Someone else in the thread has already made the comparison to native Americans but I'll paraphrase your comment in light of that: The Native Americans were sov

Someone else in the thread has already made the comparison to native Americans but I'll paraphrase your comment in light of that: The Native Americans were sovereign countries for hundreds of years until they were invaded. Their land is currently occupied against their will. If someone believes Native American land to still be an occupied country rather than a part of United States it wouldn't be accurate to call native Americans a minority. The timing matches too: the Chinese ended Tibetan independence in around 1720, around the same time European settlers conquered Native Americans.