By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 21: The President of the Central Tibetan Administration, known also as the Tibetan government-in-exile, Penpa Tsering congratulated the newly appointed US Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, Uzra Zeya on Tuesday, following the announcement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday. As the Biden assumed office in January, his administration has appointed the Special Coordinator for Tibet almost within a year, as mandated in the Tibet Policy and Support Act.
“The Tibetans inside and outside Tibet are very delighted at the appointment of Under Secretary Uzra Zeya as the special coordinator for Tibet, coming less than one year after the assumption of power by President Biden. We really look forward to working with the special coordinator for Tibet in her new capacity,” Sikyong Penpa Tsering said at the press conference. The CTA head also stressed that the Sino-Tibet dialogue would be one of their priorities among other issues that will ensue after meetings with the new coordinator.
The Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights, Uzra Zeya released a statement where she pledged to promote respect for human rights in Tibet, and work towards a resolution between Tibet and China, “Direct dialogue without preconditions between the government of the People’s Republic of China and His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representatives is essential to resolve differences and achieve meaningful autonomy for Tibetans.
“We also seek to increase access for US diplomats and other officials, journalists and tourists to the Tibetan Autonomous Region and other Tibetan areas reciprocal to the access PRC officials and other Chinese nationals enjoy in the US.”
The appointment has already drawn criticism from the Chinese government, as the foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters, “China firmly rejects this, and we will never recognize this designation. We urge the U.S. to take concrete actions to abide by its commitment of recognising Tibet as part of China and not supporting Tibet’s independence, and stop using Tibetan-related issues to interfere in China’s domestic affairs.”
The CTA president responded to the remarks by China, saying that it has now become a trend for China to be angry at anything countries talk about China. “So that doesn’t make a difference as long as China knows for a fact that the international community is concerned about resolving the Sino-Tibet conflict, or its concerned about the situation inside Tibet, even though it is not as visible as what is happening to Uyghurs or Hong Kongers,” he further commented.
Sikyong responded to Phayul’s query about CTA’s future work aspiration for and with the new US coordinator, “We’ll be working very, very closely with the US government to see how US can lead other like-minded countries because this has been the policy of the government for a long time and since there was no special coordinator for a long period of time during [former President] Trump’s presidency, we suffered a bit in our efforts to join together with the US but now that they have appointed at an early stage. We’ll be really looking forward to that.”
The Indian-origin diplomat Zeya has become the seventh official to hold the position of Special Coordinator for Tibet, following former coordinator Robert Destro’s short term under President Trump.
