The US Congress on Wednesday urged China to end “repression” in Tibet, ignoring Beijing’s warnings just as Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (楊潔箎) prepared to meet US President Barack Obama.
The House of Representatives voted an overwhelming 422 to 1 to approve the resolution, which marks 50 years since a failed uprising in Tibet and the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile.
Nine House members did not vote.
The resolution urges China to “cease its repression of the Tibetan people, and to lift immediately the harsh policies imposed on Tibetans.”
The resolution came amid heightened tensions between China and the US, after navy vessels from the two countries clashed in the South China Sea.
To ease the simmering spat, Obama on Wednesday invited Yang to the White House — ignoring protocol, which normally sees diplomatic meetings take place between representatives of similar rank.
But in language expected to anger Beijing, the congressional resolution also called on China to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama and to “find a lasting solution to the Tibetan issue.”
It also saluted India for hosting tens of thousands of Tibetan refugees.
China had warned that US criticism on Tibet would harm ties between the two countries.
Yang was holding talks in Washington on Wednesday and was to meet Obama yesterday.
“I hope the foreign minister, who’s in town today, hears it — it is cultural genocide, systematically destroying the framework of Tibetan society,” said Representative Frank Wolf, a sponsor of the resolution.
The Republican lawmaker sneaked undercover into Tibet in 1997 and said he heard accounts of torture from monks and nuns who had merely expressed support for the Dalai Lama.
During last year’s anniversary of the 1959 uprising, China broke up another round of protests. Rights groups say more than 200 people died and 1,200 remain unaccounted for a year later.
“Where are they? Let’s ask the foreign minister when he goes to the State Department — where are they?” Wolf asked.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime supporter of Tibet, took to the floor of the chamber to seek support for the resolution, which does not threaten any action against China if it does not comply.
“I so had wished decades ago that we wouldn’t be standing here now still pleading the case for the people of Tibet,” Pelosi said.
“It is long past time — 50 years — for Beijing to respect the human rights of every Tibetan and indeed every Chinese,” she said.
The sole ‘no’ vote came from Ron Paul, a maverick libertarian from Texas who last year unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination. He often rejects such resolutions as inappropriately interventionist.
“I don’t think the United States would like it too much if China postured in a similar way on our affairs, and there is really no benefit to these types of actions for us,” said Rachel Mills, a spokeswoman for Paul.
The White House and State Department on Tuesday also voiced concern about human rights in Tibet and urged dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meeting with Yang, said the White House was “absolutely committed” to defending human rights.
Clinton has come under fire from rights groups for not speaking out more loudly on China.
China’s foreign ministry had urged Congress to drop the Tibet bill, saying the measure proposed by “a few anti-China representatives disregards the history and reality of Tibet.”
One sponsor of the resolution, Representative Howard Berman, said “our friends in China” should consider the resolution not as an attack but as a call to re-engage with the Dalai Lama.
“We have deep, deep respect for both peoples” of China and Tibet, Berman said.
“But after eight rounds of fruitless meetings between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama, it appears to many of us that China is not serious about achieving a resolution of this difficult issue,” he said.
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
RSS