Tibet was staging ground for China’s belt-road

By Seema Sirohi
The Chinese are fuming but these days few care about their “sensitivities” in Washington. In this post-sensitive era, it’s OK to rain on their parade. The latest “outrage” was a 12-city, 26-day tour by Lobsang Sangay, president of the Tibetan government in-exile, through Europe, Canada and the US.

The aim was to highlight how Tibet was the original laboratory for the belt road initiative – one road that ultimately leads to subjugation and colonization. The world must learn from Tibet’s tragic experience for China’s “development aid” comes at the steepest possible price to the people, land, water and air, Sangay has been telling his audiences.
And New Delhi should make Tibet a “core” issue now that China is at India’s doorstep. China’s financial and political influence is overwhelming all of India’s neighbours. “It’s not too late for India to declare Tibet a core issue. For the BJP and RSS, Tibet is a sacred place,” he told me. Now China is trying to steal the soft power of Buddhism. How come the Chinese organised the “World Buddhist Forum” last month when India is the birthplace of Buddhism and nearly all the holy sites are in India, asked Sangay.

“India is the natural place for such gatherings.” India can and should dominate that space, that narrative. But China is ahead even in that sphere. Sangay, a suave, measured Harvard-educated leader, implied, ever so gently, that it was the best time for the Indian government to raise the stakes because China is under pressure. He reminded the BJP of its own history of strongly supporting the Tibetan cause and of Sardar Patel’s foresight about China’s ill intentions.

“Tibet is not politics but a matter of principle for the BJP and RSS. Tibet is a sacred place and plays a vital role in the concept of “akhand Bharat” with Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar.”

Sangay is a democratically elected leader of the diaspora Tibetans, a concept alien to the Chinese. He travels freely on his US passport – something that further infuriates the Chinese. While on this trip, Sangay met several top US officials, hobnobbed with senators and congressmen, talked to security experts, addressed university students, attended the prestigious Halifax International Security Forum, and generally let himself see and be seen.

This time there was no hesitation or overthinking by US officials about meeting Tibet’s top political leader and annoying the Chinese. In fact, annoying the Chinese was a key purpose. Sangay’s timing couldn’t have been better – US policy on China is undergoing a dramatic change from accommodation to confrontation, creating multiple pressure points for Beijing.

The Americans feel used, betrayed and cheated. From trade to human rights to freedom of navigation operations, the Trump Administration is calling China out. Even if a trade deal is struck when President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet in Argentina on Saturday, the geopolitical standoff will continue. “President Trump’s policy is much stronger and more open than President Obama’s.

We welcome Vice President Mike Pence’s forthrightness on the issue of Tibet,” Sangay told me over the phone from Canada. Pence recently unveiled the new China policy in a speech at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, which incidentally also hosted Sangay this month. But Washington also needs to take care of a housekeeping matters regarding Tibet.

First, the US Senate should pass the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act without delay – the House voted to approve it in September, Sangay said . The bill seeks to ensure the same access to Tibet for American diplomats and journalists as the Chinese have to all parts of the US.

If Americans are banned from Tibet, Chinese officials responsible for discriminating against them should be barred from entering the US. The bill is a simple enforcement of reciprocity, Trump’s buzzword for everything. Second, the Trump Administration should fill the position of “special coordinator for Tibetan issues” at the State Department.

The post has been lying vacant since Trump took office nearly two years ago despite letters from the US Congress to fill the slot. The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, which is the principal law guiding US policy on Tibet, enjoins the special coordinator to “to protect the distinct religious, cultural, linguistic and national identity of Tibet.”

At least on paper. Tibet is under siege and Chinese repression has only got worse with the August order to further tighten control over Tibet’s Buddhist institutions to advance “anti-separatism efforts.” Revised Communist Party disciplinary rules demand that party members who have religious beliefs undergo “thought education.” The only acceptable thinking is prescribed helpfully under “Xi Jinping Thought”.

Sangay updated officials at the National Security Council and the State Department with the latest developments, including the fact that 153 Tibetans have immolated themselves to protest Chinese policies. He knows highlighting the Tibet cause irritates the Chinese so why not? As long as he keeps talking and the world keeps listening, the purpose is served.