I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1872 
To promote access for United States officials, journalists, and other citizens 
to Tibetan areas of the People’s Republic of China, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 4, 2017 
Mr. MCGOVERN (for himself, Mr. HULTGREN, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. ROHR-
ABACHER, Mr. POCAN, Mr. STEWART, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. ELLISON, 
Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. KEATING, Mr. NEAL, 
Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. WELCH, Mr. CON-
NOLLY, and Mr. POLIS) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speak-
er, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the ju-
risdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To promote access for United States officials, journalists, 
and other citizens to Tibetan areas of the People’s Re-
public of China, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reciprocal Access to 
Tibet Act of 2017’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Government of the People’s Republic of 
China does not grant United States officials, jour-
nalists, and other citizens access to China on a basis 
that is reciprocal to the access that the Government 
of the United States grants Chinese officials, jour-
nalists, 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— 
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(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 
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