The United States has long recognised Tibet as part of the People’s
Republic of China, and does not back Tibetan independence. But that has
not deterred all the recent US presidents before Trump from meeting the
exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
The United States is widely seen as the last major Western power that
has still held meetings with the Dalai Lama despite Beijing’s objections
that such encounters foment separatism.
In past meetings, the US had consistently voiced support for the
protection of human rights of Tibetans in China, and called for formal
talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama and his representatives.
A State Department spokeswoman and a White House official referred Reuters to
the Dalai Lama’s office when asked whether the Tibetan spiritual leader
and his representatives had asked for a meeting with Trump and whether
any such meetings were planned.
The Chinese foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to a faxed
request asking whether Beijing had asked Trump not to meet the Dalai
Lama.
“His Holiness was supposed to go (to the US) in April, but it was
postponed,” Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan government-in-exile,
told Reuters.
That trip has been delayed until June due to a hectic schedule in the
preceding months that had left the Dalai Lama physically exhausted,
Sangay said, adding that Washington DC wouldn’t be part of the June
itinerary.
The office of the Dalai Lama hasn’t reached out to Trump to arrange a meeting yet, he said.
The Dalai Lama is taking a more considered approach with regard to any
meeting with Trump, said a source with knowledge of the thinking of the
winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.
The unpredictable US president upset protocol in December when weeks
before being sworn into office he took a telephone call from the leader
of self-ruled Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, only
to last week rebuff Taiwanese suggestions of another call.
In the interim, Trump has met and phoned Xi, and says he has built a strong relationship with the Chinese leader.
He called Xi “a friend of mine” who was “doing an amazing job as a leader” in an interview with Reuters last
week, and praised him for trying to rein in nuclear-armed North Korea.
In return, the Chinese president has invited Trump to visit China this
year.
In mid-2008, then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met the Dalai
Lama, to the anger of Beijing. Months later, the British Foreign
Secretary at that time David Miliband ditched Britain’s near
century-long position on Tibet, describing it as an “anachronism”, and
explicitly recognised Tibet as part of China.
Based on treaties signed at the turn of the 20th century by
British-administered India and Tibet, Britain had previously said it
would recognise China’s “special position” in Tibet on the condition
that Tibet was given significant autonomy.
Silence from Trump
Chinese troops took control of Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a
“peaceful liberation”. Nine years later, the Dalai Lama fled to India
after an abortive uprising and set up a government in exile, which China
does not recognise.
China sees the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist in a monk’s robes,
even though the Dalai Lama says he wants autonomy for his homeland, not
outright independence. There have been no formal talks between Beijing
and the Dalai Lama’s representatives since 2010.
International rights groups and exiles say China stamps on the religious
and cultural rights of Tibetans, accusations denied by Beijing. China
says its rule has ended serfdom and brought prosperity to a
once-backward trans-Himalayan region.
Trump has been silent on Tibetan issues.
“The main change is that the US approach on Tibet seems likely to become
more transactional and therefore less consistent,” said Robbie Barnett,
director of the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University.
“It seems set to become more a question of contingency, dependent on how
he calculates his relationship with China at any one moment.”
Earlier this week, Democratic US Representative Jim McGovern of
Massachusetts called for a new US policy towards Tibet to safeguard the
identity of the Tibetan people and hold China accountable for human
rights abuses.
The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile said he is still
hopeful that the United States will continue to support Tibetan issues
and push for talks between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and Beijing.
But he said they were prepared for any upsets.
“We are Buddhists, we believe in impermanence. You just go with your
karma and whatever happens, happens, because we have seen the worst, the
occupation of our country,” said Sangay, who is planning a trip to
Washington at the end of May. – Reuters