The evolution of the «Tibetan question» in the US foreign policy and its impact on the Sino-American relations (1949–2018).

Galyna Mingazutdinova, PhD (history), Historian of the Research Department (history department), Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv

Abstract.

The article touches upon shaping the “Question of Tibet” within the framework of the U.S. foreign policy in XXth – early XXIst centuries. It is defined that in the early XXth century and in late 1940s, Tibet in fact presented an independent entity which held international communication with the most significant countries of the West. However, regardless of having the experience of international relations with Tibet, neither the UK nor the USA expressed the desire to recognize the independence of the former. In the next decades to come, this double-standard attitude would establish the basis for the Tibet’s uncertain position on the political map and in international relations. Special attention is paid to the efforts made by the Tibetan government in exile aimed to effect contact with the USA and the West and to describe the actual situation of the Tibetans under the rule of the Communist party. It is explored that during the years 1949 – 2018 the US policy towards Tibet was and remains deeply dependent from the China’s level of political influence and economic impact worldwide. The contemporary situation of the Tibetan question for the USA might be resumed as a situational stranglehold against the Chinese influence to push on human rights issues. It is concluded, based upon the American scholars’ in Tibetan studies works and the Tibetan dissidents’ confessions, that the current condition of the Tibetan culture and heritage, human rights record etc. under China’s rule remains under strict control of Beijing and causes serious concerns.

Key words: Tibet, the USA, China, international relations, human rights, national self-determination, Dalai Lama XIV.

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DOI http://doi.org/10.17721/2521-1706.2018.05.72-85