Nancy Pelosi, After Meeting Dalai Lama, Says China Is ‘Trying to Erase’ Tibetan Culture
BY SUDHI RANJAN SEN AND DAN STRUMPF / BLOOMBERG
JUNE 19, 2024
Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused China of trying to erase Tibetan culture following her high-profile meeting with the Dalai Lama at his home in northern India Wednesday, a visit condemned by Beijing.
Pelosi was joined on the trip to Dharamshala by a bipartisan delegation led by Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The group also met with officials from Tibet’s government in exile.
Pelosi said a bill recently passed in Congress strengthening U.S. support to Tibet sends a strong message to China.
China is “trying to erase the culture, reduce the use of the language,” Pelosi said during a public ceremony Wednesday in Dharamshala. “They are trying something that we cannot let them get away with.”
Read More: China’s Residential Schools Separate a Million Tibetan Children From Their Families, U.N. Says
“This bill is a message to the Chinese government that we have clarity in our thinking and understanding of this issue of the freedom of Tibet,” Pelosi said.
Beijing had warned the U.S. lawmakers against the meeting, urging the U.S. in remarks on Tuesday to “see clearly the anti-China separatism nature” of the Dalai Lama and his followers.
China considers the Dalai Lama a separatist for his commitment to limited autonomy for the region. Pelosi has been a longtime critic of Chinese policy on Tibet, and visited the Tibetan city of Lhasa in 2015.
Read More: The Dalai Lama on the Gratitude He Feels Looking Back at His Escape From Tibet
China annexed Tibet in the 1950s, with the Dalai Lama and other monks fleeing to India nine years later, where they live as refugees and have set up a government in exile in Dharamshala.
Officials from the Tibetan government-in-exile earlier said the U.S. visit and legislation will put pressure on China to engage with them as they seek autonomy for the region.
A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers after their meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India, on June 19, 2024.
Prakash Singh—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Prakash Singh—Bloomberg/Getty Images
BY SUDHI RANJAN SEN AND DAN STRUMPF / BLOOMBERG
JUNE 19, 2024
Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused China of trying to erase Tibetan culture following her high-profile meeting with the Dalai Lama at his home in northern India Wednesday, a visit condemned by Beijing.
Pelosi was joined on the trip to Dharamshala by a bipartisan delegation led by Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The group also met with officials from Tibet’s government in exile.
Pelosi said a bill recently passed in Congress strengthening U.S. support to Tibet sends a strong message to China.
China is “trying to erase the culture, reduce the use of the language,” Pelosi said during a public ceremony Wednesday in Dharamshala. “They are trying something that we cannot let them get away with.”
Read More: China’s Residential Schools Separate a Million Tibetan Children From Their Families, U.N. Says
“This bill is a message to the Chinese government that we have clarity in our thinking and understanding of this issue of the freedom of Tibet,” Pelosi said.
Beijing had warned the U.S. lawmakers against the meeting, urging the U.S. in remarks on Tuesday to “see clearly the anti-China separatism nature” of the Dalai Lama and his followers.
China considers the Dalai Lama a separatist for his commitment to limited autonomy for the region. Pelosi has been a longtime critic of Chinese policy on Tibet, and visited the Tibetan city of Lhasa in 2015.
Read More: The Dalai Lama on the Gratitude He Feels Looking Back at His Escape From Tibet
China annexed Tibet in the 1950s, with the Dalai Lama and other monks fleeing to India nine years later, where they live as refugees and have set up a government in exile in Dharamshala.
Officials from the Tibetan government-in-exile earlier said the U.S. visit and legislation will put pressure on China to engage with them as they seek autonomy for the region.
US lawmakers meet Dalai Lama in India, drawing sharp criticism from China
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi told crowds of Tibetans it was an "honour" to have met with the Dalai Lama, in a speech carried by the government-in-exile's Tibet TV.
Ahead of the visit, China's embassy in New Delhi criticised the meeting, saying the Dalai Lama was "not a pure religious figure, but a political exile engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion". / Photo: AFP
A group of senior US lawmakers, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, have met with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, sparking heavy criticism from China.
The bipartisan group of US lawmakers, led by Congressman Michael McCaul and Pelosi, visited the 88-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader at his home base in the northern Indian hill-town of Dharamsala on Wednesday.
Pelosi told crowds of Tibetans it was an "honour" to have met with the Dalai Lama, in a speech carried by the government-in-exile's Tibet TV.
The visit follows the passage of a bill by the US Congress that seeks to encourage Beijing to hold talks with Tibetan leaders, which have been frozen since 2010.
"This bill is a message to the Chinese government that we have clarity in our thinking and understanding in the issue of the freedom of Tibet", she said.
Pelosi said the bill was "soon to be signed" by US President Joe Biden.
