redstar:

Each time I hear of Tibet in the Western press, and its relationship to Beijing, I wonder what an autonomous or an independent Tibet would look like. Or in particular, would have looked like had it not been liberated by the People's Liberation Army shortly after the revolution.

Looking into this a bit it appears that the annexation of Tibet occurred in two stages. One in 1950/51 which was essentially "peaceful" but which it is a little strange to describe as "liberation" since it left the Dalai Lama in place as an authority in what is now the Tibet Autonomous Region. Then in 1958/59 there was a revolt in the provinces of Kham and Amdo in Northeastern Tibet outside the TAR which spread to Lhasa and resulted in a heavy-handed crackdown by China and the exile of the Dalai Lama. This second stage may have been a "liberation" but it wasn't "peaceful".

It'd be nice if the battle were only against the right wingers, not half of the left on top of that — François in Paris