Fifty years after being invaded by Chinese troops in 1949, Tibet is still experiencing repression and violence on the part of Chinese occupying forces. According to Amnesty International reports, human-rights violations such as ill-treatment of prisoners and torture are widespread in Tibet. Even those prisoners who are not tortured have to endure conditions that are cruel, inhuman and degrading, such as compulsory and hard labor, inadequate diet, lack of medical care and unsanitary environment. Only unrelenting international pressure can offer hope for a change in the situation.

The Tibetan government in exile, headed by the Dalai Lama, has insisted that Tibet has been under illegal Chinese occupation since China invaded the independent state in 1949. However, the People's Republic of China states that its relation with Tibet is a purely internal affair, on the grounds that 700 years ago Tibet became an integral part of China and has remained part of China since then. Although it is true that in the past some Manchu emperors exercised influence over Tibet, Tibet was never fully incorporated into the Manchu empire, or into China. Until the Chinese invasion, it had conducted its relations with neighboring states mostly on its own.

At the time of the start of the Chinese invasion in 1949, Tibet possessed all the attributes of statehood that are accepted under international law: a territory, people inhabiting that territory, and a government able to maintain international relationships. Tibet also had at the time its own head of state and system of government, judicial system, currency, Foreign Office and armed forces. During World War II -- and despite strong pressure from Britain, the United States and China to allow passage of military equipment -- Tibet remained neutral, a situation respected by other powers. After Chinese People's Liberation Army defeated the small Tibetan Army, the Chinese government imposed a "17-point agreement for the peaceful liberation of Tibet" on the Tibetan government in May 1951. That agreement was void from the beginning because it was signed under duress. At the first opportunity to do so freely, the Dalai Lama repudiated the agreement after his escape to India in 1959.