The Resolve Tibet Act: A historic development and an opportunity

Coming less than a week after Tibetans around the world celebrated the 89th birthday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, this news brought with it a renewed sense of joy and hope to all those advocating for the just cause of Tibet.

There was already much anticipation among the Tibetans about impending big news for Tibet when a bipartisan U.S. high-level delegation, led by Representative Michael McCaul, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and including long-time Tibet supporters like Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Representative Jim McGovern, travelled to Dharamshala for an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama – during which they presented His Holiness with a framed copy of the Act on 19 June 2024. China had pressurised the delegation against embarking on this visit, unsuccessfully. The Central Tibetan Administration organised a fitting felicitation ceremony in honour of the visiting delegation where the US lawmakers reiterated their continued strong support for Tibet.

I thank President Biden for signing the Act into law and more importantly all the US House Representatives and Senators for unanimously passing Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act and underlining unequivocally strong US support for Tibet and its people. With the prolonged impasse in the Sino-Tibetan dialogue process, since January 2010, this proactive US legislation provides the much-needed impetus to bring China to act rather than let the status quo continue.

China’s response to this was unsurprisingly quick and strong. Its Foreign Ministry Spokesperson remarked that the new US law “grossly interfered in China’s domestic affairs, undermined China’s interests, and sent a severely wrong signal to the “Tibet independence” forces.”

​The Resolve Tibet Act represents a significant advancement for Tibet’s international advocacy. I express my heartfelt thanks to all the Tibet advocates, Tibet supporters, friendly Senators and Representatives in the US, who worked at every stage to turn this idea into a bill and pushed for the bill to become law. This remarkable success has demonstrated yet again the impact of all stakeholders working together in a coordinated strategic manner thereby laying down a blueprint for others to replicate. Now other governments must follow suit.

Here in the UK, we now have a new Labour government, led by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. I welcome the Labour’s pledge in their election manifesto to conduct a comprehensive audit of its China policy and its determination to hold to account those responsible for atrocities. We need a government that goes beyond rhetoric and walks the talk. 

I place my hopes on PM Starmer, who in the late 1990s provided his professional services pro bono as a human rights lawyer to Tibet Support Groups and individuals against the Metropolitan Police for their unlawful action in masking and preventing demonstrations against the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, during his State Visit in 1997. More recently, in his opening address at the plenary session of the European Political Community on 18 July, PM Starmer remarked that the dignity of every human being is the very essence of what it is to be human and committed to protecting it. Under the brutal occupation of the People’s Republic of China, Tibetans inside Tibet are denied a life of human dignity. UN experts have expressed alarm that close to a million Tibetan children, some as young as four years, separated from their parents and families, are put into Chinese colonial residential schools to be assimilated into the majority Han culture. I hope that PM Starmer will support the human dignity of all oppressed people like the Uyghurs, Falun Gong practitioners, Hongkongers and Tibetans.

It was under a previous Labour government that in October 2008 the UK changed its official policy on Tibet by giving the People’s Republic of China complete sovereignty over Tibet. This flawed position ought to be revoked. Advocating for a Tibet legislation similar to the Resolve Tibet Act provides us with an opportunity to work towards addressing this. We, at Free Tibet, working with our allies will be pushing for this. 

We understand that it is not going to be easy. Our comparatively smaller Tibetan Community in Britain and our supporters need to punch way above our weight, by engaging our youth and through strategic advocacy efforts, to effect positive and meaningful change for Tibet. This is for the long term.

In the meantime, some of our immediate advocacy goals include working towards re-establishing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tibet in the new parliament, reaching out to the hundreds of new MPs to advocate for Tibet and enlist their support and getting a Westminster Hall debate to discuss China’s human rights abuses on ethnic nationalities and its citizens.

There have been some changes in the APPG Tibet, with some MPs departing. I extend my gratitude to Tim Loughton, former Co-Chair of the APPG Tibet, and former members Sir Peter Bottomley and Marion Fellows for their support for Tibet and all they have done for the cause. I have no doubt they will remain staunch friends of Tibet.   

I also congratulate those returning members and offer a warm welcome to any new MPs who are willing to support the Tibetan cause. There is much work to be done for Tibet.

As we move forward, we remain hopeful and committed to advocating for Tibet’s freedom and self-determination, ensuring that the voices of the Tibetan people are heard and respected worldwide.

Tenzin Kunga
Advocacy Officer, Free Tibet