The head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Penpa Tsering, said that his administration is closely monitoring whether the escalation of the war in Iran will give China an opportunity to strengthen its interests on the Himalayan plateau and in other regional conflict zones, UNN reports with reference to Bloomberg.
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Penpa Tsering, the elected leader of the Central Tibetan Administration, said observers are assessing whether the conflict could weaken US attention to Asia and embolden China on Taiwan and the disputed South China Sea. Tibet, he added, remains another critical frontier that has faced militarization from China for decades.
"We are monitoring everything and considering possible opportunities and political challenges that could prevent us from surviving from Tibet's perspective," Tsering said from his office in northern India on Friday.
China took control of Tibet after communist forces entered the region in 1950. After a failed uprising in 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamshala, where the government-in-exile has functioned for over six decades. Tsering, who took office in 2021, works closely with the Dalai Lama and leads a government that relies heavily on US diplomatic and financial support.
Tsering praised the support of US President Donald Trump during his first term and the appointment of Riley Barnes as special coordinator for Tibet after his return to office. However, Sikyong - the Tibetan word for "political leader" - made it clear that he had not yet spoken with the appointed official or with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had been his staunch ally in the Senate.
Trump has said little about Tibet since his return to the presidency last year, although Beijing condemned Washington after Rubio publicly congratulated the Dalai Lama on his birthday. Tsering said last year that cutting business ties with China was the only way to bring the country to its "knees," and welcomed Trump's tough economic measures against Beijing.
Tsering also lamented the reduction in US aid last year, which he said undermined his administration's work even after a partial restoration of funding. Amid Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing scheduled for the coming weeks, he made it clear that he did not expect the issue of Tibet to be raised.
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"So far, President Trump has not once touched on the topic of Tibet," Tsering said. "I have never heard him utter the word Tibet, but, of course, much is said about the fact that the president's administration does not care about human rights."
"Much will depend on how events unfold in the Middle East and how both countries assess the opportunities to achieve their goals," he said.
In July 2024, former US President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan "Resolve Tibet Act," which called on Beijing to resume dialogue with Tibetan representatives and instructed American officials to counter what Washington calls Chinese disinformation about Tibet's history and governance. China condemned the law, saying it "grossly interferes in China's internal affairs."
Beijing considers Tibet an integral part of China and calls the Dalai Lama and his supporters separatists. However, the spiritual leader has stated that he does not seek independence, but "genuine autonomy" for Tibet within China in accordance with what he calls the "Middle Way Approach." Chinese officials have repeatedly criticized foreign governments for meeting with him or interacting with the government-in-exile.
The issue of succession remains another delicate matter. Beijing has stated that, in accordance with Chinese law, it has the right to approve the future successor to the Dalai Lama, while the 90-year-old Dalai Lama himself has stated that any reincarnation will be determined in accordance with Tibetan Buddhist tradition, raising the possibility of competing claimants and renewed diplomatic friction, the publication writes.
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