US sends message to China, starts direct funding to exiled Tibet govt in India

The United States has for the first time directly provided funds to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile based in India, a move likely to rile up China.

The US Agency for International Development or the USAID has committed to providing nearly $ 1 million to the Social and Resources Development Fund (SARD Fund)—a non-profit organisation set up by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGiE), formally known as Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and based at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.

This is the first time any US government agency has provided funds directly to the TGiE, signalling a subtle move by President Donald Trump’s administration towards acknowledging a political entity spearheading the campaign against China’s occupation of and continued rule over Tibet.

The US move came amid the military stand-off between India and China in eastern Ladakh

“This funding signifies the US government’s support to the Central Tibetan Administration and the Tibetan community,” Kaydor Aukatsang, the Director of the SARD Fund of the CTA, told the DH on Monday.

The Dalai Lama set up the CTA on April 29, 1959, just a few weeks after he escaped from Tibet and arrived in India. The CTA calls itself the “continuation of the government of independent Tibet”.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama and the CTA of running a separatist campaign against China. Though New Delhi publicly maintains that the Dalai Lama was an honoured guest of India, it never formally acknowledged the CTA as the exiled government of the erstwhile independent Tibet. China has always objected to India’s tacit support to the CTA and often demanded its closure.

The CTA set up the SARD Fund in 1997 to help mobilise resources and support development efforts of Tibetans living in South Asia. The Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India allowed it “to receive any amount of donations and foreign contribution for relief and development purposes”.

The direct funding by the USAID was an acknowledgement of “the capacity of the SARD as an international development agency to receive and manage such assistance”, said Aukatsang. The SARD earlier received financial support from the foreign governments through intermediary non-profit organizations. The USAID fund of $997,124 to the SARD fund of the CTA is intended to support “strengthening the financial and cultural resilience of the Tibetan people and contribute towards a sustained resilience of the Tibetan people’s economic and cultural identity.”

The US has been slamming China over the past few weeks for its military aggression, not only along its disputed boundary with India in eastern Ladakh but also in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. The US Navy deployed its two aircraft carrier strike groups – USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan – in the South China Sea, in response to maritime muscle-flexing by the communist country.

President Donald Trump’s administration also imposed visa restrictions on some officials of the Chinese Government and the Communist Party of China (CPC) as they were allegedly involved “in the formulation or execution of policies” denying access for foreigners” to Tibet. The move was in accordance with the US Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018. The law allowed the Trump Administration to bar Chinese Government and the CPC officials from entering America if it is found that they had a role in denying permission to the US citizens, journalists and diplomats to Tibet.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently accused the Chinese government of human rights abuses in Tibet and said that the US remained committed to “meaningful autonomy” for the Tibetans.

The US also imposed visa-restrictions and economic sanctions on the Chinese government and the CPC officials for atrocities on the Uighurs and violation of human rights in Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. The Trump Administration also initiated similar measures for the Chinese government’s officials “responsible for, or complicit in, undermining Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy”. The move came after China imposed a new National Security Law in Hong Kong, which critics say would undermine the “one country, two systems” notion that the communist country had promised for the territory for 50 years while taking it back from the United Kingdom in 1997.

China too retaliated to the US move to impose visa restrictions on its officials.