Tibetans applaud and urge US bill supporting TAR as separate, independent country to include entire Tibet

DHARAMSALA, 1 June: Exiled Tibetans pro-independence groups urge the US House Representative Scott Perry from Pennsylvania to include the whole of Tibet in the bill the latter introduced in the lower house of the US Congress.

Tibetan Youth Congress and Students for a Free Tibet applauded Congressman Scott Perry for introducing H.R. 6948, which they referred to as “Free Tibet Act of 2020” that he introduced in the US House of Representative on 19 May and urged him to expand the scope of the bill to “include the whole of Tibet and not just TAR.”

“This bill represents a historic milestone for the Tibetan people who have struggled for freedom and independence from China for the last 70 years and it will go down in history as an important moment when the American people recognized Tibet’s legitimate claim to independence,” said Gonpo Dhundup, President of TYC.

While the Bill labelled (H.R. 6948) seeks to authorize the US President to recognize the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China as a separate, independent country, and for other purposes, the two largest grassroots organisation of the Tibetan freedom struggle requested Rep Scott Perry to amend the bill to “include the whole of Tibet and not just TAR” as they pointed out that the “so-called TAR was formed on 9 Sept 1965 by the Chinese Communist Party after its illegal invasion of Tibet” and that it “constitutes less than the half of the actual size of the Tibet.”

“As the Tibet movement welcomes this bill, we call on all governments and global institutions to come together in solidarity during this crisis to ensure that freedom and human rights are upheld,” said Dorjee Tseten, the Executive Director of SFT.

“We urge world governments to take immediate multilateral action against Beijing’s authoritarian rule by challenging China’s illegal occupation of Tibet and by rejecting ‘One Chine Policy’ in theory and practice. We urge other governments and leaders to take a stronger political stand when dealing with China and introduce similar bills to recognize Tibet as a separate, independent country that remains under China’s illegal occupation,” he added. 

The duo also called out “China’s initial coverup” of the COVID-19 pandemic that “brought the entire world to a standstill.

“It is clear that the Chinese government’s authoritarian practices of censorship and repression endanger people everywhere,” the NGOs said in their joint statement and added that  the international communities must reject the Chinese government’s model of surveillance and control  that Tibetan, Uyghur, Southern Mongolian, Hongkongers, Taiwanese and Cheese people have suffered under far too long, and the CCP must be held accountable for.”