{"id":12232,"date":"2019-03-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/nieuws\/new-state-dept-report-shows-us-is-serious-about-ending-isolation-of-tibet-for-americans\/"},"modified":"2019-03-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-24T23:00:00","slug":"new-state-dept-report-shows-us-is-serious-about-ending-isolation-of-tibet-for-americans","status":"publish","type":"nieuws","link":"https:\/\/savetibet.nl\/en\/news\/new-state-dept-report-shows-us-is-serious-about-ending-isolation-of-tibet-for-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"New State Dept. report shows US is serious about ending isolation of Tibet for Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new State Department report denouncing China for \u201csystematically\u201d impeding Americans\u2019 travel to Tibet shows the US government is serious about implementing the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act (RATA). The report also clearly shows that the widespread discrimination, and in some cases amounting almost to harassment, perpetrated by Beijing against Americans to enforce the complete isolation of Tibet from the outside world, won\u2019t be accepted any longer in Washington.<\/p>\n

The report, released March 25, 2019, documents outrageous attempts by Chinese authorities to keep Americans out of Tibet in 2018, including repeatedly denying requests to visit from the US ambassador and other US officials, directly threatening to expel journalists and cruelly preventing Tibetan-Americans from seeing their homeland, which has been in the grips of a brutal Chinese occupation for the past 60 years.<\/p>\n

The report is the first significant outcome of the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act (RATA), which was signed into law on Dec. 19, 2018<\/a> and takes aim at China\u2019s double standard of denying US diplomats, reporters and tourists entry to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas under Chinese control even though Chinese bureaucrats, state media and ordinary citizens are free to travel throughout the US.<\/p>\n

The first standalone Tibet legislation to ever make it through Congress, RATA requires the State Department to revoke or deny US visas to the Chinese officials substantially involved in creating and executing policies that keep Americans out of Tibet.<\/p>\n\n

Implementing reciprocity<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The department is required to provide a list of banned Chinese officials, and of those who were substantially involved in the formulation or execution of policies to restrict access of US citizens to Tibet by the end of 2019. This report is the first major requirement of RATA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report from the State Department shows that the United States government is serious about implementing the Reciprocal Access to Tibet Act, and that systematic discrimination against US citizens won\u2019t be accepted in silence any longer,\u201d said Matteo Mecacci, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, an international advocacy organization based in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

Mecacci added: \u201cThe demand for China to respect reciprocity with the US has now moved past the issue of trade to freedom of movement. Such demand should expand to other civil liberties such as freedom of information and academic freedom. Now, unless the Chinese government stops its isolation of Tibet from the outside world, Chinese officials will most likely be denied visas to the United States by the State Department, and this will happen with the full support of the US Congress and the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Egregious examples<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The report provides many egregious examples of China blocking Americans\u2019 access to Tibet in 2018:<\/p>\n\n