Washington: The US State Department in its recent two reports exposed the severity of China’s repression in Tibet while also stressing the need for greater efforts to deal with this repression and calling for a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Tibet-China conflict, a report has stated.
The 2026 Report to Congress on Access to Tibetan Areas, which covers the 2025 calendar year and continues to be mandated by the 2018 Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, states that China restricts journalists, diplomats and tourists from visiting Tibet, International Campaign for Tibet detailed in a report. The 2025 Report to Congress on Tibet Negotiations was also released in April.
According to the Access Report, many of the same restrictions for travelling into the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) remained in effect in 2025, with permits needed for travelling into the region and intimidation by Chinese officials for foreigners visiting Tibetan areas. Notably, consular officials from the US embassy in Beijing travelled to TAR for an official visit in September last year, the first allowed since 2019. US consular officials met with the TAR Foreign Affairs Office and major tour operators and visited hospitals and cultural sites.
The TAR is the only region of China where foreigners, including diplomats and foreign officials, need to have special permits to travel. US officials visited Tibetan areas outside the TAR; however, meetings with local officials or offices were sometimes denied, and US officials often faced intimidation and harassment by Chinese officials through conspicuous surveillance when they were in Tibetan areas.
According to the report, the tourists and journalists continue to face restricted access to the Tibet Autonomous Region and nearly all US journalists were not allowed to travel to the region, according to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China. US journalists who were able to report from Tibet faced intimidation by Chinese officials.
US citizens with Tibetan heritage experience more strict screenings than other Americans when applying for permits, and many Tibetan Americans report self-censoring their behaviour in the US over fear of retribution against their family members in Tibet, according to a report in the International Campaign for Tibet.
The Negotiations Report stated that the US has made several statements on Tibet and demanded an end to human rights abuses in Tibet by the Chinese government. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a social media post and statement, wished people on Losar, the Tibetan New Year, where he reaffirmed the US’ commitment to “protecting the universal, fundamental, and inalienable human rights of Tibetans” in February 2025.
In a report, the International Campaign for Tibet stated, “While it is critically important for the US to call out the human rights abuses in Tibet, the report documents a failure to meaningfully engage the Chinese government on the resumption of Sino-Tibetan dialogue. No formal negotiations have occurred between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama or his representatives since 2010, and the 2025 Report to Congress on Tibet Negotiations does not highlight any specific appeals for the resumption of dialogue made by US officials.”
(IANS)
