Quote Originally Posted by BDC
Because the millions of Chinese people about to pour into Tibet on the completion of a direct railway link won't obliterate it? Oh wait, they will. And one of the most interesting cultures in the world will be crushed by one which destroyed its own in the Cultural Revolution.

How can you possibly think that? Have you ever been there?
Because I'm Canadian. I live in a country with litteraly millions of culturally french citizens. A unique twist on french culture that dates back 400 years. A culture that still exists as a distinctive group despite over 200 years of it trying to be erased and intgrated into the english derived majority.

Now the PRC (and when I say PRC I mean the government) is trying to dilute Tibetan resistance to their rule and their uniqueness by trucking in Han by the train load. And it will probably work. If the PRC can rig it so that their are as many or more Han than Tibetans in Tibet then they can hold on to the place indefinatly. It's the smart thing to do, it's what I'd do in their place.