Dharamshala, 27th July: A senior US legislator has said that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Tibet last week is a threat to India, accusing the Joe Biden-led government of failing to do more to stop the Chinese “march.” Xi went on an unannounced three-day trip to Nyingchi, Tibet, near the Arunachal Pradesh border, on Wednesday. Xi, who is also the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, met with top Tibet Military Command officials and evaluated regional development initiatives.
Devin Nunes, a Republican congressman, said in an interview with Fox News: “Just last week, you had Xi Jinping, the Chinese dictator, on the border with India, in Tibet, claiming victory. This was the first time in 30 years, I believe, that a Chinese dictator had been to Tibet, and also threatening India, over a billion people also a nuclear power; threatening India that he’s going to build a big water project, possibly cut off water to India.”
“So, no matter what you plug into the propaganda machine, you can build all the narratives you want here in Washington, D.C., but then there’s reality. The reality is that the Chinese are on the march, and the (President Joe) Biden administration is letting them do whatever they want,” Nunes added. Nunes is a prominent Republican in the House of Representatives who represents California’s 42nd congressional district. From 2015 to 2019, he was the chairman of the influential House Intelligence Committee.
Xi went to the Nyang River Bridge during his visit to Nyingchi to observe the ecological preservation in the Brahmaputra river basin, which is known in Tibetan as Yarlung Zangbo. During the current 14th Five-Year Plan, China approved plans to build a massive dam across the Brahmaputra River, causing worry among the riparian states of India and Bangladesh. Xi’s visit to Tibet came amid ongoing military tensions between India and China in eastern Ladakh.
Since early May last year, India and China have been involved in a military confrontation at various flashpoints in eastern Ladakh. Arunachal Pradesh is claimed by China as part of South Tibet, which India denies. The 3,488-kilometer Line of Actual Control is the focus of the India-China border dispute (LAC).
In Tibet, China is accused of restricting cultural and religious freedom. The charges have been dismissed by China. Since taking office in 2013, Xi has maintained a solid policy of tightening security control over Tibet. Despite his exile, the Dalai Lama is a much regarded spiritual leader in the remote Himalayan region, and Beijing has begun cracking down on Buddhist monks and followers of the Dalai Lama.
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