Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

This paper examines how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has incorporated the provision regarding the right to self-determination in its domestic legal and constitutional instruments. In international norms, the meaning of the right to self-determination has evolved from the right to secession to the right to inclusion within State. This understanding has made, at least, in principle, the concept of political secession irrelevant. The PRC government has developed legal and constitutional frameworks endorsing the right of indigenous peoples to autonomy, to internally allow them to exercise the right to self-determination. Despite this normative development, indigenous peoples are not satisfied with the implementation of autonomy provision in Tibet. They continue to demand the implementation of the international provisions on the right to self-determination, by providing them ‘genuine autonomy’ in indigenous territories. But the government dismisses this demand as a design for secession, stressing that already autonomy provisions are sufficient to allow indigenous peoples to let them exist as distinct communities, and pursue social, economic, political and cultural development. In this background, this paper investigates- why does the PRC government hesitate to implement the provision regarding the right to self-determination in Tibet? It argues that the PRC government is reluctant to implement the right of indigenous peoples to self-determination due to fear of secession. It thus responds to international provision by devising strategies that project the PRC in good international image and neutralize the risk of secession. In other words, it respects autonomy in principle, and rejects its implementation in practice.