A new government headed by Donald Trump has taken charge in United States. The Tibetan government-in-exile has expressed hope that the American leader would nudge China to restart the Sino-Tibetan dialogue process to resolve the issue of Tibet. Earlier President Bill Clinton had called China a strategic partner; President George W. Bush said China was more of a strategic competitor. During President Obama’s time, China directly expressed its desire that its relations with the United States be recognised as being a “new type of major power relations”. The Obama administration has not done this; rather it has done a pivot or rebalancing to Asia where relations with countries around China were strengthened, or efforts made towards that direction. They are hoping that the new dispensation at Washington would respect the landmark Tibetan Policy Act, 2002 passed in the US Congress to support the aspirations of the Tibetan people to safeguard their distinct identity. The situation inside Tibet under the Chinese Government’s intensive political repression continues to remain grim and alarming despite China’s lofty claims of having liberated and developed Tibet for the past 66 years. Since 2009 over 145 Tibetans in Tibet have resorted to self-immolation in protest against China’s rule in Tibet, calling for freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet. Successive Presidents of the United States have met His Holiness the Dalai Lama and encouraged the Chinese Government to resume the Sino-Tibetan dialogue. It is felt that under Trump’s presidency as well, the United States will continue this longstanding tradition and will re-energise the international effort to resolve the issue of Tibet amicably with China based on the Middle Way Approach. Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959 after the Chinese invasion of Tibet. The Tibetan government-in-exile has been based in Dhramshala a hill town in Himachal Pradesh since then.
