As the November 5, 2024 American presidential election approaches, the candidates and campaigns are presenting their positions on key questions, including America’s relationship with China. As the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) recently noted, however, these positions have largely focused on trade relations. Issues such as Tibet and human rights have not been in the foreground.
ICT wrote to candidates Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, JD Vance, and Tim Walz in August requesting statements of their positions on Tibet. The release of such statements would not be unprecedented; in the 2016 election cycle Marco Rubio, then a contender for the Republican candidate for president, answered ICT’s questionnaire on Tibet. Four years later Democratic candidate Joe Biden articulated his promises of support for Tibet and the Tibetan people during the 2020 campaign.
Although ICT does not endorse candidates for office, our 50,000 members across the United States have a strong interest in learning more about where each candidate stands on Tibet. We await their responses and will be ready to inform our members and the general public when we receive them.
The text of the letters sent to Trump and Harris campaigns are given below as an example:
On behalf of the 50,000 active American members of the International Campaign for Tibet, please allow me to congratulate you for securing the nomination of your party to run for the presidency of the United States of America.
If elected, among the many issues your administration will confront in the White House is the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing occupation of Tibet, which subjects the Tibetan people to grave human rights abuses. Previous administrations under both parties have supported the Tibetan people and called for human rights and democratic freedoms in Tibet.
They have done this by meeting with the Dalai Lama and representatives of the elected Central Tibetan Administration in exile, by calling on China’s leaders to reach a negotiated solution that respects Tibet’s unique cultural, religious, and linguistic heritage, and by maintaining America’s indefatigable, bipartisan tradition of supporting Tibet. Our laws provide invaluable tools for the White House to insist on a peaceful resolution of the Tibet situation, including the Tibet Policy and Support Act 2020, the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 and the Resolve Tibet Act of 2024.
Between 2002 and 2010 the Chinese leaders and Tibetan representatives repeatedly engaged in dialogue in pursuit of peaceful, mutually beneficial resolution with the support of contemporary American administrations. American policy dictates that the United States should take a leading role in fostering the resumption of these negotiations, and we hope that you will take this as a core of America’s China policy if elected.
As our members are deeply concerned about the situation in Tibet, I am writing to ask for your position on Tibet and your plan for bringing Beijing back to the negotiating table. While the International Campaign for Tibet cannot endorse candidates for office, we would like to share your responses with our members and the public as we believe that it is highly important for our members and all citizens to be informed of each candidate’s position.
I look forward to your response.