US raised Tibet with Chinese foreign policy chief

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US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Saturday, April 13, 2013 in Beijing.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Saturday, April 13, 2013 in Beijing.

(TibetanReview.net, Jul12, 2014) –A senior US State Department official has said Jul 10 that Secretary of State John Kerry had raised the issues of Tibet and Dalai Lama during his meeting with Chinese State councilor and Foreign Policy Chief Yang Jiechi in Beijing on Jul 10. Kerry was in Beijing for his country’s sixth annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue with China which concluded that day.

“The Secretary and Yang discussed the situation in Xinjiang and the treatment of the Uighur minorities, as well as the situation in Tibet, and China’s policy towards both Tibet and to the Dalai Lama,” the official was quoted as saying during a special press briefing.

He was further quoted as saying, “The Secretary made clear our positions. We certainly recognize Tibet as a part of the PRC, and we reinforced – the Secretary reinforced our view that it is important for China to respect and protect the religious and cultural and the linguistic rights and characteristics of the ethnic minorities, particularly in Tibet and in Xinjiang.”

Earlier, Kerry, joined by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, had met with President Xi Jinping and other senior officials of the Chinese government. Lew was one of the four co-chairs of the annual talks, the first of which took place in 2009.

China’s official Xinhua news agency Jul 11 cited Vice Premier Wang Yang, one of the two Chinese co-chairs of the dialogue, as saying at the closing session that the two-day economic dialogue had yielded over 90 items of agreement and laid the foundation for a meeting of the two presidents in Nov 2014. The report also said the Chinese side stressed “a constructive approach to differences and frictions,” while reiterating its stance on Taiwan and Tibet.

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