Unrest in Tibet: Interpreting the post-2008 Wave of Protest and Conflict

Abstract

This article examines the post-2008 wave of ethnic unrest in Tibet. It discusses different interpretations of the unrest, from political and academic perspectives. Te article explains how Chinese Communist Party interpretations of the unrest are rooted in revolutionary ideology and how this has led to a stiffening of security measures. Te article also compares the different scholarly approaches to interpreting Tibetan grievances and the causes of the current wave of unrest. Te article argues that there is evidence of significant inter-generational and demographic variation in the sources of grievances among the Tibetan population in China, and advocates for greater scholarly sensitivity to such differences. Show more