Dharamshala: The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)—the administration in exile based in India—believes that the strong bipartisan support it enjoys in the US will not change under the incoming administration of Donald Trump.
Its minister of the Department of Information and International Relations, Norzin Dolma said Wednesday that they were not concerned about the “strength and consistency” of support from Washington D.C., regardless of the change in leadership.
“Support for Tibet is bipartisan and bicameral. The support has even been legislated upon by the US Congress. It is incumbent on the US to act on the Resolve Tibet Act,” said Dolma in an interaction with media personnel here.
The minister added: “The changing global order would only expand awareness about the Tibetan cause. The growing awareness would help in achieving the ‘Middle Way’ policy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which looks after the interests of both Tibet and China.”
The CTA was set up in April 1959 after the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa for India following China’s suppression of the Tibetan uprising a month earlier. It looks after the administration and welfare of roughly 150,000 Tibetans living in exile across 130 countries. A large number of Tibetans, close to 80,000, live in India.
The Dalai Lama formulated the ‘Middle Way’ policy, which seeks meaningful autonomy for Tibet within China, including in areas of religion, culture, education and the environment. One of Tibet’s largest supporters has been the US, where a number of acts have been passed and signed into law with regards to its “conflict” with China.
The latest was the Resolve Tibet Act, signed into law by US President Joe Biden most recently on 12 July, 2024.
“I share the Congress’s bipartisan commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans and supporting efforts to preserve their distinct linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage. My administration will continue to call on the People’s Republic of China to resume direct dialogue, without preconditions, with the Dalai Lama, or his representatives, to seek a settlement that resolves differences and leads to a negotiated agreement on Tibet,” Biden said in a statement after signing the bill into law.
US support for Tibet
The US recognises Tibet as a part of China, but under the new law, the Department of State will be allowed to fund Tibetan non-governmental organisations to counter misinformation regarding the history and culture of the Tibetan people.
In June this year, a bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Michael McCaul, visited the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala just before the bill was signed into law.
China slammed US lawmakers over the Resolve Tibet Act, saying that it firmly opposed the anti-China “separatist activities” by the “Dalai group”. It also strongly protested the June meetings.
Beijing has reacted aggressively to previous meetings between US officials and the Dalai Lama, going so far as to threaten Washington with repercussions before a meeting between the spiritual leader and then president Barack Obama in 2010. Obama met with the Dalai Lama multiple times during his two terms in office.
Trump, in his first term, was the first US president not to have met with the Dalai Lama in over three decades. Biden, too, had promised a meeting with the Nobel Peace Prize winner during his run for office in 2020, but did not manage it in his four years in the White House.
Earlier this year, the Dalai Lama travelled to the US for a medical procedure, but there was no scheduled meeting with Biden.
“His Holiness needed time to rest, recover and recuperate following his medical procedure in the US. It was not conducive for a meeting between President Biden and His Holiness during this period,” Dolma explained during the interaction with the media.
The CTA minister added: “Both Trump and Biden as presidents have signed into law acts in support of Tibet. They have shown strong commitment to the cause of Tibet.”
In December 2020, Trump signed the Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA), which said only the Dalai Lama and his followers could decide on the issue of succession of the religious leader, and not the Chinese government.
Furthermore, the law stated that until a US consulate was opened in Lhasa, Tibet, no further Chinese consulates would be given authorisation to open in America.
This reporter was in Dharamshala at the invitation of the India-Tibet Coordination Office.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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