'Anti-China separatist activities'
Ahead of the visit, China's embassy in New Delhi criticised the meeting, saying the Dalai Lama was "not a pure religious figure, but a political exile engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion".
Many exiled Tibetans fear Beijing will name a rival successor to the Dalai Lama, bolstering control over a land it poured troops into in 1950.
The Dalai Lama was just 23 when he escaped the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in fear for his life after Chinese soldiers eviscerated an uprising against Beijing's forces, crossing the snowy Himalayas into India.
He stepped down as his people's political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by some 130,000 Tibetans around the world.
"The democracy of the diaspora of the Tibetans in exile is very important to us," Pelosi said.
Penpa Tsering, the sikyong or head of that government, said it does not seek full independence for Tibet but rather to pursue a long-standing "Middle Way" policy seeking greater autonomy and "to resolve the Sino-Tibet conflict through dialogue".
But Beijing's embassy accused the Tibetan administration of seeking to break away.
"We urge the US side to fully recognise the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai group," the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India wrote on social media late on Tuesday.
It reiterated its oft-repeated position that the high-altitude territory "has always been part of China since ancient times".
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi told crowds of Tibetans it was an "honour" to have met with the Dalai Lama, in a speech carried by the government-in-exile's Tibet TV.
Ahead of the visit, China's embassy in New Delhi criticised the meeting, saying the Dalai Lama was "not a pure religious figure, but a political exile engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion". / Photo: AFP
A group of senior US lawmakers, including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, have met with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, sparking heavy criticism from China.
The bipartisan group of US lawmakers, led by Congressman Michael McCaul and Pelosi, visited the 88-year-old Buddhist spiritual leader at his home base in the northern Indian hill-town of Dharamsala on Wednesday.
Pelosi told crowds of Tibetans it was an "honour" to have met with the Dalai Lama, in a speech carried by the government-in-exile's Tibet TV.
The visit follows the passage of a bill by the US Congress that seeks to encourage Beijing to hold talks with Tibetan leaders, which have been frozen since 2010.
"This bill is a message to the Chinese government that we have clarity in our thinking and understanding in the issue of the freedom of Tibet", she said.
Pelosi said the bill was "soon to be signed" by US President Joe Biden.
'Anti-China separatist activities'
Ahead of the visit, China's embassy in New Delhi criticised the meeting, saying the Dalai Lama was "not a pure religious figure, but a political exile engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion".
Many exiled Tibetans fear Beijing will name a rival successor to the Dalai Lama, bolstering control over a land it poured troops into in 1950.
The Dalai Lama was just 23 when he escaped the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in fear for his life after Chinese soldiers eviscerated an uprising against Beijing's forces, crossing the snowy Himalayas into India.
He stepped down as his people's political head in 2011, passing the baton of secular power to a government chosen democratically by some 130,000 Tibetans around the world.
"The democracy of the diaspora of the Tibetans in exile is very important to us," Pelosi said.
Penpa Tsering, the sikyong or head of that government, said it does not seek full independence for Tibet but rather to pursue a long-standing "Middle Way" policy seeking greater autonomy and "to resolve the Sino-Tibet conflict through dialogue".
But Beijing's embassy accused the Tibetan administration of seeking to break away.
"We urge the US side to fully recognise the anti-China separatist nature of the Dalai group," the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India wrote on social media late on Tuesday.
It reiterated its oft-repeated position that the high-altitude territory "has always been part of China since ancient times".
Former U.S. House speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks at the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile at Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, India, June 18, 2024.
REUTERS/Stringer
JUN 19, 2024
DHARAMSALA, India - A group of influential U.S. lawmakers met exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday at his home in India's Himalayas, officials said, despite China's warnings to avoid contact with the Buddhist monk it calls a separatist.
The bipartisan group of seven met the 88-year-old Nobel peace laureate at his monastery in the northern town of Dharamsala, they said, a day after arriving to a warm reception by school children, Buddhist monks and nuns.
The team, led by Michael McCaul, a Republican representative from Texas, who also chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, includes Democratic former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Issues the lawmakers are set to discuss with the Dalai Lama include a U.S. bill that aims to press China to resolve the Tibet dispute and awaits President Joe Biden's signature, McCaul said on Tuesday.
Beijing, which calls the Dalai Lama a dangerous "splittist" or separatist, said it was seriously concerned about the visit and the bill.
It urged the lawmakers not to make contact with what it calls the "Dalai clique" and Biden not to sign the bill.
The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet. Chinese officials chafe at any interaction he has with officials of other countries.
The Dalai Lama has met U.S. officials, including presidents, during previous visits to the United States, but Biden has not met him since taking office in 2021.
He is due to fly to the U.S. this week for medical treatment, but it is unclear if he will have any engagements then.
REUTERS
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