Did India instigate the Dalai Lama to flee Tibet and seek sanctuary there? Was the 1959 Tibetan uprising the result of India’s behind the scenes maneuvers to put China on the backfoot in Tibet?
This narrative is probably familiar to the Chinese Communist Party’s domestic audience. Now, courtesy CGTN (China Global TV Network) that domestic narrative is going international backed by rare black and white video of China’s Tibet invasion, Nehru’s conversations with the Dalai Lama, the visit of Premier Zhou En-Lai to India and so on, all with English commentary.
The video titled “The Dalai Lama’s Flight to India” was uploaded by CGTN on 8th Feb 2026 on YouTube. (Screenshot below)
Let’s look at the timing behind the video. Why this video now? As always China’s intentions are opaque. It was released on the occasion of Losar, the Tibetan New Year, which in itself doesn’t add much.
Did Beijing see a need to beat the drum after an audiobook titled Meditations voiced by the Dalai Lama, won a Grammy for best audiobook narration? Witness China’s state media going to town after the US Justice Department released documents linking the Tibetan spiritual leader with the Epstein Files. Notwithstanding denials by the Tibetan government in exile that the two had ever met, the Chinese continued with their campaign.
Now we come to the video on the Dalai Lama’s flight to India in 1959. The video highlights the 17-point Agreement of May 1951, which the Tibetan spiritual leader made to sign ceding control of his country to the Chinese. Four months later PLA troops moved into Lhasa in force.
The video claims that the local Tibetan government agreed to assist the People’s Liberation Army and highlights a telegram reportedly sent by the Dalai Lama to Mao Zedong expressing cooperation. The video begs the question as to why the Dalai Lama would assist the Chinese in enslaving his own countrymen.
The video then leaps to 1956, when the Dalai Lama meets Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi. It hints sinisterly at “outside separatist forces” that influenced the Tibetan leader. Apparently Nehru is one such leader.
The film then quotes from his 1962 autobiography, My Land and My People, where he reflects on the Tibetan resistance group Chushi Gangdruk. It shows the line, “Part of me greatly admired the guerrilla fighters.” Based on that, CGTN concludes Nehru got the Tibetan leader to throw his support behind the Tibetans fighting the Chinese occupation of their land.
That the unrest in Tibet became stronger after the Dalai Lama’s return from Delhi is proof, CGTN claims, of India’s so called “perfidy”. India granted asylum to the Dalai Lama in 1959 after the uprising collapsed. Can any of this be true? China is not known to speak the truth when vital national interests are involved.
But it does underscore that while China’s control over Tibet may be iron-fisted, Tibetans want freedom from Beijing’s yoke. That is the big story behind this Chinese video story.
