A high-level U.S. congressional delegation, together with the previous Home speaker Nancy Pelosi, met with the Dalai Lama at his Indian house on Wednesday, a go to that was condemned upfront by China’s authorities, which considers the exiled Tibetan non secular chief a separatist.
The delegation, led by Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the Home Committee on International Affairs, arrived on Tuesday within the Himalayan city of Dharamsala, the place the Dalai Lama has lived because the Sixties. The delegation visited the workplaces of the Tibetan authorities in exile, which is pushing for autonomy for Tibet inside China.
The journey comes days after Congress handed a invoice with bipartisan assist that urged China to start out dialogue with Tibetan leaders to discover a answer to the longstanding battle.
China’s criticism of the go to was quick and unsurprising. Its leaders think about the federal government in exile unlawful and regard any assist for the reason for autonomy for Tibet, which they name Xizang, as interference in inside Chinese language issues.
“We urge the U.S. facet to totally acknowledge the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai group, honor the commitments the U.S. has made to China on points associated to Xizang, cease sending the incorrect sign to the world,” the Chinese language Embassy in New Delhi stated in an announcement on Tuesday night time.
U.S. officers have usually met with the Dalai Lama, 88. Ms. Pelosi’s presence within the delegation, nonetheless, introduced reminders of her 2022 journey to Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its territory, when she was nonetheless speaker of the Home.
That contentious go to, which raised fears inside the Biden administration of additional deteriorating an already frosty relationship with Beijing, led to a pointy response from China, together with commerce restrictions on Taiwan and navy workout routines close to the island.
The go to to India additionally comes as Washington and New Delhi deepen their relationship, motivated partly by the notion of a shared Chinese language menace. Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, is in New Delhi this week, holding a number of rounds of talks with Indian officers on increasing protection and expertise cooperation.
These intensive discussions, coming weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gained a 3rd time period in workplace, point out how a lot Washington prioritizes the connection with India, with American officers more and more talking of New Delhi as a counterweight to Beijing.
Tenzin Lekshay, a spokesman for the Central Tibetan Administration, the federal government in exile, stated that Tibet’s state of affairs shouldn’t be seen via “the lens of accelerating rivalry between the U.S. and China,” however as a reminder of how the Tibetan lifestyle “is dealing with an existential menace” as China assimilates the area.
“We do hope that leaders of the free world will stand for the Tibet trigger, notably stressing the Chinese language management to reinstall the dialogue to resolve the Sino-Tibet battle,” Mr. Lekshay stated.
