Central Tibetan Administration Thanks Biden for Signing ‘Resolve Tibet Act,’ Says Act Strengthens US Tibet Policy

The 14th Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, meets with a U.S. congressional delegation in Dharamshala, India, on June 18, 2024. (Central Tibetan Administration)

NEW DELHI—Tibet’s government in exile on July 17 officially expressed gratitude to U.S. President Joe Biden for signing into law the ‘Resolve Tibet Act.’  The bi-partisan bill was signed into law on July 12.

At a ceremony July 18, Karma Choeying, secretary of information for the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) “highlighted the significance of the law in countering the Chinese Government’s disinformation and false narrative on Tibet,” according to a media release from the CTA.

Officially titled the “Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet–China Dispute Act,” the law “addresses issues relating to Tibet, including by establishing a statutory definition of Tibet that includes areas in Chinese provinces outside the Tibet Autonomous Region,” according to the summary of the legislation.

“I share the Congress’s bipartisan commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans and supporting efforts to preserve their distinct linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage,” President Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

Penpa Tsering, elected president of the CTA, said in a message on X on July 13 that the new law will solidify “the US’s stance on Tibet’s historical status” and will bring “hope and inspiration” to Tibetans throughout the world.

When the law was signed by President Biden, Mr. Tsering was on an official tour of Ladakh, an Indian region on the border with China, reviewing the welfare of Tibetans in nine refugee settlements there. The settlements are overseen by the CTA.

He received the news on the final day of his visit to a Tibetan settlement in Jangthang Nyoma, Ladakh. “Overlooking Tibet across the border, this news fills me with renewed hope,” he said in the post on X.

After the Resolve Tibet bill was passed by the U.S. Senate in May, International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) president Tencho Gyatso said in a statement that it proved that resolution should be achieved through negotiation instead of an “assault on Tibet’s unique and ancient civilization.”

“This latest indication of American support of Tibet is a source of hope and encouragement to the Tibetan people, who have been nonviolently struggling against the Chinese government for more than six decades for human rights and democratic freedoms,” she said.

This photograph, taken during a government-organized media tour, shows monks walking after class at the Tibet Autonomous Region Buddhist College, in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, on May 31, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Strengthening US Policy

The CTA said in a July 13 statement that the law strengthens America’s policy on Tibet, following earlier acts such as the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2019 and the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018.

The statement cited a resolution passed in March of this year, on the 65th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising of March 10, 1959, “in a show of bipartisan solidarity reaffirming support for the Tibetan people amidst ongoing human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese government in Tibet.”

The Resolve Tibet Act was introduced in Congress in August of last year by House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) along with Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

“The Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act seeks to empower the United States government to achieve its long-standing goal of getting Tibetans and PRC authorities to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue,” the Foreign Affairs Committee said in a statement last Oct. 2.

Mr. McCaul said in the statement that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to oppress the Tibetan people.

“Tibetans are subject to the CCP’s mass surveillance and censorship tactics and are arbitrarily killed or imprisoned for expressing their desire for freedom. I am proud to introduce this bipartisan bill to reject the CCP’s claims that their tyranny over Tibet is legitimate and will assert the Tibetan people have a say in their own future,” Mr. McCaul said.

Yeshi Dawa, a journalist based in Dharamshala, the seat of Tibet’s government in exile, told The Epoch Times in an email that the Resolve Tibet Act counters the CCP’s historical propaganda surrounding Tibet, and that the United States will continue to work to resolve the issue.  “At the same time, it sent a message to all the like-minded countries to follow [suit],” he said.