News and Views on Tibet

Opinion: I am Tibetan and I voted for Joe Biden

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Democratic Party nominee for President Joe Biden says he will meet the Dalai Lama and stand up for the rights of Tibetans. (Politico)
Democratic Party nominee for President Joe Biden says he will meet the Dalai Lama and stand up for the rights of Tibetans. (Politico)

By Tenzin Dolker

Voting for Joe Biden is both politically smart for the future of Tibet and the world and it is also a moral duty for the Tibetan community in America. Joe  Biden will be a strong advocate for Tibet and he will lead with moral principles we admire as Tibetans.

First, I voted for Biden because he will  keep his promises to Tibet and also meet His Holiness Dalai Lama.  In September Joe Biden made his strongest statement yet on Tibet, saying his administration will “stand up for the people of Tibet.” Biden says, “I will work with our allies in pressing Beijing to return to direct dialogue with the representatives of the Tibetan people”, further adding, “ to achieve meaningful autonomy, respect for human rights, and the preservation of Tibet’s environment as well as its unique cultural, linguistic and religious traditions.”

In 2016, the Obama-Biden administration welcomed His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the White House. Joe Biden has also committed to doing so as President, saying  “I’ll meet with  His Holiness the Dalai Lama, [and] appoint a new Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues.” Since President George H.W. Bush, every U.S. President has met the Dalai Lama, until Donald Trump.  Not only has Trump avoided meeting His Holiness, he waited nearly four years to appoint a Special Coordinator for Tibet, and demoted the position from Under Secretary to Assistant Secretary.  We must remember that this announcement also came only 20 days before the election as he tries to hide his complete failure and inaction on Tibet.

Second, I voted for Biden because he will account China through an international rules based system. The current administration cozied up to Xi Jiping saying “we love each other” for most of his presidency, even praising Xi for power grab that extended his premiership to lifetime. Biden on the other hand made strong statements to account China on Tibet, stating: “My administration will sanction Chinese officials responsible for human rights abuses in Tibet.” Biden will call on China to “restore access to Tibet for U.S. citizens, including our diplomats and journalists.” Further, Biden will support the Tibetan people by “expanding Tibetan language services at Radio Free Asia and Voice of America to get information from the outside world into Tibet.” These are all welcoming news for Tibetans and we must ensure that Biden truly lives up to these promises for Tibet.

Third, Biden will lead the US and world with moral principles that underpin the Tibetan struggle. Trump on the other hand violates all of them. His Holiness has led the Tibet movement in the past 60 years with compassion, and a call for truth and justice. His teachings and politics are deeply  influenced by Tibetan Buddhist philosophy as well as his life as a Tibetan refugee. Our movement’s greatest power and asset is our truth and plight for justice. We have everything to lose and Trump has everything to gain. Supporting Trump will only diminish our own moral standing in the world that we have won with blood, sweat, and tears over three generations.  We can not, and must not trade our hard-won moral battle for truth, the groundwork laid by our ancestors and elders, for a photo op with an administration that has a corrupt and authoritarian track record.  Trump’s policies have brought so much pain and suffering to countless innocent children, women, and families all across the US and world, while our mother earth burns with the climate disaster’s grave effects on Tibet’s fragile ecosystem. As Tibetans we can not be complicit, we must act to right the wrongs of this administration and move this country and an uncertain world forward. And it starts with voting for Joe Biden.

Finally, I remind everyone to judge the current president on his track record, which has been four years of  inactions for Tibet. Do not let Trump’s desperate tactics and fear mongering of China through its “sledgehammer” diplomacy lose sight of our long term fight. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is one of the few remaining global elders alive who has met and engaged with numerous leaders of the 20th century, including US President Franklin Roosevelt, who led America and the world out of the Great Depression and ushered in a new world order based on international cooperation.  We must listen deeply and act accordingly when His Holiness says: “Trump has no moral principle.” “America first, that is wrong. America should take global responsibility.” Joe Biden on the other hand will not abandon but take this important responsibility for our world and that also includes Tibet. 

Your vote is your power. Please go to www.iwillvote.com and make your plan to vote for Joe Biden and democrat up and down the ballot in person or drop off at mail in ballot box.

(Views expressed are her own)

The author is a feminist advocate and researcher, and has an MA from Columbia University. She was a part of the first cohort of Tibetan graduate students who received the Dalai Lama Trust Scholarship.

