Tibetan exile leader Penpa Tsering, who was on a US visit earlier this week, met with congressional leaders, state department officials, civil society groups, and local Tibetan Americans and Chinese Americans to build on strong bipartisan support for Tibet.
Penpa, who is the Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration, was in Washington, DC this week on his first trip to the US capital since his election last year.
He, who was elected Sikyong on April 11, 2021, serves as the democratic leader of the Tibetan diaspora. He is the second Sikyong elected since the Dalai Lama retired from politics and devolved political power in 2011 and previously served as the Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile and Representative at the Office of Tibet in Washington, DC.
During his visit to the US from April 24 to 30, Penpa held talks with the US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The meeting also witnessed the participation of Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), and Namgyal Choedup, representative of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
"We are trying to burst the myths or narratives that the Chinese government has been presenting for many decades about Tibet being a part of China, which is not true," Radio Free Asia quoted Gere as saying on Thursday.
"And we are trying to push for a genuine dialogue [between China] and His Holiness the Dalai Lama," he added.
Meanwhile, expressing his gratitude towards Pelosi for her continued support for Tibetans, Choedup described the talks as "decisive and constructive".
"The meeting also discussed collective decisions on future courses of action regarding how to resolve the Sino-Tibetan conflict," he said, according to the media outlet.
During his visit, Penpa also met the Undersecretary of State Uzra Zeya, who has served as the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues since December 2021, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain, Chinese democracy activists among others.
He ended his Washington visit Friday evening with a panel discussion held at George Washington University on the Tibet-China dialogue and a public talk with the DC-area Tibetan community, according to RFA.
Notably, according to Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2022 report, after more than 60 years of occupation, the Chinese government has turned Tibet into the least-free country or territory on Earth.
China's control of Tibet has also endangered the water security of neighbouring countries in Asia, spread to the US through China's transnational repression of Tibetan Americans and Tibet supporters, and threatened international religious freedom through China's attempts to control the Dalai Lama's reincarnation.
In response to China's violations, the US in recent years has passed the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 and the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020. Further, US President Joe Biden also promised in his campaign to pressure China to resume dialogue with Tibetan leaders after over 10 years.
( With inputs from ANI )
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