(Washington) The US government on Monday announced the appointment of a “special coordinator” to “promote respect for human rights” in Tibet as well as a “substantial dialogue” between China and the Dalai Lama.
Symbolic fact, it is the current Under-Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights, Uzra Zeya, who will also be in charge of Tibetan cases, said the head of US diplomacy Antony Blinken in a statement.
“It will promote a substantial dialogue, without preconditions, between the government of the People’s Republic of China and the Dalai Lama, his representatives, or the democratically elected Tibetan leaders, in support of a negotiated agreement on Tibet,” a- he explained. “It will promote respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Tibetans, including their freedom of religion or belief, and will support efforts to preserve their particular religious, cultural, linguistic and historical heritage. ”
This gesture, relating to a sensitive issue for the Chinese authorities, risks being added to the subjects of already multiple tensions between the two world superpowers.
More than sixty Democratic and Republican members of the United States Congress in a letter called on President Joe Biden in mid-December to meet with the Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader, and to urge Beijing to resume dialogue with its representatives – suspended for twelve years.
Focusing on Tibet would be a “visible manifestation of a diplomacy of principles which gives priority to human rights and the defense of human dignity,” they said in their joint letter.
China’s lack of interest in the dialogue leads many observers to believe that Beijing is awaiting the death of the 86-year-old Dalai Lama, hoping that the movement he initiated to defend Tibet will gradually fade without the figure of this Buddhist monk, who has become a world icon.
Beijing this year celebrated the 70e anniversary of what he calls “the peaceful liberation” of Tibet, when the Communist regime’s army took over the roof of the world after the end of the Chinese civil war. Since 1951, Chinese leaders have boasted of having eradicated serfdom and brought infrastructure and economic development to this autonomous region.
But in 1959, the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India after a failed riot in Lhasa against the Chinese presence. Its supporters accuse China of having crushed Tibetan culture and its religion by destroying thousands of temples and by organizing the massive installation there of Han immigrants (the majority ethnic group).