Context and question: Elliot Sperling, a specialist of Indian studies and the director of the Tibetan Studies program at Indiana University's Department of Central Eurasia Studies, writes that "the idea that Tibet became part of China in the 13th century is a very recent construction." He writes that Chinese writers of the early 20th century were of the view that Tibet was not annexed by China until the Manchu Qing dynasty invasion during the 18th century. He also states that Chinese writers of the early 20th century described Tibet as a feudal dependency of China, not an integral part of it. Sperling states that this is because "Tibet was ruled as such, within the empires of the Mongols and the Manchus" and also that "China's intervening Ming dynasty ... had no control over Tibet." He writes that the Ming relationship with Tibet is problematic for China's insistence of its unbroken sovereignty over Tibet since the 13th century. As for the Tibetan view that Tibet was never subject to the rule of the Yuan or Qing emperors of China, Sperling also discounts this by stating that Tibet was "subject to rules, laws and decisions made by the Yuan and Qing rulers" and that even Tibetans described themselves as subjects of these emperors.
Since what century has Sperling described Ming and Tibet's relation being problematic for China?
Answer: the 13th century
Context and question: The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR; Russian: , tr. Rossiyskaya Sovetskaya Federativnaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika listen (helpinfo)) commonly referred to as Soviet Russia or simply as Russia, was a sovereign state in 191722, the largest, most populous, and most economically developed republic of the Soviet Union in 192291 and a sovereign part of the Soviet Union with its own legislation in 199091. The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group. To the west it bordered Finland, Norway and Poland; and to the south, China, Mongolia and North Korea whilst bordering the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Black sea and Caspian Sea to the south. Within the USSR, it bordered the Baltic republics (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), the Byelorussian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR to the west. To the south it bordered the Georgian, Azerbaijan and Kazakh SSRs.
How many autonomous oblasts were part of the RSFSR?
Answer: five
Context and question: On 26 February 2012, The Sun on Sunday was launched to replace the closed News of the World, employing some of its former journalists. In late 2013, it was given a new look, with a new typeface. The average circulation for The Sun on Sunday in March 2014 was 1,686,840; but in May 2015 The Mail on Sunday sold more copies for the first time, an average of 28,650 over those of its rival: 1,497,855 to 1,469,195. Roy Greenslade issued some caveats over the May 2015 figures, but believes the weekday Daily Mail will overtake The Sun in circulation during 2016.
Which newspaper did the The Sun on Sunday take the place of?
Answer:
News of the World