Ahead of the Chinese President’s US visit, ICT joins human rights groups in demanding Xi take immediate, verifiable steps to address China’s human rights record
As U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, D.C., the International Campaign for Tibet urges him to make Tibet and human rights central to their bilateral discussions, and to press Xi, both privately and publicly, to resume substantive dialogue without preconditions with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and democratically elected Tibetan leaders; immediately release the 11th Panchen Lama; and end policies that institutionalize the forced assimilation of Tibetans.
On Wednesday, ICT, representing more than 50,000 members and supporters and standing with Tibetan Americans across the United States, also joined dozens of human rights organizations in calling on the Chinese government to take immediate, verifiable steps to address its human rights record. Those steps include releasing prisoners of conscience, ending transnational repression, and reforming laws and policies used to criminalize peaceful expression, religious practice, association, and dissent.
“Since you assumed power in late 2012, our organizations have documented—and some have lived—your government’s widespread, systematic human rights crimes, which violate domestic and international legal obligations. Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other communities continue to face your government’s atrocity crimes designed to erase their culture, identity, and language, and their rights to free speech and fair trials,” the 29 rights groups wrote in their joint letter to Xi.
Nowhere are the consequences of these policies more evident than in occupied Tibet. China calls Tibet “autonomous.” In reality, Xi’s policies have sought to eliminate any semblance of meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people. That lack of meaningful autonomy is reinforced by Xi Jinping’s and the Chinese Communist Party’s tightening control over Tibetan society and their increasingly draconian efforts to forcibly assimilate the Tibetan population, including through the recently implemented so-called “Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.”
Buddhist institutions face political interference, monastic residences are being demolished, Tibetan children are separated from their families through state-run boarding schools, and Tibetans continue to be imprisoned for peaceful expression, including mere possession of images of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
With China’s forced assimilation policies intensifying since Xi assumed power in 2012, the importance of implementing established U.S. policy on Tibet in support of a negotiated solution has become increasingly urgent.
“U.S. policy on Tibet is clear. The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 and the Resolve Tibet Act of 2024 establish that the Tibet-China dispute should be resolved peacefully through substantive dialogue without preconditions. They direct the U.S. government to promote dialogue between Chinese authorities and His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representatives, or democratically elected Tibetan leaders,” ICT President Tencho Gyatso said.
“President Trump must therefore uphold this policy and use his meeting with Xi to press for the resumption of Sino-Tibetan dialogue — especially at this critical juncture, when China’s new, so-called ‘Ethnic Unity and Progress Law’ threatens the very foundations of Tibetan identity,” she added.
Against this backdrop, and in addition to the steps outlined in the joint letter, ICT calls on President Xi to take three urgent steps pertaining to Tibet:
- Resume substantive and unconditional dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration, which is the sole legitimate democratic representative of the Tibetan people.
- Release the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and other political prisoners, or in the absence of his release permit U.S. government officials to meet independently with the Panchen Lama, disappeared by Chinese authorities over 31 years ago.
- Repeal the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law and end other policies that forcibly assimilate the Tibetan population and threaten the preservation of Tibet’s religious, linguistic, and cultural identity.