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Tibet
China

US State Department appoints official to oversee policy on Tibet

  • The US special coordinator for Tibetan issues will protect ‘the distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity of Tibetans’, says US secretary of state
  • The position had been left vacant since the end of the Obama administration

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People walk in a market alley in the old city of Lhasa, during a government organised tour of the Tibet autonomous region, China on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters
Jacob FromerandOwen Churchill
The State Department on Wednesday appointed an official to oversee US policy on Tibet, the latest sign of the Trump administration’s growing outspokenness on Chinese human rights issues as relations between Washington and Beijing continue to deteriorate.

The official, Robert Destro, an assistant secretary of state, will serve as US special coordinator for Tibetan issues and will be tasked with “protecting the distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity of Tibetans, improving respect for their human rights, and much, much more”, said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Destro will also “lead US efforts to promote dialogue” between Beijing and the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, said Pompeo.
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Beijing and the Dalai Lama’s representatives last met in 2010.

02:53

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One of Destro’s first acts in his new role will be receiving senior officials from the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) – the Tibetan government-in-exile – at the State Department on Thursday, according to Ngodup Tsering, who serves as North American envoy for both the India-based CTA and the Dalai Lama.

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