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Former Tibet chief negotiator speaks on 17-article agreement  |
The 17-article agreement signed 50 years ago between the Central government and the then local government of Tibet laid the foundation for the peaceful liberation of Tibet. But 50 years hasn't erased the doubts about the agreement from the minds of some of the Western media. They still question whether the agreement was forced onto Tibetan people and wonder if the negotiations were freely accepted by the local Tibetan authority. CCTV recently interviewed the former Tibetan chief negotiator Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme who had taken an active part in the event. He told us how the agreement was originally worked out.
At age 92, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme is now a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He can still recollect details on how the 17-article agreement came about and was signed.
Ngapoi rejects the notion that the agreement is illegal.
Ngapoi said that before Tibet's liberation, he joined other 40 local officials and wrote a letter to the then Tibetan authority, urging talks with Beijing.
He and four others were appointed by Dalai Lama to the mission, and Dalai told him to make his own decision in case any problems arose.
NGAPOI NGAWANG JIGME, CPPCC vice chairman, former Tibet Chief Negotiator said,"We did have a problem. the Central Government proposed that the role and authority of Dailai and Panchan should be stated in the agreement, we didn't want it. Then we had a deadlock."
Ngapoi said that Beijing representatives later came out with a series of plans acceptable to them, and they agreed. There were heated debates, Ngapoi said, but everything worked out fine after about 20 days of negotiations.
LIAO LIANG, CCTV.
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