TheAltWorld The US’ Support Of Tibetan Splittism Is Troublesome
This is a very unfriendly move which hints that the President pays credence to Sangay’s claims of leading a so-called “government in exile”. In effect, it amounts to tacit support for his political agenda and hints that the US no longer abides by its One China policy.
The White House hosted Lobsang Sangay, the head of the self-proclaimed Tibet “government in exile”, on Friday. The media reported that it was the first time in six decades that the US government has done such a thing. This development is extremely troublesome because it shows that the Trump Administration is supporting splittism inside of China. It also suggests that the incumbent leader, who might lose his legal challenge to this month’s election results, is trying to further worsen relations with China before leaving office.
Tibet is an autonomous region inside the People’s Republic of China that was liberated by the central government in 1950. Prior to that point, radical religious leaders kept most of the population enslaved in a feudal system. The US subsequently supported Tibetan militants for the next 22 years until former US President Richard Nixon discontinued what was described as the “CIA Tibetan Program” when his country began its historic rapprochement with China.
Trump is endangering all of that by rolling out the red carpet for Sangay to meet with his Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues. This is a very unfriendly move which hints that the President pays credence to Sangay’s claims of leading a so-called “government in exile”. In effect, it amounts to tacit support for his political agenda and hints that the US no longer abides by its One China policy. Truth be told, however, it had already violated this principle by selling arms to Taiwan and sending Cabinet-level officials there earlier this year.
But the Tibetan angle deserves special attention because of the role that it could play in American foreign policy. The US’ de-facto military alliance with India is a fait accompli in Asian geopolitics, and the Pentagon might hope to leverage it for the purpose of reviving the CIA’s Tibetan Program in the worst-case scenario. Thankfully the Indian government doesn’t seem interested in this for the time being at least despite hosting the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala.
Nevertheless, it’s difficult to discern what Trump’s end game is after undertaking this dramatic move. It’s unclear whether he’ll remain in office after January so he might just be trying to spoil any possible rapprochement between China and the US under a possible Biden Administration. If that’s the case, then the White House’s hosting of Sangay is just a political spectacle with no actual significance. Should his legal challenges succeed, however, then it might be very difficult for China to deal with the US after what it just did.
It’s one thing for countries such as China and the US to compete with one another in various spheres and another entirely for one of them to support splittism within the other like the US is doing against China with its latest move. Such actions must be condemned by the international community for the terrible precedent that they establish. It can’t be discounted that the US will support similarly separatist goals in other countries in the future if it’s willing to do so against China of all countries which is much more powerful than most. This alone shows how rogue the Trump Administration has become in what might be its final months in power.
Biden would do well to condemn Trump’s move if he’s sincere about improving relations with China should be succeed in taking office in less than two months’ time. Members of Congress should also voice their concerns too. This isn’t a partisan issue either since it’s the US’ official policy to recognize the unity of the People’s Republic of China. Trump is therefore tacitly breaking the US’ own policy by having the White House host Sangay.
With an eye on the future, the US needs to stop antagonizing China by hosting separatist leaders. It’s against international law and the US government’s own policy to do so. Trump seems obsessed with spoiling Biden’s possible presidency, especially as it regards bilateral relations with the People’s Republic. It’s too late for him to fix his legacy of ruining relations with China, but Biden could start building his own legacy by condemning Trump’s move and seeking to improve relations with China instead.
Peace Zone
Good to see coverage of this, but the superficial gloss presented here sounds more like drive-by dog whistle reporting than discerning journalism. Hopefully Korybko will go home and read the old Shogun trilogy before the next report on Tibetans.
Firstly, Tibetans in exile are useful to the US/Western Empire uniparty (MICIMACS) for a new round of PR boondoggle cum propaganda circuit profiteering (again), and unfortunately Tibetan exile admis may be too politically naive to get anything pragmatic done beyond some fancy dinner parties. (Uniparty is Trump-Biden puppet masters of the like that conned HK idealist youth into over-playing a horribly planned and executed attempted color revolution there). The MICIMACS use Tibetan refugee emotional passions about their homeland to do laundering of their war crimes history of bloody laundry and skeleton heaps. At the same time, the MICIMACS has no wherewithall whatsoever to launch and win a hot (nuclear) war for Tibet.
On the diplomatic front, let’s say the representative of Tibetans in exile (in the person of L Sangay whose role is itself up for new election shortly) agree to do a bloody ethics laundering to give a PR makeover to 20 years of war crimes in the forever wars. What can they hope to achieve in return? The MICIMACS has ZERO record of diplomatic success for any peacemaking in the past twenty years and instead has a record of bloody mahem in a trail of tears across West Asian and Africa. Maybe Tibetan exile government simply want to position themselves to get some largess like the $10 million/day subsidy Israel gets from Washington, in exchange for the PR makeover.
At the same time, the Korbyko fails to supply any evidence that L Sangay aims wholly for “splittist” activities, and I highly doubt that the Chinese will be impressed by this gratuitous parroting of the old fossilized dog whistle slogans (obligatory for CCCP members perhaps but not international journalists). Rather, the evidence shows L Sangay as committed (publicly at least) to the Middle Way Path autonomy peace plans persisting officially as the policy of the Tibetan Refugee Govt in Exile. Meanwhile, despite the 1980s style “splittist” “feudalist” language parroting of the author, the Chinese government policies in Tibet of recent years are radically evolved even in the past 10 years. Crickets about that in this piece!
Return of refugees and re-integration of any exile government administrators or religious leaders are valid objectives for L Sangay and his successor. Moreover, it would be much more profitable “sooner than later” for Beijing to further normalization of Tibet and its own global national profile by successfully completing a peace and reconciliation process for international refugees who would like to return to Tibet. The only one who is remotely skilled to deliver such a resolution is Lavrov, the world’s foremost diplomat. Some Tibetans already undoubtedly know this.
So there are no grounds for reading anything more into this meeting of Sangay in Washington as anything more than another begging bowl round, to position Tibetans in exile for maximum profit regardless of political uniparty White House face. (Real support would have to come out of a Republican Senate in any case). That profit would not include a hot war with China (the nuclear fallout over Tibet would poison the water of hundreds of millions). Moreover, no color revolutions are going to deliver the CCCP to MICIMACS either (they will be lucky to keep ownership of their IC wafer labs in Taiwan). CCCP will continue support for TAR education and culture and microeconomy. This is the same “hearts and minds” Belt and Road policy uniting common interests across Asia, and it is highly effective.
Hopefully the exiled Tibetan government will stop playing footsie with naked emperors posing as freedom fighters in Washington in favor of getting some realpolitik done. But they could still get their coffers filled up in the meantime, in exchange from some PR makeover for the foreverwar boondogglers from he MICIMACS countries (where large swathes of their citizens are living on the streets and eating out of dumpsters due to their governance).
Those with intelligence are thoroughly tired of MSM style dog whistle reports. Maybe in future Korbyko can tell us more about the American writing culture in Moscow! For political writing, any interpretive descriptions will need rigorous bearings, and TheAltWorld readers like myself will not settile for anything short of salient analysis of multiple, complex dynamical factors!.