US to Oppose China’s Interference in the Selection of Next Dalai Lama of Tibet

The selection of the Dalai Lama in Tibet has been done following Tibet’s age-old spiritual tradition, but China has time and again interfered in the religious activities of Tibet after its annexations in the year 1951. This time the United States has warned that it is going to oppose the move by China if it tries to impose its own Dalai Lama in Tibet.

It is not the role of the state but the senior monks who choose the head lama of the clan. During a Congressional hearing, a top official in US President Donald Trump’s Administration made it clear to the lawmakers, that this time the United States is going to oppose the move by China.

Laura Stone, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs has informed the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, “The United States has a very clear position that religious decisions should be made within religious organisations and that this isn't the role of the state”.

She was responding to a question by Senator Cory Gardner, “China has said that they will pick the next Dalai Lama. The Tibetan Policy, actually in 2002, mandated that American officials visit Tibet on a regular basis. I want to get into both of these. If China proceeds and tries to impose a Dalai Lama what will the US response be?”

With this, the stand of the US government is clear, that the Congress will not recognize a Chinese imposition. Stone also said that the question is an important signal in itself to the Chinese government, that the United States is now watching the Tibet issue very closely.

She asserted, “I wouldn’t want to prejudge exactly how this, a future scenario, would roll out but I would like to lay a marker that that is the clear position of the United States government and, I think, widely supported within the American society, that those are the kinds of decisions that should be made by religious communities on their own and without outside interference”.

Senator Gardner also highlighted that the crackdown in Tibet is intensifying as Beijing continues to refuse negotiations with the Central Tibetan Administration. He said, “Human rights defenders are routinely jailed, tortured and otherwise deprived of liberty. A genuine freedom of speech and assembly are nonexistent. Corruption and abuse of power are rampant. The judicial system is a tool of the state and the party and not an impartial arbiter of legal disputes”.

Now along with trade war, the United States is adamant and wouldn’t allow China to play with the human rights issues in Tibet, which for years have been overlooked by the world at large.