Tibet a Functioning State

Before the Chinese Communist invasion of 1950 Tibet was a fully functioning and independent state. It threatened none of its neighbors, fed its population unfailingly, year after year, with no help from the outside world. Tibet owed no money to any country or international institutions, and maintained basic law and order. Tibet banned capital punishment in 1913 (mentioned by a number of foreign travelers1) and was one of the first countries in the world to do so. There is no record of it persecuting minorities (e.g. Muslims2) or massacring sections of its population from time to time as China and some other countries do – remember Tiananmen. Although its frontiers with India, Nepal and Bhutan were completely unguarded, virtually no Tibetan fled their country as economic or political refugees. There was not a single Tibetan immigrant in the USA or Europe before the Communist invasion.