Uzra Zeya urges China to resume dialogue with Dalai Lama as she signs off as Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues
By Tenzin Chokyi

DHARAMSALA, 14 Jan: Uzra Zeya, the US Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, urged China to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama and his representatives without any preconditions in her departure speech as she concluded her tenure as the Under Secretary of the US and as US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues on Saturday.
“It has been 14 years since the last round of dialogues between the PRC government and the Dalai Lama and his representatives” and further maintained that “a long-term negotiated agreement is best for the region’s stability and the US will “continue to urge the PRC government to resume dialogue with his holiness the Dalai Lama and his representatives without preconditions,” she says in a video message.
The Special Coordinator asserted, “US and international community support for Tibetan is more important than ever”, and expressed her gratitude and honour to have the unique opportunity to work as the US special coordinator for Tibetan issues since 2021.
She proclaimed that the US will continue to support the Tibetan freedom movement “until meaningful autonomy is reached; until Tibetans everywhere are free to exercise their fundamental freedoms; until Tibetans can practice their faith, language, and traditions freely”.
During her tenure, the US took unprecedented actions against the PRC’s systematic repression in Tibet, including, the first-ever Tibet-related Global Magnitsky sanctions in December 2022, targeting PRC officials responsible for human rights abuses in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR), and the first-ever restriction on PRC officials involved in the forcible assimilation of more than one million Tibetan children in government-run boarding schools.
Her appeal for Beijing to resume talks with the Dalai Lama comes at a critical juncture, as China shows mounting resistance to engaging with both the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration through the Middle Way Approach – which seeks genuine autonomy under Chinese sovereignty – while intensifying its colonial project alongside its rising influence in global politics.
From 1982 to 2010, Tibetan and Chinese representatives held nine rounds of discussions aimed at resolving the Sino-Tibetan conflict. The ninth and last round of talks was held in 2010, and in 2012, the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama resigned from their positions citing the overall deteriorating situation inside Tibet and a “lack of willingness and sincerity” from the Chinese side.
Zeya firmly emphasised that “Cultural preservation is ever more important in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s unrelenting efforts to distort Tibetan’s rich history, religious institutions and tradition”. She noted that the US had allocated $82 million in collaboration with USAID to support programs aimed at helping the Tibetan community preserve their unique culture and identity.