On 10 March 1959 an anti-Chinese and anti-Communist popular revolt erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, which had been under the reign of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1951. One week later, the 14 th Dalai Lama, Tibet's political and spiritual leader, ºed the capital to avoid a Chinese crackdown. In the meantime, the revolt in Lhasa rapidly escalated into a full-scale rebellion. The authorities in Beijing kept the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Tibet on the defensive for ten days, but on 20 March they ordered the army to crush the rebellion. The CCP also hurriedly transferred more PLA units to Tibet from other parts of China. In subsequent weeks, the PLA ruthlessly mopped up the resistance in Lhasa and many other parts of Tibet. 1
On 28 March, Zhou Enlai, the premier of the People's Republic of China (PRC), formally announced the dissolution of the Kashag (the Tibetan local government), putting political power in Tibet into the hands of the “Preparatory Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region.” Zhou also called on the people of Tibet to “unite” in “seeking to construct a democratic and socialist new Tibet.” 2 Three days later, on 31 March, the Dalai Lama and his followers crossed the border to take refuge in northern India. By the end of May 1959, as many as 7,000 Tibetan refugees had entered India to seek asylum there, causing serious tension in SinoIndian relations—relations that until 1959 had been characterized by friendship and high-level cooperation. I
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