Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), April 18, 2025 (ANI): President of Central Tibetan Administration, Sikyong Penpa Tsering speaks about Us-China Trade War and Reincarnation of 14th Dalai Lama. Talking to ANI, he said, “We are trying our best. We are ordinary people. His holiness is our leader... We always try to live up to his holiness expectations… If you look at the International political scenario, right now, the Chinese government has also issued notices to all the commerce Ministry staffers and the foreign Ministry staffers, that they should not take any leave, because right now they are busy handling US tariffs on China, which has gone up to 45% right now. They are lot more pressing issues…”
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00:00Just before the actual celebration of His Holiness' 98th birthday on July 6th,
00:07we'll be having three days of conference of religious leaders of all the Buddhist traditions and the pre-Buddhist religion called PON.
00:16So all the leaders will meet and the only document that is available on His Holiness' reincarnation is the September 2011 document
00:26wherein His Holiness says that when He reaches the age of 90, then He will consult the High Lamas and make some decisions.
00:34So perhaps on those three days of the meeting of the High Lamas from different traditions,
00:42perhaps His Holiness may make a statement regarding those things because He is the only one who can decide for Himself.
00:49So this is what we are looking forward to for the 90th birthday.
00:54What are Tibetan needs I am looking forward on, especially on the Sri Incarnation,
01:00also you individually as the second Sikyong of Tibetan representatives?
01:06Now His Holiness has been very consistent in His thinking.
01:10Since 1969, His Holiness always said that whether there should be a next Dalai Lama or not will be decided by the Tibetan people.
01:17So over the last several years, the head Lamas of all the traditions and the Tibetan community from all over the world have expressed their wish for His Holiness to reincarnate.
01:29So this is something that we have been doing because since if till this the 14 Dalai Lama is alive,
01:36there is nothing that the Chinese government can do about His Reincarnation.
01:40So there may be certain decisions regarding this.
01:43And the other thing, His Holiness has been very consistent is that He will be born in a free world.
01:49So if Tibet is not free, then His Holiness will not be born in Tibet.
01:53Because the system of reincarnation is very unique to Tibetan Buddhism.
01:58There are a lot of Buddhist countries in this world, but only Tibet has the system of reincarnation.
02:04And the whole idea of reincarnation is to believe in life after death.
02:09And for the Lama to be reborn to carry out His, the continuation of His responsibilities, not just to the Tibetan people, but also globally,
02:20to whoever is willing to listen or benefit from the teachings of the Buddha.
02:25So that way, His Holiness has been consistent.
02:29And there are two ways about it, that if Tibet is not free, he will not be born in Tibet.
02:33But the Chinese government will try appointing a Dalai Lama, that's for sure.
02:39They have been preparing this for a long time.
02:42And the only issue that concerns them is the reincarnation of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
02:47So they have three points.
02:48One is that the Dalai Lama should be born in Tibet and His reincarnation will be searched in Tibet.
02:55And the second point is that they have to use, the Tibetans will have to use the golden urn.
03:01And the third one is that the recognition should be certified by the government of China.
03:08So on the first issue, when it comes to these symbolic rituals, the first answer is very much clear in His Holiness statement that he will be born only in a free world.
03:26And on the second issue, there have been Dalai Lama from first Dalai Lama to seven Dalai Lama, even before the system of golden urn China introduced in Tibet,
03:40but which was not used by the Tibetans in its entirety.
03:43So that also shows that Dalai Lama can be searched even without golden urn.
03:49This is something the Chinese government used during the Manchu period, you want to use it for political purposes.
03:56And the third thing is that the Chinese government itself does not believe in religion.
04:02They don't believe in life after death.
04:03They don't believe in the system of reincarnation.
04:05So then how can the government be responsible for certifying a living Buddha, as they call it, or a reincarnated Lama, as we call it?
04:14So China will keep doing what they want to do.
04:18And we will, of course, do what we need to do, because we are the, because His Holiness is the one who is going to be reborn.
04:27He has to decide where he is going to be reborn. It's not the Chinese government who is going to be reborn.
04:33How are Tibetan people in exile, including the government in exile, apart from the, as you mentioned, the religious congregation,
04:41how would you be dealing with these Chinese tactics, as you say, they may install their own Dalai Lama?
04:47No, they have the power in China and they occupy Tibet, so they have control in Tibet right now.
04:52So they think that they can do whatever they want. They're not just occupied our country now.
04:57They are dictating terms to how we live our life, which makes it very difficult for Tibetans to live inside Tibet right now.
05:04The freedom that we take for granted in the free world does not exist.
05:10Today, you know, even using a mobile phone is a problem for the Tibetans,
05:16because you're always being accused of sending pictures out of Tibet, you know, when things happen, you know.
05:21So, Tibetans inside Tibet, we still believe that more than 95% of the Tibetans believe in His Holiness.
05:29And there's no question about faith of the Tibetans in diaspora to His Holiness.
05:34So, in that sense, whatever His Holiness decides, it will be abiding for the Tibetans in exile.
05:40And they are hoping for His Holiness to live very long.
05:44His Holiness keeps promising us, reassuring us, that He will live up to 113 years of age.
