By Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, June 13: The Resolve Tibet Act. has moved closer to becoming law as the US House of Representatives reconciled and passed the amended legislation of the Senate version of the bill a day after its introduction to the House with a vote of 391 to 26 on June 12.
The Resolve Tibet Act had previously passed the House of Representatives in February 2024 and the Senate in May but returned to the House due to minor changes.
The next step is for President Joe Biden to sign the bill within the next two weeks, turning the Resolve Tibet Act into law. This legislation aims to strengthen US efforts to push the Chinese government to resolve the Tibet-China dispute through dialogue with Tibetan leaders and to provide the State Department’s Special Coordinator for Tibet office with more tools to counter the CCP’s disinformation on Tibet.
Speaking on the House floor as he raised the bill, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) spoke in support of the Resolve Tibet Act, saying, “The US strongly condemns all oppression and coercion of Tibetans.” An original sponsor of the bill, McCaul added that it would help “put the people of Tibet in charge of their own future.”
Representative Jim McGovern, D-MA, said: “Let the overwhelming passage of our strong, bipartisan bill be a clear message to the Tibetan people: America stands with you on the side of human dignity, and we support you in your quest to secure the basic rights to which you are entitled under international law. The People’s Republic of China has systematically denied Tibetans the right to self-determination and continues to deliberately erase Tibetan religion, culture, and language. The ongoing oppression of the Tibetan people is a grave tragedy, and our bill provides further tools that empower both America and the international community to stand up for justice and peace.”
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) emphasized Congress’s support for Tibetans’ struggle for freedom and self-determination and countering Chinese government misinformation. Senator Todd Young (R-IN) highlighted the bill’s role in pushing for negotiations to resolve the conflict with the Dalai Lama and affirmed America’s resolve against the CCP’s status quo in Tibet.
Dr. Namgyal Choedup, representing the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration, welcomed the Senate passage of the Resolve Tibet Act. He stressed the Central Tibetan Administration’s commitment to the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way approach for a negotiated solution and thanked Senators Merkley and Young for their leadership. Choedup called for China to engage in truthful negotiations to resolve the Tibet-China dispute.
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ཀི་ཀི་སོ་སོ་ལྷ་རྒྱལ་ལོ་ ལྷ་རྒྱལ་ལོ་ ལྷ་རྒྱལ་ལོ་ These are ancient Tibetan cries of joy and exhilaration! I was so happy to hear one US Senator exclaim “we have never recognised Tibet as part of China from ancient times” and Senator Jim McGovern stating, Tibet was a nation with its unique culture, language and religion and territory! it was what we have always thought of ourselves but unable to convince the world that we are different from the Chinese and that we don’t belong to their race- that Tibet is different from China and that TIBET WAS NEVER PART OF CHINA but that Tibet was in fact raped and occupied by communist China in 1949/50. These are the words, we have been shouting hoarse for the last seven decades in multiple streets of India: New Delhi, Mysore, Bangalore, Mumbai, Calcutta and many more! We have been shouting the same message in western countries in the streets of London, New York, Washington, Paris, Geneva, Bern, Berlin, Rome, Prague and many others. Now, in the hallowed grounds of the world’s sole super power, our words are vindicated and endorsed by the representatives of the most powerful nation on earth! That was absolute music to my ears and it gave a great sense of elation to hear them say what we have been saying all these years until tears rolled down our cheeks out of helplessness! We felt the world paid scant attention to our plight and that the UNO was nothing but a toothless bull-dog that showed no remorse for the downtrodden but instead a conduit for the powerful nations to bludgeon the aspirations of the wretched down trodden people who didn’t count to be human beings in their scheme of things! How many times our emotions swelled when the police use their batons to beat us back from surging towards the barricades near the Chinese consulates or embassies! It is true, we haven’t achieved anything in terms of territory of our country nor this present development is going to bring any drastic dividends but it is the beginning of a RECOGNITION OF THE TRUTH ABOUT TIBET AND ITS HISTORY WHICH IS ENTIRELY DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF CHINA! IT’S AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND ADMISSION OF THE UNDENIABLE INDEPENDENT STATUS OF TIBET BEFORE THE CHINESE COMMUNIST INVASION AND ILLEGAL OCCUPATION OF OUR BELOVED COUNTRY! This will pave the future course of the Tibetan movement. Canada’s endorsement of the Tibetan people’s right to self- determination which is enshrined in the UN charter is another heartwarming development for the Tibetan struggle. Since, we are weak as an occupied nation where Tibetans are caged like animals with zero rights, we need support from the international community to achieve our goal. We sincerely hope, other countries like Australia, New Zealand and our neighbour India will also follow suit to endorse Tibet’s historical independent status like the US Congress did in order to bolster the Tibetan Movement to bring the Chinese to the table to find an amicable solution to the issue of Tibet. However, it should not be forgotten that the CCP is belligerent and recalcitrant bunch of thugs. Hence, Tibetans should also consider the prospect of a guerrilla campaign that Tibetan Freedom Fighters waged in the 1950s to show that WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP OUR COUNTRY TO FOREIGN OCCUPATION. The recent gathering at Camp Hale is a symbolical exercise to demonstrate that our struggle is not just confined to non-violence but if the need arise, WE ARE PREPARED FOR ANY EVENTUALITY!!!
Thank you our dear American Friends for this beautiful gift. We will never forget this.