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To understand why Tibet wants independence from China one has to delve a little into its history.

Until 1959 Tibet was an independent peace loving country, as it had been for most of the previous millenniums before that time, with total independence. This is apart from the period when both China and Tibet were under the control of the Mongols. However, during the time of independence the country operated under the leadership of the Dali Lama and the Buddhist traditions. It had its own sovereignty, in that the government of the day conducted all of the country's home and foreign affairs and dealt directly with governments from other nations in the same way as any currently independent country does.

However, in 1959 all this changed virtually overnight and, in addition, with hardly a murmur from the rest of the world. This was the year when China, a country that now subscribes to the UN right of sovereignty, sent in its troops to occupy Tibet and they have remained there ever since. You might ask why no other country intervened. The answer is two fold. Firstly, there was some confusion as to whether Tibet was strictly an independent state, despite the reasons given for that status previously in this article and the second reason was, quite simply, that Tibet had no strategic importance to the main superpowers of that time. It has to be borne in mind also that China was not considered the threat that it is today.

Throughout the past half a century the Tibetan people, united under the power of the Dali Lama, have consistently called for a return of their independence. These calls have been fuelled not only by their perceived right to this claim, but also because of the way in which the people and its land has been treated since the occupation.

For example, in 2000 the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, a group of legal advisors that supports the Tibetan administration and their human and democratic rights sent two fact-finding missions to Tibet. They found that the women and children were being systematically abused. With the women, many were being forced to reduce their number of children down to one, by forced abortion if necessary, in keeping with the practice on the Chinese mainland. This is despite the fact that Tibet itself has never had a population problem. Similarly, the children were being forced through education to forget their upbringing and culture, and often encouraged to spy on their parents as the Chinese authorities sought to tighten their stranglehold on the country. Furthermore, children's health was suffering and many were found to have malnutrition. In addition to this, many of the famous and holy historical buildings were being desecrated and attempts were being made to eradicate the Buddhist religion.

However, despit all of their requests, protestations and requests made to intervene on their bahalf, the Tibetan people still remain subject to occupying forces despite the legal vailidity of their case, a validity and charter that China uphold in other situations. However, in this case of Tibet they seem to have no intention at present of honouring or respecting that charter. In the meantime, the fight for independence for Tibet continues.

Thus, to return to the original question of why Tibet wants independence from China, the answer can be found in two main reasons. Firstly, it is the fact that Tibet is and always have been an independent soveriegn state, and therefore is entitled under the UN charter to independence and secondly, it would stop the abuses that China is visiting upon the Tibetan people, which is a humanitarian reason for independence.

Source: http://www.tibet.net/en/tibbul /2000/0009/interview.html

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