The new president of the Tibetan exile government yesterday said that he was willing to reach out to the Chinese government to resolve their conflict, although the sides have not had dialogue in more than a decade.
Penpa Tsering, former speaker of the Tibetan exile parliament, was sworn in as president of the Central Tibetan Administration at a ceremony in Dharmsala, the northern Indian town where Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has been living since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
The Dalai Lama participated virtually in the ceremony from his residence and spoke briefly.
Photo: AP
China denies curbing religion in Tibet and says the Himalayan region governed by the Chinese Communist Party since 1951 has been Chinese territory since the mid-13th century.
Many Tibetans say that they were effectively independent for most of their history and that the Chinese government wants to exploit the resource-rich region, while crushing its cultural identity.
China does not recognize the Central Tibetan Administration and has not held any dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama since 2010.
India considers Tibet as part of China, although it hosts the Tibetan exiles.
Penpa Tsering said a Chinese “white paper,” or policy document, issued on Friday last week had nothing new on Tibet.
“All I can say is we are open to send people to verify the facts that they have claimed in the white paper,” he told reporters. “At the same time, we have always been very consistent in our position that we are willing to reach out to the Chinese government to resolve the Sino-Tibetan conflict.”
Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to separate Tibet from China, which he denies. Penpa Tsering supports the Dalai Lama’s position.
Some Tibetan groups advocate independence for Tibet, as little progress has been made in talks with China.
The election, which was held in two rounds in January and April, was the third direct election of the Tibetan exile leadership since the Dalai Lama withdrew from any political role in the running of the exile government in 2011.
Nearly 64,000 Tibetans living in exile in India, Nepal, North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere voted.
Penpa Tsering, 53, was elected to the exile parliament in 1996 and became speaker in 2008. He succeeded Lobsang Sangay, who completed his second five-year term.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion