Two reports recently issued by the US State Department confirm the severity of China’s repression in Tibet while also highlighting the need for greater efforts to confront this repression and push for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Tibet-China conflict. The International Campaign for Tibet welcomes the public release of these mandated reports, though is concerned that the reports reflect insufficient implementation of long-standing, bipartisan Tibet legislation.
The 2026 Report to Congress on Access to Tibetan Areas, which covers the 2025 calendar year and continues to be mandated by the 2018 Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, states that China heavily restricts access to Tibet for journalists, diplomats and tourists. The report was not accompanied by new visa restrictions on Chinese officials, however, which limits the impact of the legislation and the State Department’s ability to hold China’s officials accountable for these restrictive policies.
The 2025 Report to Congress on Tibet Negotiations was also released in April 2026. While the State Department met its statutory reporting requirement, the report arrived more than a year after it should have been issued, and the Negotiations Report from the preceding year has not yet been released.
Regrettably, the Negotiations Report does not contain any instances of US officials encouraging direct negotiations between China and representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration, as required by the 2002 Tibetan Policy Act and the 2020 Tibetan Policy and Support Act. The failure to advocate for dialogue undermines both US Tibet policy and the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the Tibet issue.
Access Report
The Access Report states that many of the same restrictions to movement into the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) remained in place in 2025, with permits required for travel into the region and intimidation by Chinese officials for foreigners vising Tibetan areas. Most notably, consular officials from the US embassy in Beijing were able to make an official visit to the TAR in September 2025, the first allowed since 2019. US consular officials met with the TAR Foreign Affairs Office and major tour operators and visited hospitals and cultural sites.
The TAR continues to be the only region of China which foreigners, including diplomats and foreign officials, are required to obtain special permits to visit. US officials continued to be able to access Tibetan areas outside the TAR, though meetings with local officials or offices were sometimes denied and American officials often faced intimidation and harassment by Chinese officials through conspicuous surveillance while in Tibetan areas.
The State Department report also concludes that tourists and journalists continue to face restricted access to the TAR, and nearly all US journalists were denied entry into the region according to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China. US journalists who did manage to report from Tibet experienced intimidation by Chinese officials.
US citizens with Tibetan heritage face harsher screenings than other US citizens when applying for permits, and many Tibetan Americans report self-censoring their behavior in the United States for fear of retribution against their family members in Tibet.
Negotiations Report
The Negotiations Report states that the US has made numerous statements on Tibet and called for an end to human rights abuses in Tibet by the Chinese government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio celebrated Losar, Tibetan New Year, with a statement and social media post where he reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to “protecting the universal, fundamental, and inalienable human rights of Tibetans,” in February 2025.
While it is critically important for the US to call out the human rights abuses in Tibet, the report documents a failure to meaningfully engage the Chinese government on the resumption of Sino-Tibetan dialogue. No formal negotiations have occurred between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama or his representatives since 2010, and the 2025 Report to Congress on Tibet Negotiations does not highlight any specific appeals for the resumption of dialogue made by US officials.