(TibetanReview.net, Mar30’23) – China has accused the US Congress of interfering in its internal affairs by its virtual hosting of the executive head, or Sikyong, of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), based in India, at a hearing on Mar 28.
Sikyong Penpa Tsering told the hearing, held by the bipartisan US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, that “If PRC (the People’s Republic of China) is not made to reverse or change its current policies, Tibet and Tibetans will definitely die a slow death.”
“The so-called ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ is an out-and-out separatist political group and an illegal organization in total violation of China’s Constitution and laws,” Reuters Mar 29 quoted the spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, as saying.
The exile Tibetan administration uses the term CTA rather than ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ due to India’s China-sensitivity on the issue.
Liu has said the organization had long been attempting to split Tibet from China, assuming, of course, the legality of its annexation of Tibet in 1951.
“The invitation for the ‘Sikyong’ to speak at the Congress was an interference in China’s internal affairs. China is firmly opposed to this,” he has told Reuters in an emailed statement.
“The US should take concrete actions to honor its commitment of acknowledging Tibet as part of China, and stop meddling in China’s internal affairs,” Liu has added.
A bill is currently being discussed in the US Congress for a law which if passed will reject China’s claim of sovereignty over Tibet, recognize the Tibetan people’s right to self-determination, and call for a negotiated solution on the Himalayan territory’s legal status.
China annexed Tibet in 1951, threatening overwhelming use of force, to compel a Tibetan delegation to sign an agreement for its “peaceful” liberation. China tore up that agreement in Mar 1959 through brutal use of its armed forces to quell a Tibetan uprising and the launch of its so-called democratic reforms under which more than 1.2 million Tibetans are estimated to have died.