Tibet Sun
Lobsang Wangyal
September 26, 2015
President Barack Obama (R) speaks next to Chinese President Xi Jinping at a joint press conference in the Rose Garden at The White House in Washington, DC, on 25 September 2015. Xi is in the US on an official state visit to meet with President Obama to discuss a range of issues.
AFP/Getty Images/Mark Wilson
United States President Barack Obama raised the issue of Tibet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a joint press conference on Friday, along with addressing a range of critical issues between the world’s top two economic and military powers.
Obama spoke in the White House Rose Garden alongside Xi during the Chinese president’s official state visit, and chided Xi over the issues of Chinese cyberthreats, violation of basic human rights, and Chinese action in the South China Sea.
Regarding the issue of Tibet, Obama said, “Even as we recognise Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China, we continue to encourage Chinese authorities to preserve the religious and cultural identity of the Tibetan people, and to engage the Dalai Lama or his representatives.”
Obama said they had a frank discussion about human rights, and that he affirmed America’s support for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people, including freedom of assembly and expression, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.
He stressed to Xi that preventing journalists, lawyers, NGOs and civil society groups from operating freely, or closing churches and denying ethnic minorities equal treatment are all “problematic”.
Xi responded to Obama’s human rights remarks saying, “We must recognise that countries have different historical processes and realities, and we need to respect people of all countries in the right to choose their own development path independently.”
In particular, the last few US governments have consistently encouraged the Chinese leadership to find a solution to the grievances of the Tibetan people. Although the US Government maintains that Tibet is a part of the People’s Republic of China, it continues to urge the Chinese leadership to engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives.
The United States has provided humanitarian and educational assistance to exile Tibetans, along with funding supportive radio broadcasts in Tibetan language by two organisations.
The red carpet and full ceremonial welcome accorded to Xi from the White House underlined the importance of the growing dependence of the two great powers, but the leaders candidly expressed their differences.
Obama hosted Xi Jinping and Madame Lady Peng Liyuan for an official White House State Dinner that Friday evening.
During the day pro-Tibet and pro-Uyghur activists protested outside the Rose Garden for China to recognise their demands for greater freedom for their homelands of Tibet and East Turkistan.
The administration of Tibetans in exile based in Dharamshala has been following a ‘Middle-Way Policy’ seeking autonomy rather than a Tibet independent from China.
