The issue of human rights however including the rights of self determination and the right of the Tibetan people to maintain their own identity and autonomy are of course legitimate object of international concern regardless of Tibet status. China invaded Tibet in 1949 and 1950 and forced the then Tibetan government to sign the seventeen point agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet. They did this under the watchful eye of 40 000 armed Chinese troops and the threat of immediate occupation of the Tibetan capital Lhasa and the prospect of the total obliteration of the Tibetan state and the Tibetan culture.