The US government led by President Donald Trump in their second report on Tibet has failed to encourage dialogue between the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government. The State Department has recently submitted their report on Tibet Negotiations to the Congress and it lacks any significant effort towards encouraging negotiations in the past year.
According to the official report of International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), the Tibet Negotiations Report, second of the Trump administration while raising concerns about the lack of autonomy, ongoing human rights violations and destruction of religious, linguistic and cultural heritage in Tibet, it lacks any significant step taken towards encouraging dialogue between envoys of His Holiness and the Chinese government.
Despite having at least four summit meetings between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as between the secretary of state and his counterparts, there is no mention of initiatives taken for having negotiations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The ICT President has too reviewed of the report that while engaging and confronting the Chinese government on many fronts, the Trump Administration has not yet raised at senior levels the issue of Tibet and the need to find a political solution through dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
Under the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, the president and secretary of state are required to push for such negotiations. The policy also requires the appointment of a Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, whose “central objective…is to promote substantive dialogue between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives.”. The Trump Administration has yet to appoint a special coordinator.
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