| Summary/Abstract |
Little thought has been given to the possibility that China’s repressive Tibet policy could be driven largely by its fear of external forces, as opposed to the government’s authoritarian nature. This article tries to explain why it was only in 1994 that Chinese authorities seriously and systematically strengthened religious control in Tibet. This had been put in place during the 1987–89 protests but never effectively enforced. The key is the Chinese leaders’ perception of external threats in the post-Tiananmen era, which prompted Chinese authorities to believe that instead of being mostly an ethnic nuisance, Tibetan separatism—utilizing Tibetan Buddhism as a “weapon”—had become a “tool” wielded by “hostile Western forces” seeking ultimately to break up China.
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