Bill to Promote Peaceful Resolution to Tibet-China conflict introduced in US Congress 

DHARAMSALA, 15 July: A bipartisan legislation to strengthen the US’ policy to promote dialogue between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Dalai Lama toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Tibet and the PRC has been introduced in the US Congress.

The “Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act,”  a bill seeking to strengthen the long-standing, bipartisan US policy of promoting dialogue by ensuring that U.S. policy is based on principles of international law, and accurately reflects the nature of the conflict between Tibet and the PRC was introduced by the House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul (R-TX) and U.S. Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on Thursday, the US Foreign Affairs Committee reported.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s invasion of Tibet in 1950, and its repression of Tibetans ever since, set the stage for the CCP’s ongoing territorial aggression and human rights atrocities,” Congressman McCaul has said.  

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead has further said that China’s “attempts to steal peoples’ freedoms and rewrite history continue to threaten American values and our national security interests today” and that  “the bipartisan bill will help ensure Tibetans have a say in their own future and reject the CCP lie that their tyranny over Tibet is historically legitimate.”

Representative Jim McGovern has said that “Congress has had a long and abiding interest in a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Tibet and China.” 

“The United States government has consistently called on Chinese officials to return to dialogue, without preconditions. But that hasn’t worked. The Chinese continue to turn their backs on the Dalai Lama. Our bipartisan legislation seeks to strengthen U.S. policy by grounding it in international law and countering Chinese disinformation, with the aim of getting the two sides to negotiate a durable solution,” he concluded.

The bipartisan bill not just reaffirms US support for dialogue between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Beijing, but it also declared the Tibetan people are entitled to the right of self-determination under international law and that Tibet’s legal status remains to be determined under international law.

Additionally, it further seeks to counter Beijing’s disinformation on Tibet by directing the State Department’s Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues to ensure that US government statements and documents counter disinformation about Tibet from PRC officials.

Nine rounds of talks were held between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and representatives of China’s United Front Work Department from  2002- 2010. 

Representatives of the Dalai Lama held nine rounds of talks with China from 2002 to 2010 and in 2012, the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama resigned from their positions citing the overall deteriorating situation inside Tibet and “lack of willingness and sincerity” from the Chinese side.

Since then the dialogue was open through only informal channels.