Tibetan govt-in-exile slams China over Doklam

The Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGIE), based in India, said the incursion of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Doklam Plateau in Bhutan was a sign of the “expansionist foreign policy of China”.

The statement was made by Lobsang Sangay, the Sikyong (President) of the TGIE. He also extended full support to India, which had sent its troops to Doklam Plateau to stop PLA personnel from building a road.

Sangay made the remarks while speaking at an event at Hansraj College in Delhi earlier this week.

According to a report, on the official website of the TGIE — officially Central Tibetan Administration — Sangay decried China’s “nationalistic design”, which was “increasingly becoming apparent” in its stands on South China Sea, East China Sea and Scarborough Island, as well as in the increasing border incursions across the MacMohan Line, and now at Doklam.

“In early 1950s, the then chairman of People’s Republic of China termed Tibet China’s right hand palm and added that Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh are its five fingers. Therefore, China’s flexing of its military muscle is a manifestation of its decades old strategy to encircle and weaken India,” said Sangay, who was elected the head of TGIE in both 2011 and 2016.

Sangay, according to a report on the TGIE’s official  website, also cautioned India to stay alert on the Doklam Plateau face-off.

“I always tell India and the world to take heed of the Tibet narrative. We have been telling India for the last 50 years that what happened to us (Tibet) could happen to you,” he said.