US president signs new Tibet Reciprocal Access bill into law despite threats from China

Washington – Without much regard to China’s warnings and threats, US President Donald Trump signed the bill for ‘Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act 2018’ officially making it a law. The law provides for the Chinese officials denying the US citizens entry into Tibet, to be denied a visa to the US. However, China has denounced the act and threatened the US with severe repercussions on the US-China relations.

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In 1951, China attacked Tibet and gained control over the region. Subsequently, China introduced aggressive policies to wipe out the religious and cultural identity of the Tibetan people. Also, China exercised strict control over Tibet so that the mainland’s atrocities over Tibetans could not be exposed to the world. As a result, China began denying most foreign tourists access to Tibet. As of today, US diplomats, journalists and tourists are always restricted access to the land. If at all a few tourists do receive permission to visit Tibet, the Chinese authorities tightly monitor their movements. Moreover, China always denies the Tibetan-Americans from making a pilgrimage to their ancestral land.

The Trump administration adopted a firm stand to counter the Chinese policy and put forth the bill for the ‘Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act 2018’ before the Senate. After receiving approval from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the bill was passed with the signature of the President. Henceforth, all Chinese officials denying access to US government officials, citizens and journalists would be denied a visa to the United States. It has thus delivered a sharp blow to China which had taken extreme efforts to conceal the repression in Tibet.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Hua Chunying threatened the United States that the decision would cause serious damage to the bilateral relations. Furthermore, the US decision would cause not only far-reaching effects but also set free and ease the Tibetan citizens struggling to save their religion and culture from the tyrannical Chinese rule.

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