U.S. Office Needed in Tibet, Gregg Says
TIBET
Union Leader
Matt Negrin
Boston University Washington News Service
9 April 2008
WASHINGTON — Sen. Judd Gregg on Wednesday urged the secretary of state to consider opening a U.S. consulate in the capital of Tibet, where China has cracked down on protests and jailed demonstrating Buddhist monks who are calling for human rights and the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
Gregg, R-N.H., pressed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a Senate hearing to open an office in Lhasa and to bar any new Chinese consulates in the United States.
“It just seems to me that with all this going on there, it’s reasonable that we should open a consulate office there and maybe limit the ability of the Chinese government to open further consulate offices in the United States until they give us the right to put a consulate in that part of their country,” said Gregg, a member of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
Rice said the administration is “looking at the possibility of a consulate in Tibet.”
Gregg said in an interview that he has been closely following what is happening in Tibet.
“I can remember when I was in grade school, in fact, when Tibet was invaded by the Chinese and the Dalai Lama fled,” he said. “If we want to make a statement, and I think we should, about opposing the oppression that’s going on in Tibet and putting the Chinese on notice that we feel its wrong, one way to do that is by saying we want a consulate open there.”
Monks began demonstrating near Lhasa in March as they condemned China’s 57-year rule of Tibet, bringing attention to a country that has tried to combat criticism from human rights groups as it prepares to host the Summer Olympics.
“The United States has been very active in making the case to the Chinese that they are going to be better off to deal with moderate forces on Tibet, like the Dalai Lama, that they should open dialogue with him,” Rice said at the committee’s hearing on the State Department’s budget.
Rice said she had asked for access for diplomats in Tibet and was given limited access. “But, frankly, it wasn’t good enough,” she said.
Meanwhile, three senators put forth a resolution on Monday saying China should not be allowed to operate diplomatically in the United States until a U.S. office is opened in Lhasa.
And in the House Wednesday, Congress almost unanimously passed a resolution demanding that China stop quashing protests in Tibet and asking for the release of jailed Tibetans. The resolution, authored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., passed 413 to 1. Ron Paul, R-Texas, voted no.
Activists are using the August Olympics as a platform for railing against China’s human rights record. On Monday, protesters scaled the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and hung signs reading “Free Tibet” from the national landmark.
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