9 Responses

  1. Vote for Biden is a vote for Beijing;
    Vote for Trump is a vote for Tibet!
    Wake up Liberal rightist Tibetans,
    Educate yourselves, do not be selfish,
    No need feel shy and hide,
    to say that you are conservative!

  2. during his Nov 2017 trip to China…….[ Xi “explained to Trump why he was basically building concentration camps in Xinjiang,” Bolton wrote, citing the interpreter’s account.
    The interpreter added that “Trump said that Xi should go ahead with building the camps, which Trump thought was exactly the right thing to do,” according to the book ]……
    Sure he is tough on China when he doesn’t get what he wants. He is also blindly supportive of such cruel practices as concentration camps for millions when he does get what he wants from China. Everything he does is in his own interest. Not saying Joe is an angel, but anyway you get the point.

  3. I am a Tibetan American youth and am 1000% voting for Donald Trump. Joe is a demented, self-contradicting, pandering zombie and doesn’t deserve the Tibetan vote. Trump on the other hand does; it would be great if my fellow zoomers (Generation Z people) could stop blinding themselves with Trump Derangement Syndrome so they could see that. Ever since George Floyd had his fetanyl overdose in late May 2020 and the fallout BLM-hysteria swept through our little community, liberal Tibetans have swung further and further into leftism. The campaigns by these younger, more vocal Tibetans Americans to “convert” the generally more conservative, older Tibetan Americans by making BLM propaganda through hit piece articles, videos, and other digital content has never not been pathetic. I believe there is a silent majority of Tibetan Americans who don’t buy into this craptivism, because I refuse to accept that so many of us have been lobotomized by the legacy media that has demonized Trump non-stop for the 4+ years. Tibetans are not tools for American elites and big wigs to throw at Trump. You Dolkar have your right to vote who you choose, but as a lover of Tibet, America, and freedom in general, I whole-heartedly throw my hat for Trump. A vote for Biden-Harris is a vote for Red China.

  4. I am a Tibetan American and so is my wife. We enthusiastically voted for Trump to reelect him. He is very tough on China. He is a straightforward person and does what he says he would do. I can’t imagine Biden who can barely say a sentence correctly and has very serious cognitive issues. The socialists, communist Violence, Rioting, looting, shooting and mugging will continue and get worse because they are his voters. He supports and panders to those who don’t believe in rule of law and personal responsibility!

  5. Joe Biden campaign bus hitting the road with a lame slogan, “No Malarkey.” Obviously he left all the malarkey with Tenzin Dolker, the proud holder of BS from Columbia University’s Woke Propaganda Ministry. She has no shame in framing Beijing Biden as a ‘morally principled man’, even while the FBI investigates his son – the crackhead, Hunter Biden, for corruption.

    I fear Tenzin Dolker and her ilk, being so “moral” and all, would gleefully choose to side with organ harvesting, concentration camp commandant like Xi Jinping over Trump.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5649FAF3_ws

  6. Over the period of two to three weeks we have seen similar article from so called US educated Tibetan youths, came out openly in line with CCP interest to defeat Donald Trump. While supporting Biden who has done nothing favorable during eight years administration with Obama. But a dark chapter of ushering His Holiness The Dalai Lama from White House through a piles of garbage, and subsequently releasing those pictures officially. Which never happened in 60 years of Tibetan refugee history.
    Therefore those articles should a be reference point in their life at some point. Since these writings will will never go away quick from the minds of Tibetans.

  7. Voting for Biden is safe, nobody is going to give it a second thought or question you about it. No “deplorable” is going to harass you, rightly so because we live in a free and democratic country. A more interesting and courageous story to read would be “Why I Voted Trump” given that you identify yourself as a feminist advocate and having an MA from Columbia University. Because then all hell would break loose. You would immediately be canceled by your friends, peers and social group not to mention be fired from jobs and things like that.
    Thats why I would recommend people to read this by Candy Mercer- “Why I Voted Trump: A Coming Out Story”. It will enlighten you about cancel culture and how terrifying it is to come out as a Trump supporter, worse than coming out as gay some decades ago. The new racism/bigotry is not about black vs white or gay vs straight its left vs right.
    Sorry liberals, despite the entire mainstream media, the cancel culture libs, the whole Hollywood hate machine, the deep staters in the intel community, Facebook, Twitter, Google Donald Trump will win. I’m just not excited about the rioting and looting by the left thats going to take place afterwards. Even that I’m praying that it doesn’t get too out of control.

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