The Washington Post
Emily Rauhala
November 13, 2015
The Dalai Lama meets with then U.S. House Speak John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in Washington in March 2014. (Getty Images)
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of congressional Democrats made a rare visit to Tibet this week. We know this because a senior Chinese official, Zhang Dejiang, the head of China’s legislature, askedher about it at a meeting in Beijing on Thursday, just before reporters were ushered away.
Both the Chinese foreign ministry and a representative for Pelosi (D-Calif.) later confirmed the visit, but provided scant details about the delegation’s travels in a part of China mostly closed to foreign journalists.
“The only thing we have been confirming is that they were in Lhasa from Monday through Wednesday. We have not offered any characterization of the trip whatsoever,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told Reuters in a piece published Thursday.
On Friday, Pelosi offered her first public comments on the visit, acknowledging the journey in opening remarks at a meeting with China’s premier, Li Keqiang. “Thank you very much Premier Li and thank you for giving us this opportunity to express our appreciation to you, to President Xi, to the foreign ministry, to the People’s Congress, for us to visit China and Tibet,” she said.
The phrasing was pointed, though, since China says Tibet is part of China, not a separate entity.
Chinese officials on Thursday took the chance to offer their own rather odds-defying account of what happened. An article published in Tibet Daily said Pelosi “highly praised” developments in Tibet, including “the efforts made by the Chinese government to protect religious freedom, ethnic culture and the environment.”
The paper said that the group toured schools, communities and residents’ homes and that the visitors communicated “deeply and frankly” with officials, residents, monks and nuns, helping them to gain a “comprehensive understanding of Tibet.”
The account is, of course, starkly at odds with what we know about Pelosi’s views on Tibet and what rights groups say is happening on the ground. Pelosi’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Chinese account of the visit.
Over the course of her political career, Pelosi has often spoken out on Tibet and, indeed, has met more than once with the Dalai Lama. In 2008, after protests in Lhasa turned deadly, Pelosi visited the exiled spiritual leader in Dharamsala, India, and called for an international investigation into what happened.
“If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China’s oppression and China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world,” she said.
This year, she delivered a speech on the House floor to mark the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday. “The Chinese government has brutally repressed Tibetans’ unique religious, cultural and linguistic heritage,” she said.
“The Chinese government’s oppression of the Tibetan people and the Chinese Communist Party’s vitriolic campaign against the Dalai Lama continues, which again challenges us all to speak out.”
Given how tightly China controls access to the region, it is possible — though not certain — that the conversations between the U.S. politicians and locals this week were less “frank” than fiercely controlled, with participants vetted well in advance and consequences for any locals going off-script.
It is nonetheless noteworthy that Pelosi and others, including Jim McGovern, chairman of a Congress Human Rights Commission, were allowed in at all. McGovern’s press secretary, Abraham White, said in an e-mail that the trip was part of ongoing efforts to “shine a spotlight on human rights in China and push for needed reforms” — not exactly what Beijing wants.
Given Pelosi’s longstanding opposition to the Chinese government’s Tibet policy it seems unlikely the visit went down as described by Tibet Daily. It would certainly not be the first time China’s state-backed press manufactured quotes or twisted details.
Upon her return to the United States, Pelosi may well elaborate on what she saw on the high plateau and call attention to restrictions on access. But the delay in providing an alternate account gave Chinese officials the first word.
