Sino-Tibetan War (1917/18)

1917/18 Sino-Tibetan War - China, having never accepted Tibet's independence, sent troops into eastern Tibet in 1918. This conflict is considered as a stalemate, and ended due to British diplomacy.  After Tibets declaration of independence, the status of the Eastern Tibetan provinces Amdo and Kham remained unclear. Both parts of the population wanted to be ruled from afar - neither the Gelugpa-aristocracy in the far distant Lhasa nor from the Chinese. In 1917 Chinese troops attacked Kham. The Tibetans had armed for a couple of years already and repulsed the enemy behind the river Yangtse. By persuading through British mediators, the Tibetan commander-in-chief stopped the military action so that the eastern part of Kham officially remained under Chinese rule. Obviously, the central government in Lhasa didn't want a strong military Eastern Tibet - it might have become independent.