- The Resolve Tibet Act promotes Tibet’s distinct cultural, linguistic and religious heritage.
WASHINGTON (Agencies): President Joe Biden on Friday signed into law a bill that urges China to resume talks with the Dalai Lama or his representatives to arrive at a “negotiated agreement on Tibet” as he reiterated that the measure did not represent a change in U.S. policy.
“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,” Biden said in a July 12 statement.
The legislation, which passed the House of Representatives on June 12, states that Tibetans share a distinct religious, cultural, linguistic and historical identity and encourages the State Department to fight China’s disinformation about Tibet’s history and institutions.
In his statement, Biden said that the Resolve Tibet Act does not change U.S. policy recognizing the Tibet Autonomous Region, or TAR, and Chinese provinces with large Tibetan populations as part of the People’s Republic of China.
But supporters said it is still an important measure because it adds pressure on Chinese leaders to grant greater autonomy to these areas.
“All people should have the right to live in peace and decide their own future. But the people of Tibet have not had those freedoms for more than 70 years. We just took an important step toward changing that,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon and a co-sponsor of the bill, said.
In 2002, Chinese and Tibetan representatives held talks over a governance framework in the TAR.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader for most Tibetan Buddhists, has called for “genuine” autonomy for Tibet, an approach that accepts the region’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedoms and strengthened language rights, which are already supposed to be protected under China’s constitution.
But the talks ground to a halt in 2010. Since then, there has been no formal dialogue between the two sides. Critics say in the interim China has increased its efforts to force Tibetans to assimilate into the majority Han culture through the use of boarding schools that promote the use of Mandarin and by prohibiting the worship of the Dalai Lama.
The president signed the Tibet bill into law just days after Tibetans and well-wishers worldwide celebrated the Dalai Lama’s 89th birthday on July 6. The Dalai Lama underwent successful knee surgery on June 28 in New York. He remains in the United States as he recovers.