
The so-called “Tibet Autonomous Region” represents only about half of Tibet’s historical territory. It is a label stamped by a regime that invaded a peaceful nation, silenced its spiritual heart, and broke every promise it ever made to its people.
“For our brothers and sisters in Tibet, the last sixty years have lurched from one calamity to another,” said Tencho Gyatso, President of the International Campaign for Tibet.
“Instead of forcing Tibetans to put on a performance of gratitude, China must change course and put the interests of the Tibetan people ahead of their own compulsive need for power and control.”
A Promise Betrayed
When the People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet, it came with assurances: that Tibetans would enjoy genuine autonomy, freedom of religion, and protection of their language and way of life. But these words were hollow from the start.
After the Dalai Lama was forced into exile in 1959, those promises dissolved into oppression. In 1965, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially established the TAR—not as a haven of autonomy, but as a tool of assimilation and control. Not once in sixty years has a Tibetan been appointed as Party Secretary of the TAR. Every one of these top officials has been Chinese, including notorious figures like Chen Quanguo, the mastermind behind the mass internment of Uyghurs in East Turkestan, and Wu Yingjie, recently convicted for accepting bribes amounting to over ¥343 million.
A Landscape of Loss
What followed over these decades has been nothing short of cultural devastation. During the Cultural Revolution, Tibetan monasteries were reduced to rubble. Since then, the Tibetan people have faced:
In Tibet today, children are sent to colonial-style boarding schools that erase their identity. They are not allowed to learn from the Dalai Lama—their spiritual leader—but are inundated with the propaganda of Xi Jinping. Speaking Tibetan in official settings can mean punishment. Dissent means prison. And peace is a distant dream.
The World Is Watching
The international community has not been blind to this injustice. Year after year, human rights organizations and global watchdogs expose the horrors Tibetans endure. The U.S. State Department documents these abuses. Freedom House ranks Tibet among the worst places on earth for freedom. The United Nations, the European Union, and global civil society continue to raise their voices.
But words are not enough.
The Truth: This Is Not the Tibetan People’s Choice
Tibetans did not choose this path.
They did not choose to lose their monasteries.
They did not choose exile, silence, or surveillance.
They did not choose to have their language downgraded, their faith controlled, their leaders disappeared.
Every wound, every loss, every act of destruction was imposed by the Chinese Communist Party—an occupying power clinging to control through force and fear.
A Different Future Is Possible
Sixty years of control cannot erase thousands of years of Tibetan culture, wisdom, and resilience. The Tibetan spirit is not broken. Across the plateau and in exile, Tibetans continue to preserve their language, practice their faith, and call for freedom with courage and dignity.
There is a path forward—one grounded in justice and healing. His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way Approach, calling for genuine autonomy within China, remains the most reasonable and peaceful solution.
The question is no longer whether the world believes in the Tibetan cause. It is whether the world will act.
Let this 60th anniversary not be a celebration of occupation, but a renewed call for freedom.
Let it remind the world that Tibet is not forgotten—and never will be.