Image: archivenet

We have a question for the State Department and its various agencies, over which it either has influence or funds; including Radio Free Asia (RFA)!

Once the recently passed ‘Resolve Tibet Act’ is signed into law by President Biden can Tibetans be confident that U.S. support for Tibet will empower State Department officials to actively and directly counter disinformation about Tibet from the Chinese government, such as actively rejecting false claims that Tibet has been part of China since “ancient times”?

For decades US policy has been one of not only accepting China’s fact-free claims on Tibet, but affirming and promoting the lie that Tibet is part of China.

RFA, a supposedly impartial and respected news agency, has an entire department dedicated to reportage on Tibet. However their coverage, although exposing human rights issues and highlighting the oppressive nature of Chinese rule in Tibet, consistently amplifies Chinese propaganda in regard to Tibetan territory. Its maps are those approved and peddled by the Chinese Regime, while its editors ensure reports use phrases that have a worrying similarity to the disinformation issued by China’s Foreign Ministry.

Image: archivenet

It is time to end such troubling appeasement! On that call we remind RFA Editors Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster that there are no “Tibetan areas” within Sichuan province; a description which they repeatedly approve and feature. In truth those locations are part of occupied Tibet’s eastern region of Kham!

This post was originally published on Digital Activism In Support Of Tibetan Independence.