Trump defies China, signs bill on next Dalai Lama

US president Donald Trump has signed a bill which calls for establishing a US consulate in Tibet and building an international coalition to ensure that the next Dalai Lama is appointed solely by the Tibetan Buddhist community without China's interference. The Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 modifies and re-authorises various programmes and provisions related to Tibet. Trump signed the act on Sunday as part of the massive USD 2.3 trillion package for the year-end bill to provide long-delayed Corona relief package. The US Senate last week unanimously passed the bill despite China's protest.

As news of the new law emerged on Monday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing had firmly rejected the US legislation and “Tibet-related issues are domestic affairs”. President Xi Jinping’s China, which regards the exiled Dalai Lama as a dangerous “splittist”, or separatist, claims that Beijing’s approval is a must for choosing the successor to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

The legislation, which calls for the establishment of a US consulate in Tibet’s main city of Lhasa, also asserts the absolute right of Tibetans to choose a successor to the 14th Dalai Lama  and the preservation of Tibet’s environment. The US law that aims to build an international coalition to ensure that China does not interfere with the selection of the next Dalai comes against the backdrop of Beijing appointing its own Panchen Lama after arresting a boy Gedhun Choekyi Nyima in May 1995 who was identified by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-most senior figure in Tibetan Buddhism’s largest school. Human rights groups had called the Panchen Lama as the world’s youngest political prisoner. He was just six when he disappeared.

“This legislation sends a powerful message of hope and justice to the Tibetans inside Tibet and bolsters US support for the protection of Tibetan people’s religious freedom, human rights, environmental rights and exile Tibetan democracy like never before,” said Lobsang Sangay, president of Central Tibetan Administration in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala said in a statement.