Trump goes all out to make Tibet a permanent issue in US-China tensions. Biden will not be able to undo it

The United States of America under the leadership of President Donald Trump yesterday passed a bipartisan resolution recognizing the cultural and religious significance of an autonomous Tibet. The resolution also recognized the work done by the 14th Dalai Lama to promote global peace, harmony, and understanding.

While the Trump administration has taken the Presidential elections and the subsequent results to the Supreme Court, alleging widespread voter fraud—Donald Trump is working in an overdrive mode to formulate a concrete foreign policy regarding China and its ‘One China Policy’. 

The US government in the past did not recognize the Tibetan government in exile. However, in a historic first, President Trump has changed the policy of his predecessors by terming Tibet a militarily occupied territory by the Chinese Communist Party.

A day after passing the bipartisan resolution, the office of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a report titled ‘The Elements of the China Challenge’, which highlights the CCP’s occupation and suppression of various territories and peoples.

The report said, “As part of China’s national policy to forcibly integrate minorities, which is sometimes referred to as stability maintenance, the CCP has heightened repression of some six million Tibetans — severely restricting freedom of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly.”

Reported earlier by TFI, Tibetans are being ‘trained’ for specific Chinese industry requirements, and then being employed either within the occupied region of Tibet or being shipped to various Chinese provinces under a quota mechanism which bears a striking resemblance to the one which is used for shipping Uyghurs as forced labour throughout the Chinese mainland.

Read: ‘Eliminate them,’ Frustrated by India’s counteractions, China is launching another drive of ethnic cleansing in Tibet

The US recognizing Tibet as a military-occupied territory and decoupling itself from the ‘One China Policy’ can open the floodgates for other countries including India to take the same stance. And if India also starts recognizing Tibet as a military-occupied territory or an independent state, then the CCP politburo will have a hard time stopping other countries of the world to toe the ‘One China Policy’.

The Trump administration had been giving indications that some big news regarding Tibet was around the corner. Last month, for the first time in six decades, the Central Tibetan Administration Head was invited to the White House. President Lobsang Sangay became the first CTA president to be formally invited into the US State Department to meet Assistant Secretary and Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues – Robert Destro. 

Prior to this meeting, Sangay had met the White House officials in undisclosed meetings and locations over a dozen times in the past 10 years since he became the CTA’s president in 2011. The formal meeting had set the ball rolling for the passing of the resolution and Trump dubbing Tibet as a separate state. 

Trump surely has played a masterstroke by making Tibet a permanent issue in Sino-US tensions and even if Joe Biden comes to power, he and his democrats will not be able to take a 180-degree turn on the issue.