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1 1 (June 24, 2016)

handle is hein.crs/govcdyy0001 and id is 1 raw text is: F ., : riE S-.3 $ri h ,. , Updated June 24, 2016 President Obama's June 2016 Meeting with Tibet's Dalai Lama President Barack Obama met with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, at the White House on June 15, 2016. This was the fourth and likely final White House meeting between the two men during the Obama presidency. The day before, the Dalai Lama visited Capitol Hill for meetings with Members and a lunch hosted by the House Speaker and House Minority Leader. The President and Congress are among a small number of national leaders and legislatures to meet publicly with the Dalai Lama; most of the rest of the world's national leaders and legislatures avoid such meetings, many under pressure from the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The PRC opposes all meetings between foreign officials and the Dalai Lama, whom it considers to be not a pure religious figure, but a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist plots under the cloak of religion. After the President's meeting with the Dalai Lama, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said U.S. meddling with China's domestic affairs will inevitably inflict harm on bilateral mutual trust and cooperation. The Dalai Lama has called for genuine autonomy for Tibetan districts within the framework of the PRC, an approach he refers to as the Middle Way. According to an account of the Dalai Lama's June 14, 2016, visit to Capitol Hill posted on his website, the Dalai Lama told Members that Tibet is an occupied land and not part of China, but he also said, We are not seeking independence because we don't want to enter into confrontation with our Chinese brothers and sisters. The President's previous White House meetings with the Dalai Lama took place in February 2010, July 2011, and February 2014. President Obama and the Dalai Lama also exchanged greetings at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. in February 2015. Consistent with the practice of previous administrations, none of President Obama's White House meetings with the Dalai Lama has been in the Oval Office, which the White House describes as the official workplace of the President. All President Obama's meetings with the Dalai Lama have taken place in the White House Map Room, which the White House Curator describes as a formal, but private, drawing room. The Chinese Communist Party established the PRC in 1949. In 1950, the Party's People's Liberation Army entered eastern Tibet to bring the region under Beijing's control. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in March 1959, after a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. He settled with fellow Tibetan exiles in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, where he has been based since. After the Dalai Lama's flight from Tibet, Beijing established the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), one of five province-level ethnic minority regions in China today. Beijing also established Tibetan autonomous prefectures and counties within China's provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan, with their aggregate land area approximately equal to that of the TAR. Just under half of the six million ethnic Tibetans in China live in the TAR, with most of the remainder living in Tibetan jurisdictions outside the TAR. In Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama established an exile government, now known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The CTA has an elected leader, the Sikyong, sometimes also known as Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile. The current Sikyong is Dr. Lobsang Sangay, a Harvard-educated legal scholar. He was re-elected to a second five-year term in April 2016 with 57% of nearly 59,000 votes cast by members of the global Tibetan diaspora. An estimated 130,000 Tibetans now live in India and Nepal in 58 Tibetan refugee settlements administered by the CTA. The U.S. State Department's position on the CTA is outlined in the department's annual report to Congress on Tibet negotiations: The U.S. government does not recognize Tibet as an independent state and therefore does not conduct official diplomatic relations with the Central Tibetan Administration, an organization based in Dharamsala, India. The government of India treats the CTA as a non-governmental organization. The White House said that in his June 2016 meeting with the Dalai Lama, the President emphasized his strong support for the preservation of Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic traditions and the equal protection of human rights of Tibetans in China. The President encouraged meaningful and direct dialogue between Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama and his representatives. The President also reiterated the longstanding U.S. position that Tibet is a part of the People's Republic of China, and the United States does not support Tibetan independence. U.S. policy is guided by the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 (P.L. 113-228) (TPA). It does not take a position on Tibet's political status, but it sets broad goals for U.S. policy towards Tibet, including to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity and to promote substantive dialogue between the PRC and the Dalai Lama or his representatives. The TPA also establishes in statute the State Department position of Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues; establishes reporting requirements related to Tibet; requires programming and sets project principles; mandates the availability of Tibetan .O 'T p\w -- , gmmw' goo mppm qq\ a , q 'S I 11LIANJILiN,

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