Author:  Warren W. Smith Warren W. Smith has a PhD in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is the author of 'Tibetan Nation: A History of Tibetan Nationalism and Sino-Tibetan Relations'; 'China’s Tibet? Autonomy or Assimilation' and 'Tibet’s Last Stand? The Uprising of 2008'. He is currently a writer with the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia.

The history of Tibet under Chinese Communist rule is not exactly parallel to other countries or peoples that are or were “victims of Communism.” Tibet is primarily a victim of China and only secondarily of Communism of the Chinese variety. All previous Chinese regimes claimed sovereignty over Tibet; but it was only the Chinese Communists who were finally able to impose actual Chinese control and administration there. Tibet was a victim of Communist ideology and political methods in that the Chinese Communists used Marxist-Leninist ideology to justify their “liberation” of Tibet and they used Communist methods of political control to enforce their conquest and subjugation of Tibet.