The political and cultural status of Tibet remains a difficult issue in U.S.-China relations, and appropriate U.S. actions continue to generate debate among U.S. policymakers. Controversy continues over Tibet's current political status as part of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the role of the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan government-in-exile, and the impact of Chinese control on Tibetan culture and religious traditions. These controversies have prompted recurring U.S. congressional actions in support of Tibet's status and traditions—actions that are routinely denounced by the Chinese government in Beijing. This report consists of three free-standing parts: the first discusses current issues in Tibet, including the March 2008 Chinese crackdown against demonstrations in Lhasa and elsewhere; the second briefly reviews Tibet's historical and political status with respect to China—a basic source of controversy in many Sino-Tibetan problems; and the third reviews and analyzes U.S. relations with and congressional actions toward Tibet since the 1980s, including legislative initiatives. On March 10, 2008, a series of demonstrations began in Lhasa and elsewhere in Tibetan regions of China to mark the 49 th anniversary of an unsuccessful Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Although reports differ on the details, the 2008 demonstrations appeared to begin peacefully with a small group demonstrating in the Barkhor Plaza in front of the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa. According to one report, the protestors at this event were arrested, and Buddhist monks from the Drepung, Sera, and Ganden monasteries around Lhasa then began protesting the arrests. These demonstrations also were contained by security forces. Both the protests and the response of the PRC authorities escalated in the ensuing days, spreading out from the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and into parts of Sichuan, Gansu, and Qinghai Provinces that are populated by Tibetans. By the afternoon of March 14, 2008, in the absence of an apparent response by PRC security forces, mobs of angry people were burning and looting businesses and other establishments in downtown Lhasa. Although official Chinese reports later stated that large caches of weapons had been found in Lhasa's monasteries, a special report shown on China's official state television, China Central Television (CCTV) showed no weapons being used by protesters other than fists, rocks, and the occasional knife. The CCTV report began its account of the protests with the violence on March 14, when rioters began rampaging in Lhasa; the television account made no mention of any peaceful protests or arrests in the preceding days. Reports differ on the numbers and identities of those killed during the initial demonstrations. By March 31, 2008, official PRC sources reportedly claimed that 18 had died, while the Tibetan government-in-exile reportedly claimed 140 had died. Based on numerous and sometimes sketchy reports, the dead included both Tibetans and ethnic Han Chinese merchants, some of the former reportedly having been shot by police, and some of the latter reportedly having died in their establishments in fires set by the mob. According to news reports, on March 16, 2008, the TAR government declared a "people's war" in Tibet—a term from revolutionary Maoism—ostensibly to eradicate support for the Dalai Lama and stamp out the aspirations of some Tibetans for independence. The demonstrations have resulted in a greatly enhanced presence of PRC security forces in Tibetan areas. By some reports, security forces beginning in late March conducted house-to-house searches for those that may have been involved in the demonstrations. According to one report, Burma turned over to China two Tibetan political activists who were said to have fled into Burma from China's Yunnan Province after demonstrations there. Although Beijing has sealed off Tibet to tourists and foreign reporters (with the exception of a few selected groups of journalists), sketchy reports suggest that isolated demonstrations in Tibetan areas of China have recurred despite the enhanced security presence. March is one of the two months (the other being October) that are especially—and for many Tibetans, unhappily—symbolic months of Chinese rule. March 10 marks the anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising in 1959, and October 7 marks the anniversary of the PRC invasion of Tibet in 1950. Outside China, Tibetan groups proceeded with other commemorations of the 1959 Tibetan National Uprising. As he has for many years on the anniversary date, the Dalai Lama gave a speech in which he expressed fear for the welfare of the Tibetan people and criticized the Chinese government for "unimaginable and gross violations of human rights, denial of religious freedom, and the politicization of religious issues." He used the occasion of the speech also to reiterate his support for Beijing's hosting of the August 2008 Olympic Games, and to urge Tibetans to work "peacefully and within the law" to ensure their legitimate rights as citizens of the PRC. On the same date, other Tibetan exiles began a protest march into Tibet from Dharamsala, India, reportedly to increase pressure on Beijing to improve the situation in Tibet. A new Tibetan activist grouping appeared to begin on January 4, 2008, when five Tibetan organizations outside China launched the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement (TPUM) to engage in "direct action to end China's illegal and brutal occupation of [Tibet]." The organization announced that it was seeking to take advantage of two approaching historic moments: the Beijing Olympics in August 2008 and the coming 50 th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Among the group's stated demands are: the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet as its sole leader; the end of China's "colonial occupation" of Tibet; release of all Tibetan political prisoners and restoration of religious and human rights to Tibetans; and cancellation of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Controversy also has been generated by reports of differing media coverage of the March demonstrations in Tibet, with PRC officials charging that western media coverage has been biased. On March 21, 2008, a PRC web log, with disturbingly inflammatory language, was established purporting to show this media bias. The site reproduces videos shot by observers in Lhasa showing the violence of the riots; discusses news photos cropped in ways some say are misleading; and cites errors in news stories, captions, and photos in which police in Nepal and India, roughing up Tibetan demonstrators, appear with written descriptions of PRC police actions in Lhasa. Tibetan supporters counter that PRC accounts make no mention of the days of peaceful demonstrations preceding the riots, and that Chinese press reports focus on reportage of the Han Chinese victims to the riots. Official PRC reports routinely refer to diverse Tibetan organizations outside Tibet as the "Dalai clique," reflecting their belief that all these groups are controlled and directed by the Dalai Lama, and thereby represent his views and effectively are acting on his behalf. The PRC has alleged that the agenda of some of these groups proves that the Dalai Lama has never renounced his dream of an independent Tibet. (In recent years, the Dalai Lama has advocated greater autonomy for Tibet within China, but not formal independence from the PRC.) The PRC's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) asserted that it "had gathered sufficient evidence" showing that the March 2008 unrest in Lhasa and elsewhere "was organized, premeditated, masterminded and instigated by the Dalai clique and its 'Tibet independence' forces." According to a PRC official, "The [Lhasa] incident has once more exposed the separatist essence and the hypocrisy and deceitfulness of the alleged "peace" and "nonviolence" of the Dalai clique." Two decades ago, the PRC used similar language to refer to the widespread demonstrations in Tibet from 1987-1989: "We have conclusive evidence to show that the Lhasa riot early this month was instigated and engineered by the Dalai Separatist clique." Other PRC references to the Dalai Lama have been more venomous. On March 18, 2008, the Communist Party Secretary of Tibet called the Dalai Lama "a jackal and wolf clothed in [a monk's robes], and a vicious devil who is a beast in human form." Supporters of Tibet point out that the international Tibetan movement is not as monolithic as PRC officials claim. They say that some Tibetan organizations, including those in the TPUM, do not support the Dalai Lama's policy of seeking broader Tibetan autonomy under Chinese sovereignty. As for the March 2008 demonstrations, the Dalai Lama has denied that he is behind them, saying: I ... appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people. I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence. Those who have met the Dalai Lama personally or who know something of his pacifist views generally find it impossible to reconcile their own experiences of him with the deviousness and malign intent that PRC officials generally ascribe to him in public statements. To Western audiences, the Dalai Lama's adoption of a "middle way" approach indicates he has given up his aspirations of independence for Tibet (despite the contrary views of a pro-independence wing in the international Tibetan community) and instead is seeking only greater autonomy for Tibet as part of the PRC. In his speech at the Congressional Gold Medal Award Ceremony in October 2007, for instance, the Dalai Lama said "... let me take this opportunity to restate categorically that I am not seeking independence. I am seeking a meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people within the People's Republic of China."