The United States will impose visa restrictions on Chinese officials to tackle “forcible assimilation” of Tibetan children in Chinese Communist Party-run boarding schools, the State Department said on Tuesday, without providing details or naming any officials.
“We urge PRC authorities to end the coercion of Tibetan children into government-run boarding schools and to cease repressive assimilation policies,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Kelsang Aukatsang, former North America representative for the Dalai Lama, said, “Almost 800,000 kids, right, from some as young as four years old, are being forcibly taken from their parents, and being sent to these boarding schools.”
“I think there’s a very systematic, and in some ways, a devious kind of a way of dismantling, you know, layer by layer, piece by piece. Different components, Tibetan culture, Tibetan identity.”
Shortly after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took over China in 1949, it sent troops to occupy Tibet in 1950. A year later, it gained control over Tibet and the devout. Tibet’s highest spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama, was forced to flee to India.
The CCP immediately lashed out over Washington’s travel curb, which blocks Chinese officials involved in the issue from entering the United States.
The CCP responded that Mr. Blinken should cancel the curbs immediately or be ready for a resolute response from the CCP.
The dispute erupted just ahead of the U.S. commerce secretary’s trip to Beijing next week.
Reuters contributed to this report.
