50. That’s the number of years Tibet has been under Chinese government rule. 6,000. The number of approximate number of monasteries destroyed as a result of the Chinese occupation. 54. The rising percentage of Han Chinese currently residing in Tibet. Why has the problem in Tibet persisted for so long? The history of human rights violations in China is not one easily forgotten. From the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet and Chinese authorities in 1959 to the peaceful protests that resulted in innocent casualties in spring of 2009, the Tibet issue has always served a prime example of some of the human rights violations in the modern world. The fact is, before the arrival of the Chinese in 1949, Tibet was already an established nation with a government, language, and legal system. (Free Tibet Paragraph 1) The Chinese, upon their arrival, had believed that Tibet was meant to be theirs; something like the “manifest destiny” of China. The primary issue, here, is Tibetan independence. Once Tibetan political independence has been achieved, basic human rights will follow. Today, the Tibetan dilemma has hardly come to a conclusion. Tibet was unfairly conquered by China. Without reason, the peaceful people of Tibet, with their overflowing culture, have been put under arbitrary Han rule. The Chinese presence in Tibet has been the primary obstacle to Tibetan independence and further autonomy and the source of a suppression of religion, and various other human rights violations, including torture and restrictions on basic freedoms. With the Dalai Lama’s decision to ‘let the people decide’ (Masters paragraph 3), the Chinese government’s attempt to control information availability in China and religious authorities, and international protest against Chinese treatment of Tibetan monks, an easy conclusion seems no where in sight.