Chinese official: Erase Tibetan identity

BEIJING, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- A Communist Party leader has asked the Chinese Parliament to erase Tibetans' separate identity from government documents and identity cards.

Zhu Weiqun, deputy director of the party's United Front Work Department, said that giving Tibetans recognition as an ethnic minority encourages unrest, The Times of India reported. He argued that identifying them as Chinese would help build a sense of national cohesion.

Tibet has gone through periods of being part of China. The most recent began in 1950 when the new communist government in Beijing declared Tibet an autonomous area and then incorporated it into China in 1959 after the Dalai Lama went into exile.

Most recently, 20 Tibetans have taken their own lives by setting themselves on fire to protest Chinese policy.