It took only 24 hours to mobilize China’s pro-CCP establishment, including its Three-Self and Catholic branches, to repeat the usual anti-Tibetan lies.
by Lopsang Gurung
On July 12, President Joe Biden signed into law the ‘‘Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Dispute Act,’’ known as the Resolve Tibet Act. The historical law explicitly states that CCP’s claims that Tibet has been part of China since ancient times are false and calls for the US diplomacy to counter Chinese disinformation and propaganda. It also states that the problem of Tibet should be solved through international dialogue from which China cannot exclude the Dalai Lama and his representatives.
It took only twenty-four hours for the CCP to answer and quickly assemble a symposium condemning the Resolve Tibet Act.
On July 13, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a symposium “strongly condemning” the Act. It was chaired by Zhang Yijiong, the Director of the Nationalities and Religious Affairs Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, and attended by Deputy Directors Jiang Jianguo, Bian Bazaxi, Li Shan, Li Guangfu, Yang Faming, Xu Xiaohong, Yan Jue and more than twenty CPPCC National Committee members, sixteen members of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, representatives of the ethnic minority communities. The leaders of the government-controlled Buddhist, Taoist, Islamic, Catholic, and Protestant groups also spoke.
In short, the CCP mobilized against the Resolve Tibet Act the whole pro-Party religious establishment. Those in the West who maintain a “dialogue” with the Three-Self Church, the Patriotic Catholic Church, and the other pro-CCP religious bodies should reflect on the fact that these organizations are willing to endorse immediately even the most obnoxious CCP claims.
The speakers called the Act “sinister,” “a farce,” and an interference in China’s internal affairs. The final press release insisted that “Tibet has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times, and the Tibetan people are members of the Chinese nation. This has long been determined by history, supported by the people, and recognized by the world. This will never change and cannot change at any time… The US and the Dalai Lama group have willfully distorted history and openly denied the objective fact that Tibet’s sovereignty belongs to China, which has greatly hurt the feelings of all Chinese people, including the Tibetan people. This is a typical American bullying behavior.”
No doubt, “useful idiots” and “fellow travelers” will start being mobilized abroad too against the Act, parroting the same Chinese propaganda lies against the Tibetans and the Dalai Lama. The reaction, on the other hand, shows that this time the CCP has been hit where it hurts.