US tacitly lends legitimacy to Tibetan Government in Exile, hosts its leader in State Department

The United States has for the first time hosted the head of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGiE) at the State Department in Washington DC – making yet another subtle move to endorse the entity based in India and sending out a message to China.

Lobsang Sangay, the ‘Sikyong’ or the President of the TGiE, was hosted by Robert A Destro, whom President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this week appointed as the US Special Coordinator for issues related to Tibet triggering strong protest from China.

Though the past US Presidents like H W Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama had hosted the Dalai Lama at the White House in Washington DC, Trump never had a meeting with the icon of the global resistance against Chinese Government’s rule in Tibet.

But the US government’s latest move to host the TGiE chief at the State Department just a couple of weeks before the US presidential elections signalled not only a course-correction by the Trump Administration, but also a subtle recognition of the entity, which is elected by the Tibetans living in exile in India, the US and other countries around the world and which is being primed for leading the struggle to free Tibet from China’s occupation beyond the lifetime of octogenarian Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama set up the TGiE – formally called Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) - on April 29, 1959, just a few weeks after he arrived in India following his escape from Tibet, which had been occupied by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in 1950-51. The CTA, which has its headquarters in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, calls itself the “continuation of the government of independent Tibet”.

“Today’s unprecedented meeting further strengthens the narrative that the Central Tibetan Administration will be treated akin to other governments by the US State Department, and it is yet another significant win for Tibetans and allies,” said Sangay, who was first elected as the TGiE chief in 2011 and was re-elected to the post in 2016.

The US earlier this year for the first time directly provided funds to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile based in India – a move, which also irked China.

The Trump Administration’s moves to lend a degree of legitimacy to the TGiE came amid escalating tension between the US and China. The US President, himself, as well as other top officials of his administration has over the past few months launched a tirade against China, slamming the communist country for its belligerence, not only along its disputed boundary with India, but also in the disputed waters of the South China Sea and East China Sea as well as in the Taiwan Strait.

Destro’s appointment as the new US Special Coordinator for the issues related to Tibet was strongly opposed by China, which called itself a move by the American Government to interfere in the internal matters of India.

Beijing in the past pressed the Government of India hard to shut down the TGiE. New Delhi, however, has been allowing it to function, albeit without officially recognizing it. And, even as the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA are now engaged in a stand-off in eastern Ladakh, New Delhi has given a quiet unofficial nod to the TGiE to hold a global election early next year to let the exiled Tibetans elect a new ‘Sikyong’.