SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reciprocal Access to 
Tibet Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Government of the People’s Republic of 
China does not grant United States diplomats and 
other officials, journalists, and other citizens access 
to China on a basis that is reciprocal to the access 
that the Government of the United States grants 
Chinese diplomats and other officials, journalists, 
and citizens. 
(2) The Government of China imposes greater 
restrictions on travel to Tibetan areas than to other 
areas of China. 
(3) Officials of China have stated that Tibet is 
open to foreign visitors. 
(4) The Government of China is promoting 
tourism in Tibetan areas, and at the Sixth Tibet 
Work Forum in August 2015, Premier Li Keqiang 
called for Tibet to build ‘‘major world tourism des-
tinations’’. 
(5) The Government of China requires for-
eigners to obtain permission from the Tibet Foreign 
and Overseas Affairs Office or from the Tibet Tour-
ism Bureau to enter the Tibet Autonomous Region,
a restriction that is not imposed on travel to any 
other provincial-level jurisdiction in China. 
(6) The Department of State reports that— 
(A) officials of the Government of the 
United States submitted 39 requests for diplo-
matic access to the Tibet Autonomous Region 
between May 2011 and July 2015, but only 
four were granted; and 
(B) when such requests are granted, diplo-
matic personnel are closely supervised and given 
few opportunities to meet local residents not ap-
proved by authorities. 
(7) The Government of China delayed United 
States consular access for more than 48 hours after 
an October 28, 2013, bus crash in the Tibet Autono-
mous Region, in which three citizens of the United 
States died and more than a dozen others, all from 
Walnut, California, were injured, undermining the 
ability of the Government of the United States to 
provide consular services to the victims and their 
families, and failing to meet China’s obligations 
under the Convention on Consular Relations, done 
at Vienna April 24, 1963 (21 UST 77). 
(8) Following a 2015 earthquake that trapped 
dozens of citizens of the United States in the Tibet
Autonomous Region, the United States Consulate 
General in Chengdu faced significant challenges in 
providing emergency consular assistance due to a 
lack of consular access. 
(9) The Country Reports on Human Rights 
Practices for 2015 of the Department of State stat-
ed ‘‘With the exception of a few highly controlled 
trips, the Chinese government also denied multiple 
requests by foreign diplomats for permission to visit 
the TAR.’’. 
(10) Tibetan-Americans, attempting to visit 
their homeland, report having to undergo a discrimi-
natory visa application process, different from what 
is typically required, at the Chinese embassy and 
consulates in the United States, and often find their 
requests to travel denied. 
(11) The Country Reports on Human Rights 
Practices for 2016 of the Department of State stat-
ed ‘‘The few visits to the TAR by diplomats and 
journalists that were allowed were tightly controlled 
by local authorities.’’. 
(12) A September 2016 article in the Wash-
ington Post reported that ‘‘The Tibet Autonomous 
Region . . . is harder to visit as a journalist than 
North Korea.’’.
(13) The Government of China has failed to re-
spond positively to requests from the Government of 
the United States to open a consulate in Lhasa, 
Tibet Autonomous Region. 
(14) The Foreign Correspondents Club of 
China reports that— 
(A) 2008 rules prevent foreign reporters 
from visiting the Tibet Autonomous Region 
without prior permission from the Government 
of such Region; 
(B) such permission has only rarely been 
granted; and 
(C) although the 2008 rules allow journal-
ists to travel freely in other parts of China, Ti-
betan areas outside such Region remain ‘‘effec-
tively off-limits to foreign reporters’’. 
(15) The Department of State reports that in 
addition to having to obtain permission to enter the 
Tibet Autonomous Region, foreign tourists— 
(A) must be accompanied at all times by a 
government-designated tour guide; 
(B) are rarely granted permission to enter 
the region by road;
(C) are largely barred from visiting around 
the March anniversary of a 1959 Tibetan upris-
ing; and 
(D) are banned from visiting the area 
where Larung Gar, the world’s largest center 
for the study of Tibetan Buddhism, and the site 
of a large-scale campaign to expel students and 
demolish living quarters, is located. 
(16) Foreign visitors also face restrictions in 
their ability to travel freely in Tibetan areas outside 
the Tibet Autonomous Region. 
(17) The Government of the United States gen-
erally allows journalists and other citizens of China 
to travel freely within the United States. The Gov-
ernment of the United States requires diplomats 
from China to notify the Department of State of 
their travel plans, and in certain situations, the Gov-
ernment of the United States requires such dip-
lomats to obtain approval from the Department of 
State before travel. However, where approval is re-
quired, it is almost always granted expeditiously. 
(18) The United States regularly grants visas 
to Chinese diplomats and other officials, scholars, 
and others who travel to the United States to dis-
cuss, promote, and display the perspective of the
Government of China on the situation in Tibetan 
areas, even as the Government of China restricts the 
ability of citizens of the United States to travel to 
Tibetan areas to gain their own perspective. 
(19) Chinese diplomats based in the United 
States generally avail themselves of the freedom to 
travel to United States cities and lobby city councils, 
mayors, and governors to refrain from passing reso-
lutions, issuing proclamations, or making statements 
of concern on Tibet. 
(20) The Government of China characterizes 
statements made by officials of the United States 
about the situation in Tibetan areas as inappro-
priate interference in the internal affairs of China. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-
mittees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations 
and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-
ate; and 
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
Representatives.