More than 60 Democratic and Republican members of Congress on Tuesday called on President Joe Biden to meet with the Dalai Lama, so as not to abandon Tibet to its fate.
Since 1991 and the presidency of George Bush Sr., every president - with the exception of Donald Trump - has met the Tibetan spiritual guide who, at 86, has slowed the pace of his diplomatic trips.
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In similar letters, 38 senators and 27 elected representatives of the House of Representatives also ask US diplomacy to push Beijing to resume dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama, the last having been held 12 years ago.
"President Biden can highlight the importance of the moral message, of His Holiness example by inviting him to meet him in the Oval Office"
of the White House, reads the letter. Focusing on Tibet would be a
"visible manifestation of a diplomacy of principles which gives priority to human rights and the defense of human dignity"
, say in their joint letter the senators Marco Rubio, Republican, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat.
If the Dalai Lama cannot come, elected officials suggest sending Vice President Kamala Harris or another high American representative to India, where the Nobel Peace Prize winner (1989) has lived since the Chinese offensive on Tibet in 1959. China's lack of interest in dialogue leads many observers to believe that Beijing is awaiting his death, hoping that the movement it initiated to defend Tibet will gradually fade without the figure of this Buddhist monk, who has become a world icon. In their letters, the elected officials urge the Biden administration to keep the pressure on Beijing so that the Chinese authorities do not interfere in the selection of the successor of the 14th Dalai Lama, some fearing that they are seeking to impose someone from docile.
The Dalai Lama has not met with former President Donald Trump.
He had criticized his lack of
"moral principles"
and his positions on climate change and the rights of migrants.
According to an indiscretion from the book by John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, the president had refused US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley to meet with him for fear of robbing China, with whom he was negotiating a trade deal.
The former Republican president subsequently became very critical of Beijing.
And his administration, like that of Biden after him, has raised criticism of China's treatment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, which they have called genocide.