China should not free Tibet.

Ok, first in response to your first paragraph, thanks for providing the background information, but this is irrelevant to the debate. It doesn't matter if the Chinese government is loved by it's people or it's going to be overthrown any day now. Off of your first point, I would like to see at least a URL or an author for that, so all the evidence is on the table. However, the majority of developments from "every single province in China" are used to benefit Han Chinese, rather than the Native Tibetans. According to John Powers, author of the book History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China, the Chinese have been viewed by the native Tibetans as equivalent to Nazi Germany in terms of oppression. Furthermore, the developments have in some cases been on account of prison work camps like those of Nazi Germany. According to Robert Barnett on this subject, "The most important evidence comes from an official report written to Premier Zhou Enlai in 1962 by the late Panchen Lama, then head of the Tibetan government. The report noted that 'there has been an evident and severe reduction in the present-day Tibetan population' due to the fact that "many people have been lost in battle,' 'many people were arrested and imprisoned caused large numbers of people to die abnormal deaths," and "many people died of starvation or because they were so physically weak that they could not resist minor illnesses"... In a speech delivered in 1987, the Panchen Lama estimated the number of prison deaths in Qinghai at around 5 percent of the total population in the area." This brings me to the subject of the Panchen Lama, and thus the idea that China has been smothering Tibetan Culture. In 1995, when the Panchen Lama from before the Chinese invasion died, the Chinese government appointed a new, Han Chinese boy, raised in Beijing, with no respect towards the Tibetan methods for selecting a new one. The Chinese government has now placed the boy and his family under "protective" custody. To answer your pre-empt to the cultural argument, Tibetans are still starving. On Sept 30, 2006, Chinese soldiers shot at a group of starving refugees fleeing their oppressive rule. An offical statement from the Office of Tibet says, "On September 30, Chinese border patrol fired at some 70 tired and starving Tibetans in Nangpa-la, in the Mount Everest region, as they were toiling toward Nepal to escape repression and exploitation in their homeland. A 17-year-old nun was killed on the spot, while two others were wounded; one died subsequently. Forty one escapees managed to reach Nepal. The remaining ones–many of them children aged between six and ten–were taken into custody. The incident took place in full view of a large group of foreign mountaineers, which is why the world knows about it now. And, yes, the incident has outraged the conscience of the international community. But China remains unabashed. To add insult to injury, spin doctors in Beijing have come up with a fantastic story. Beijing's official Xinhua News Agency said that the Tibetans attacked the soldiers, forcing the latter to open fire in self-defense! Earlier, Chinese diplomats in Kathmandu tracked down the foreign witnesses and made an attempt to silence them." I would like to highlight the final sentence, which shows just how far China is willing to go. As for your final sentence, the Dalai Lama has just realized how much the Chinese government wants Tibet, and is willing to compromise. He is asking for an actual autonomous region, not just the flimsy title the Chinese government has smacked on Tibet to placate the people who want to lie to themselves.