The treatment of Tibetans everywhere—in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and in Kham and Amdo, the traditional provinces of Tibet—is the same. If you look at the protest in 2008, it was in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, all the way to Amdo, which is mainly in Qinghai and part of Gansu, and the Kham area, which is mainly in Sichuan and Yunnan. It was widespread. Even the self-immolators have been in Quinghai and Zhuang, and in the Gansu area as well.
Now as far as the definition of Tibet is concerned, the Chinese government tries to create confusion by saying “Oh, Tibet is only the Tibet Autonomous Region, not other areas.” The response is very simple. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was born in Amdo, which is presently in Qinghai. My late father was from Lithang, which is presently in Sichuan. If you go by the definition of the Chinese government, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and my late father are not Tibetans.
If you go by article 4 of the Chinese constitution, it clearly says that wherever “minorities” are living in concentrated communities, the autonomous region can be established. Now, we often say that China does not have the rule of law, but as far as that provision is concerned, they followed it quite effectively. That's because 99% of Uyghurs live in the Qinghai Autonomous Region and 95% of Zhuang live in the Zhuang Autonomous Region. Almost 60% of Hui live in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Huis are Chinese Muslims who are scattered in 10 different provinces. They have done a fine gerrymandering to carve out the Xinjiang Autonomous Region for Hui people. Inner Mongolia has around 50% of Mongolians living in one area. They were granted a Mongolian autonomous region because they were nomads. They're scattered in four different provinces.
It's only Tibetans who live in one area, one geographical area, which is called the Tibetan Plateau. It is recognized by Chinese media and Chinese policies as the Tibetan Plateau. Nowadays, when they have meetings on Tibet, they call all the Tibetan leaders, the Tibetan cadres, from the Tibetan Plateau. In effect, they recognize the Tibetan Plateau as Tibet. On the one hand, they call it the Tibet Autonomous Region, but all the adjoining areas they call Tibetan prefectures and Tibetan counties. So in effect the Chinese government does recognize all of the Tibetan Plateau as one Tibetan entity. It's just that geographically they have divided into five different provinces and administratively they have divided into five different administrative regions. Our argument is that from an administrative point of view, it is not effective and not efficient to have five different administrative structures for the same people with the same culture, and even the same economy and geography. The definition of Tibet administration is that Tibet is a traditional Tibet.
The Chinese government has come up with the argument that if you look at the map of China, the traditional Tibet constitutes almost one-fourth of China. That's a huge tract of land, so Tibetans can claim such a large tract of land in China. But if you look at the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, which is one-sixth of China, they have already granted one-sixth of China as the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, and almost one-ninth of China is the Mongolia Autonomous Region. It's only the Tibetan area that is divided into six different provinces, in violation of article 4 of the Chinese constitution and the Minority Nationality Act of 1984.
Our definition of Tibet is very much in sync with the Chinese constitution and their own implementation as far as the Xinjiang Autonomous Region is concerned. Demographically, where 90% to 95% of the population live in one area, it's only Tibetans where more than 50% are outside of the Tibet Autonomous Region, in violation of their own constitution.