China hopes US envoy in Tibet to be ‘unbiased’
During his visit, Branstad is due to have meetings with local officials and visit religious and cultural heritage sites.
Beijing: China, which granted a rare permit for US Ambassador Terry Branstad to visit Tibet, on Monday hoped that the American envoy would make an ‘unbiased judgement’ about the conditions in the Himalayan region especially on religion and the Tibetan culture.
Branstad was travelling to China’s Qinhai province and the bordering Tibet Autonomous Region from May 19 to May 25, making the first trip by an American envoy to the highly restricted area in four years.
During his visit, Branstad is due to have meetings with local officials and visit religious and cultural heritage sites. His visit is taking place amid escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies.
China's permission to him came after US early this year passed Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act of 2018 warning equal and reciprocal measures if Beijing denied access to American citizens, government officials and journalists to Tibet, the homeland of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
The new law would impose a visa ban on Chinese officials who deny American citizens, government officials and journalists access to Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, crossed the border into India following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet on March 31, 1959.