Key facts
- Penpa Tsering said Trump has never mentioned Tibet or human rights in his dealings with China.
- Tsering said Tibet was not on the presidential agenda as Washington focuses on trade and security.
- Tsering said State Department foreign assistance cuts halved money for Tibet last year.
- Tsering said he did not expect Tibet to feature in Trump's planned meetings with Xi Jinping.
- Tsering said the US remained the exile movement's most important international partner.
Penpa Tsering, leader of Tibet's government-in-exile, told Reuters in an interview on November 11 that human rights appeared absent from US President Donald Trump's dealings with China. He said Trump "has never mentioned Tibet, he has never mentioned human rights" during a visit to Washington.
Tsering said US support for Tibet remained broadly stable under the Trump administration, but Tibet was not on the agenda at the presidential level as Washington focuses on trade, security and other priorities with China. He said the US remained the Tibetan exile movement's most important international partner and that Tibet enjoyed strong bipartisan backing in Congress.
He said his Central Tibetan Administration continued to engage with the State Department, and noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was a longtime champion of Tibet-related legislation when he was a senator. While State Department foreign assistance cuts halved money for Tibet last year, Tsering expressed optimism that full funding would be restored later this year.
Tsering said he did not expect Tibet to feature in Trump's planned meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at next week's APEC summit or at the G20 summit in Florida next month, and suggested this may be preferable to becoming a bargaining chip in broader US-China negotiations. "Maybe sometimes it's better that way," he said. "Instead of becoming a bargaining chip. And China is very good in creating leverages."
He said Western governments had become overly focused on trade and economic ties with China while neglecting rights concerns, strengthening China's power in the process. "Knowing that the dragon is biting at you, if you still keep feeding them, then whose fault is it?" he said.