With growing Chinese interference in the crucial issue of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, US lawmakers are planning to counter the interference by promoting a bill on the issue. According to the sources, a bi-partisan group of US lawmakers are promoting a new bill to increase support to Tibetans.

The bill recently introduced in the house by Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, builds on the historic Tibet Policy Act of 2002 to modify and reauthorize it for other purposes, according to the report by International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).

“The bipartisan Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2019—introduced in the House on Sept. 13, 2019 by Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.), chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and expected to be introduced in the Senate this week by the commission’s Co-Chair Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and others—builds on the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 (TPA), a landmark legislation that enshrined support for Tibet in US law.” said the report.

According to the further details of the report, the bill makes it official US policy that the succession or reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Buddhist leaders are exclusively religious issues that the Tibetan Buddhist community should decide on. Under the bill, any Chinese officials who attempt to interfere in this process could be subject to targeted sanctions.

In addition, the bill says no new Chinese consulates should be allowed in the US until a US consulate is established in Lhasa, Tibet’s historical capital. The Tibetan Policy and Support Act is co-sponsored by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Mark Meadows (R-NC), Thomas Suozzi (D-NY), Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Ben McAdams (D-Utah).

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