A senior US Congressional delegation, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, held talks at the Dalai Lama’s Indian home on Wednesday. The visit was previously condemned by the Chinese government, which considers the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader a separatist.
The delegation, led by Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, arrived Tuesday in the Himalayan village of Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama has lived since the 1960s. The delegation visited the office of the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is pushing for Tibetan autonomy in China.
The visit comes just days after Congress passed a bill with bipartisan support calling on China to begin talks with Tibetan leaders to find a solution to the long-running dispute.
Chinese criticism of the visit was immediate and unsurprising. Its leaders consider the exile government illegitimate and view any support for the Tibetan autonomy movement, called Xizang, as interference in China’s internal affairs.
The Chinese Embassy in Korea said, “We urge the United States to fully recognize the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai Group, respect the promises the United States made with China on market issues, and stop sending wrong signals to the world.” Delhi said in a statement Tuesday night:
U.S. officials frequently met with the Dalai Lama, 88. But Ms. Pelosi’s presence with her delegation was a reminder of her 2022 visit to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China still claims as territory. house.
The controversial visit, which raised concerns within the Biden administration that already frosty relations with China would further deteriorate, led to a sharp response from Beijing, including trade restrictions on Taiwan and military exercises near Taiwan.
The visit to India also comes as relations between Washington and New Delhi deepen, driven in part by perceptions that they share the threat from China. President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, visited New Delhi this week and held several meetings with Indian officials on expanding defense and technology cooperation.
These wide-ranging discussions, coming weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a third term, show how much the United States is prioritizing its relationship with India, even as U.S. officials increasingly refer to New Delhi as a counterweight to China.
Tenzin Lekshai, spokesman for the Central Tibetan Administration, a government-in-exile, said the situation in Tibet should not be viewed through “the lens of the growing competition between the United States and China,” but rather as a reminder of the Tibetan way of life. “We face an existential threat as China assimilates the region,” he said.
“We hope that the leaders of the free world will champion the cause of Tibet, and we especially emphasized that the Chinese leadership should restart dialogue to resolve the Sino-Tibetan conflict,” Lekshay said.
