By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 15: The outgoing US Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Robert Destro hopes for a comprehensive dialogue between transition teams of President-elect Joe Biden and the incumbent President to maintain US government support for the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan exile set-up. SC Destro interacted with six female Tibetan journalists along with his colleagues from the US State Department on Friday.
The outgoing coordinator remarked on Phayul’s query on transitions, “Certainly in my experience, it is the relationships we build that get us through transitions. I have some good friends who’ll be coming into the Biden administration. I am talking to them and you will have good friends who are coming into the next CTA administration. And as long as, we keep the conversation going, that is the value of freedom of speech and freedom as reporters. It is the unique perspective you have as Tibetan women reporters. We have to hear your voices.”
Many of the journalists conveyed a pressing issue of lack of information and resources for reporting on issues coming out from Tibet. “The way the Chinese are making it not only difficult but impossible to get information out of Tibet is the way in which they control the narrative. The need for Tibetans to create and sustain their own narrative runs headlong into the repression of the government and Chinese entities that make it difficult to get the facts out,” he responded.
Mr. Destro also laid down the importance of the Middle Way Approach whilst commenting on the stalled dialogues between the two sides, “I think before we can truly engage the Chinese, we have to engage one another in the Middle Way. The Tibetan community itself has to be fully committed within the factions in the community to get along with the [approach] because the more China is able to split the community, the more likely they will win in the end.”
In the last week, the Special Coordinator has met with the outgoing President and the cabinet members of the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-exile and also held a private virtual engagement with the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama, along with a discussion with artisans from the Norbulingka Institute in Dharamshala.
The Trump administration’s appointment of the Special Coordinator very late in the presidency has drawn flak with many saying the act is a token and a clog in the machinery to irk Beijing and Chinese interest in the global arena.
One Response
“The Trump administration’s appointment of the Special Coordinator very late in the presidency has drawn flak with ‘many saying’ the act is a token and a clog in the machinery to irk Beijing and Chinese interest in the global arena.”
“Many Saying…” Those must be the virtue signaling, pro China, election stealing Leftie Globalist. The Middle Way and their so-called Social Justice Activists are slowly but surely becoming China apologists. Don’t talk about CCP concentration camps or organ harvesting — only talk about global warming and playing the race card. Fake is in, Buddha wept.