US State department report on Tibet a month overdue, congressional sources say
- Report is required by Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, which bars US visas to Chinese officials who have restricted diplomats’ access to Tibet
- Report, which names those officials, was due in December, and bipartisan congressional frustration is said to grow
When the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act became law 13 months ago, it held the Trump administration to a stringent commitment: block any Chinese official who was involved in restricting foreign diplomats’ access to Tibet from stepping foot on American soil.
The administration was also required – one year after the bill’s enactment on December 19, 2018 – to provide the US Congress with a report that included a list of the individuals barred from entering the US or stripped of their visas.
Roughly a month since that deadline came and went, though, lawmakers are still waiting for the report, according to three congressional sources. And bipartisan frustration in both the House of Representatives and the Senate is growing.
In light of what one House aide described as the Trump administration’s “extremely lax” approach to the “letter of the law”, pressure from Congress on the US State Department to produce the Tibet report is happening “on a bicameral and bipartisan basis”.
Beijing claims that the Tibetan autonomous region is open to all foreigners, but the US disputes that.
