Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act
Bill: S.5306 | Sponsor: Sen. Merkley, Jeff (D-OR)
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act
This bill addresses issues relating to Tibet, including by establishing a statutory definition of Tibet that includes areas in Chinese provinces outside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
For the purposes of U.S. policies and activities relating to Tibet, this bill defines Tibet to include the TAR and the Tibetan areas of the Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. (Generally, when China's government refers to Tibet, it means only the TAR, while Tibetan exile groups consider historical Tibet to include the TAR as well as areas in the provinces included in this bill's definition. China's government formally established the TAR in 1965.)
Furthermore, the objectives of the Office of the U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues shall include working to ensure that U.S. government statements and documents counter disinformation about Tibet by China's government and the Chinese Communist Party, including disinformation about Tibet's history and institutions. The bill also authorizes the office to take other actions to counter such disinformation.
This bill also states that it is U.S. policy that the conflict between Tibet and China is unresolved and that Tibet's legal status remains to be determined in accordance with international law.

To amend the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 to modify certain provisions of 
                               that Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-
China Conflict Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) It has been the long-standing policy of the United 
        States to encourage meaningful and direct dialogue between 
        People's Republic of China authorities and the Dalai Lama or 
        his representatives, without preconditions, to seek a 
        settlement that resolves differences.
            (2) Ten rounds of dialogue held between 2002 and 2010 
        between the People's Republic of China authorities and the 14th 
        Dalai Lama's representatives failed to produce a settlement 
        that resolved differences, and the two sides have not met since 
        January 2010.
            (3) An obstacle to further dialogue is that the Government 
        of the People's Republic of China continues to impose 
        conditions on His Holiness the Dalai Lama for a resumption of 
        dialogue, including a demand that he say that Tibet has been 
        part of China since ancient times, which the Dalai Lama has 
        refused to do because it is false.
            (4) United States Government statements that the United 
        States considers Tibet a part of the People's Republic of China 
        have reflected the reality on the ground that the Government of 
        the People's Republic of China has exerted effective control 
        over Tibet.
            (5) The United States Government has never taken the 
        position that Tibet was a part of China since ancient times or 
        that the means by which the Government of the People's Republic 
        of China came to exert effective control over Tibet was 
        consistent with international law or included the free or 
        meaningful consent of the Tibetan people.
            (6) United States Government documents dated January 9, 
        1919, June 1, 1944, June 17, 1949, April 4, 1951, December 3, 
        1951, March 23, 1961, and February 14, 1963, listed Tibet as an 
        entity separate and distinct from China.
            (7) Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and 
        Political Rights and Article 1 the International Covenant on 
        Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provide that ``All peoples 
        have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right 
        they freely determine their political status and freely pursue 
        their economic, social and cultural development.''.
            (8) Under international law, including United Nations 
        General Assembly Resolution 2625, the right to self-
        determination is the right of a people to determine its own 
        destiny and the exercise of this right can result in a variety 
        of outcomes ranging from independence, federation, protection, 
        some form of autonomy or full integration within a State.
            (9) United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1723, 
        adopted on December 20, 1961, called for the ``cessation of 
        practices which deprive the Tibetan people of their fundamental 
        human rights and freedoms, including their right to self-
        determination.''.
            (10) In a December 30, 1950, note to the Governments of the 
        United Kingdom and India, the Department of State wrote that 
        ``The United States, which was one of the early supporters of 
        the principle of self-determination of peoples, believes that 
        the Tibetan people has the same inherent right as any other to 
        have the determining voice in its political destiny. It is 
        believed further that, should developments warrant, 
        consideration could be given to recognition of Tibet as an 
        independent State.''.
            (11) In a June 2, 1951, telegram to the United States 
        Embassy in New Delhi, the State Department wrote that Tibet 
        should not ``be compelled by duress [to] accept [the] violation 
        [of] its autonomy'' and that the Tibetan people should ``enjoy 
        certain rights [of] self-determination, commensurate with [the] 
        autonomy Tibet has maintained since [the] Chinese 
        revolution.''.
            (12) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a May 26, 2022, 
        speech entitled ``The Administration's Approach to the People's 
        Republic of China,'' said that the rules-based international 
        order's ``founding documents include the UN Charter and the 
        Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which enshrined concepts 
        like self-determination, sovereignty, the peaceful settlement 
        of disputes. These are not Western constructs. They are 
        reflections of the world's shared aspirations.''.
            (13) The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 6901 note), 
        in directing the United States Government ``to promote the 
        human rights and distinct religious, cultural, linguistic, and 
        historical identity of the Tibetan people'' acknowledges that 
        the Tibetan people possess a distinct religious, cultural, 
        linguistic, and historical identity.
            (14) Department of State reports on human rights and 
        religious freedom have consistently documented repression by 
        the People's Republic of China authorities against Tibetans as 
        well as acts of defiance and resistance by Tibetan people 
        against the People's Republic of China policies.
            (15) Section 355 of the Foreign Relations Authorization 
        Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 (Public Law 102-138; 105 Stat. 
        713) stated that it is the sense of Congress that--
                    (A) ``Tibet, including those areas incorporated 
                into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, 
                and Qinghai, is an occupied country under the 
                established principles of international law'';
                    (B) ``Tibet's true representatives are the Dalai 
                Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile as recognized 
                by the Tibetan people'';
                    (C) ``Tibet has maintained throughout its history a 
                distinctive and sovereign national, cultural, and 
                religious identity separate from that of China and, 
                except during periods of illegal Chinese occupation, 
                has maintained a separate and sovereign political and 
                territorial identity'';
                    (D) ``historical evidence of this separate identity 
                may be found in Chinese archival documents and 
                traditional dynastic histories, in United States 
                recognition of Tibetan neutrality during World War II, 
                and in the fact that a number of countries including 
                the United States, Mongolia, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, 
                India, Japan, Great Britain, and Russia recognized 
                Tibet as an independent nation or dealt with Tibet 
                independently of any Chinese government'';
                    (E) ``1949-1950, China launched an armed invasion 
                of Tibet in contravention of international law'';
                    (F) ``it is the policy of the United States to 
                oppose aggression and other illegal uses of force by 
                one country against the sovereignty of another as a 
                manner of acquiring territory, and to condemn 
                violations of international law, including the illegal 
                occupation of one country by another''; and
                    (G) ``numerous United States declarations since the 
                Chinese invasion have recognized Tibet's right to self-
                determination and the illegality of China's occupation 
                of Tibet.''.
            (16) The joint explanatory statement to accompany division 
        K of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2022 
        (Public Law 117-103) states that ``Funds appropriated by the 
        Act should not be used to produce or disseminate documents, 
        maps, or other materials that recognize or identify Tibet, 
        including the Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan 
        autonomous counties and prefectures, as part of the PRC until 
        the Secretary of State reports to the appropriate congressional 
        committees that the Government of the PRC has reached a final 
        negotiated agreement on Tibet with the Dalai Lama or his 
        representatives or with democratically elected leaders of the 
        Tibetan people.''.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    It is the policy of the United States that--
            (1) the Tibetan people are a people entitled to the right 
        of self-determination under international law, including the 
        International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 
        International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 
        and that their ability to exercise this right is precluded by 
        the current policies of the People's Republic of China; and
            (2) the conflict between Tibet and the People's Republic of 
        China is unresolved, and that the legal status of Tibet remains 
        to be determined in accordance with international law.

SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) claims made by officials of the People's Republic of 
        China and the Chinese Communist Party that Tibet has been a 
        part of China since ancient times are historically false;
            (2) the Government of the People's Republic of China has 
        failed to meet the expectations of the United States to engage 
        in meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his 
        representatives toward a peaceful settlement of the unresolved 
        conflict between Tibet and the People's Republic of China; and
            (3) United States public diplomacy efforts should counter 
        disinformation about Tibet from the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, including 
        disinformation about the history of Tibet, the Tibetan people, 
        and Tibetan institutions including that of the Dalai Lama.

SEC. 5. MODIFICATIONS TO THE TIBETAN POLICY ACT OF 2002.

    (a) Tibet Negotiations.--Section 613(b) of the Tibetan Policy Act 
of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 6901 note) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (2), by striking ``and'' at the end;
            (2) in paragraph (3), by striking the period at the end and 
        inserting ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) efforts to counter disinformation about Tibet from 
        the Government of the People's Republic of China and the 
        Chinese Communist Party, including disinformation about the 
        history of Tibet, the Tibetan people, and Tibetan institutions 
        including that of the Dalai Lama.''.
    (b) United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues.--Section 
621(d) of the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 6901 note) is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (6), (7), and (8) as 
        paragraphs (7), (8), and (9), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following:
            ``(6) work to ensure that United States Government 
        statements and documents counter, as appropriate, 
        disinformation about Tibet from the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, including 
        disinformation about the history of Tibet, the Tibetan people, 
        and Tibetan institutions including that of the Dalai Lama;''.
    (c) Geographic Definition of Tibet.--The Tibetan Policy Act of 2002 
(22 U.S.C. 6901 note) is amended by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 622. GEOGRAPHIC DEFINITION OF TIBET.

    ``In this Act and in implementing policies relating to the Tibetan 
people under other provisions of law, the term `Tibet', unless 
otherwise specified, means--
            ``(1) the Tibet Autonomous Region; and
            ``(2) the Tibetan areas of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, and 
        Yunnan provinces.''.

SEC. 6. AVAILABILITY OF AMOUNTS TO COUNTER DISINFORMATION ABOUT TIBET.

    Amounts authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available 
to carry out section 201(c) of the Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 
2018 (22 U.S.C. 2292 et seq.) are authorized to be made available to 
counter disinformation about Tibet from the Government of the People's 
Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party, including 
disinformation about the history of Tibet, the Tibetan people, and 
Tibetan institutions including that of the Dalai Lama.
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