A bus carrying foreign journalists on a government tour passes portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and former leaders Jiang Zemin, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Hu Jintao at a checkpoint in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China, on 14 October 2020. File photo/Reuters/Thomas Peter
Reuters Staff | Reuters
WASHINGTON/BEIJING, 15 October 2020
China accused the United States on Thursday of seeking to destabilise Tibet, after the Trump administration appointed a senior human rights official as special coordinator for Tibetan issues.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that Robert Destro, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, would assume the additional post, which has been vacant since the start of President Donald Trump’s term in 2017.
China has consistently refused to deal with the US coordinator, seeing it as interference in its internal affairs.
“Tibet affairs are China’s internal affairs that allow no foreign interference,” said Zhao Lijian, a spokesman at the Chinese foreign ministry.
“The setting up of the so-called coordinator for Tibetan issues is entirely out of political manipulation to interfere in China’s internal affairs and destabilise Tibet. China firmly opposes that,” Zhao said at a regular media briefing.
The appointment comes at a time when US-China relations have sunk to the lowest point in decades over a range of issues, including trade, Taiwan, human rights, the South China Sea and the coronavirus.
Destro “will lead US efforts to promote dialogue between the People’s Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives; protect the unique religious, cultural, and linguistic identity of Tibetans; and press for their human rights to be respected,” Pompeo said in a statement.
China seized control over Tibet in 1950 in what it describes as a “peaceful liberation” that helped the remote Himalayan region throw off its “feudalist” past.
“People of all ethnic groups in Tibet are part of the big family of the Chinese nation, and since its peaceful liberation, Tibet has had prosperous economic growth,” Zhao said.
Everyone in Tibet enjoyed religious freedom and their rights were fully respected, he added.
But critics, led by exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, say Beijing’s rule amounts to “cultural genocide.”
In July, Pompeo said the United States would restrict visas for some Chinese officials involved in blocking diplomatic access to Tibet and engaging in “human rights abuses,” adding that Washington supported “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet.
Despite that, Trump – unlike his predecessor Barack Obama – has not met the Dalai Lama during his presidency.
The independence of Tibet is not only for the preservation of the unique Tibetan culture, religion and language but its also for peace in Asia. Owing to the illegal occupation of Tibet by communist China, the two most populous countries are on a verge of war at this very moment.
If Tibet had remained independent, there would never have been the 1962 war nor there would be the present stalemate between the two antagonists. There are reportedly 8000 Chinese troops on the Tibetan border and an equal number of Indian troops facing each other.
Most disturbingly, the historically open Indo-Tibet border is being militarized by the Chinese with observation posts on the rims of the mountains, mounted with cameras and electronic sensors. Now, the peaceful border between Tibet and India has become a military zone and flash point for conflict.
This is not in the interest of Asia nor the two protagonists. Therefore, in order to bring peace in Asia and the two warring parties, world powers must reinstate the independent Tibet that was the historical buffer between India and China. This is only solution.
Tibet has been perennially independent and Chinese claims to Tibet are as spurious as its claim to South China Sea. India should man up and take the lead and the US and its allies will follow suit.
After all, it was the spineless and gullible Indian leaders who let down the Tibetan people and with it seriously endangered their own national security. Unless and until Tibet is liberated, India faces the greatest existential threat in its history from two nuclear powered countries who are both colluding for the destruction of India.
The Chinese are incrementally attempting wrest Ladakh and Arunachal from India while Pakistan is trying to wrest Kashmir from India.