In the prevailing climate of violence and repression in Tibet, it’s now US that will be taking up the issue with Chinese vice president, Xi Jinping, during his visit to the country scheduled next week.
An official of Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) while confirming the news said that the US has described the human rights situation in Tibet as a “grave concern”.
“US President Barack Obama’s Special Assistant, Daniel Russel, has said the US government would raise the issue during Xi Jinping's visit to the country next week,” the official said.
Quoting Obama's special assistant, the CTA official said “It is an area of grave concern for us to witness the increasing tensions in Tibet and Xinjiang. We are watching this, tracking it very closely, with real concern.”
The official further said that Russel had said that the US had spoken about it, and were using every opportunity to urge the Chinese officials and leaders to exercise real restraint and to safeguard the human rights of all of Chinese citizens, including those in Tibet.
“US has maintained that part of their goal with respect to this visit is to make Xi Jingping understand the issues that are important to US, and that includes issues like the situation in Tibet, like freedom of speech and freedom of religion and so on.”
{{/usCountry}}“US has maintained that part of their goal with respect to this visit is to make Xi Jingping understand the issues that are important to US, and that includes issues like the situation in Tibet, like freedom of speech and freedom of religion and so on.”
{{/usCountry}}“This is an important part of our agenda and there’s no reason that the conversations with Vice President Xi would depart from our longstanding practices,” said the CTA official quoting Obama’s special assistant.
“Recently members of the United States Congress had issued statements urging President Obama to raise the issue of Tibet, days ahead of Xi Jinping’s official visit,” said the official.