05:49And we believe that He will live up to 100.
05:51It's not just His Holiness himself wishing to live long, but also their propitious pre-signed that this Dalai Lama would live very long.
05:59As you mentioned, the year 2011, I believe it was the year that His Holiness, the Dalai Lama denounced his political power and gave it to the elected government.
06:11Do you think the elected government in exile were able to get up to the mark to fiscaliness, expectations?
06:20What is the status of dialogue process between government in exile and Chinese authorities?
06:27Now, we are trying our best.
06:28We are ordinary people.
06:30His Holiness is a leader that has no parallel in the world.
06:37So, we try to live up to His Holiness' expectations.
06:41One of our endeavour is to not trouble His Holiness with any of the issues that are going on.
06:48So, we should be able to manage all this on our own, reach out to governments for support, reach out also to Chinese government for possible negotiation, or at least re-establish in contact.
06:59So, those back channels I've always admitted that we have, but it's nothing of consequence right now.
07:05It does not produce any concrete results.
07:08And if you look at the international political scenario right now, Chinese government has also issued notices to all their Commerce Ministry staffers and the Foreign Ministry staffers that they should not take any leave,
07:22because right now they are busy handling U.S. tariffs on China, which has gone up to 245% right now.
07:29So, there are a lot more pressing issues.
07:32And if you also look at what Xi Jinping is doing inside Tibet, eradicating the very identity of the Tibetans, including language, religion, culture, way of life, protection of Tibet's environment,
07:46all those are not indicators of good faith, to develop good trust.
07:54So, even if we are able to re-establish contact, the possibility of something coming out seems to be quite remote right now.
08:03So, hopefully, if a more leadership with more common sense comes into the position, then there could be opportunities.
08:12Right now, of course, we have to keep our connection with the Chinese government, whether we are able to reach any conclusion or not,
08:23because that is the only way that the Sino-Tibet conflict can be resolved.
08:27But till such a time, we will keep reaching out to the international community.
08:31What were the reasons to hamper this time of process, which was started earlier?
08:38Process of...
08:39The Chinese authority.
08:39Yeah.
08:40Because there is no trust, basically.
08:43You know, when the negotiations started in 2002 till 2008, it was...
08:50Now, with the benefit of hindsight, you can see that what the Chinese government did at that time was to make sure that their coming-out party,
08:59the Olympics was organized in style, that they don't want any protest internationally when the Olympic torch goes around.
09:07So, they tried to bring the Tibet issue up at that time.
09:11Once the Olympic was over, then the dialogue also stopped.
09:15So, that shows China's motivation, which is only for their short-term gain, political gain, that they are trying to inform the international community that we are engaging with the Tibetans.
09:27But there is no real, true spirit of resolving the conflict permanently.
09:35So, when that is absent, then it's very difficult to have any forward movement in such dialogue.
09:43As you refer to this tariff war, as the head of the Tibetan government, the Tibetan government in exile, how do you see this tariff thing is going to affect Tibetan companies, because the USA was also stopped?
10:00We are still watching, because everybody is very confused right now.
10:04The whole world is confused, not just the Tibetans.
10:07And we are one small player in the global politics here.
10:11Whether we count or not, it's also a different matter.
10:14But global political situations does have impact on Tibet.
10:19So, whether Ukraine is so far away from Tibet, but all those conflicts also, resolutions of such conflicts will affect international relations between countries.
10:29And that also affects the situation inside Tibet.
10:32So, that is why we keep watching the international scenario right now, and particularly the trade war between China and the United States.
10:40It has escalated to a level that people could not imagine.
10:43Now, let us see where the next step is going to be.
10:46Because one thing we can understand is the United States is not at all comfortable with the trade deficit they have with China, more than 300 billion every single year.
10:55So, they need to balance, they want to balance that.
10:58Whether trade tariff is the only way to do it or not, I'm not an expert on that.
11:03But this is definitely leading to a trade war, a major trade war, which might take some time to resolve.
11:11These are not things that can be resolved simply.
11:14How is that activity, especially with China?
11:18I see. If you look at the Chinese economy right now, China is having a lot of problems with housing problems, with local governments going bankrupt, with a lot of unemployment, aging population.
11:30Then you have, you know, their very domestic consumption is not improving.
11:39They are solely dependent on foreign exports.
11:42And now exports are being tariffed by governments, walls are being raised.
11:46Now, what will the Chinese government do?
11:48They cannot stop production because they are doing it on an economy on scale.
11:52So, if they keep producing these products, whether it's electric vehicles or consumer goods or whatever, and if they don't have the market, because their biggest market is United States, if they cannot sell it to United States, then they'll have to look for other markets, including India in the global south.
12:09Now, India is also watching that there is no anti-dumping from the Chinese side.
12:14You know, China will have to look for markets.
12:17Now, what are the consequences going to be?
12:20If China does not develop as much as it should, then how will the people survive in China?
12:27And if people are unemployed, then there will be a lot more political problems for China.
12:32Because during the last session of the 3-3 March session last year, they kept security as the top priority and then economy as the second priority.
12:42Now, in my thinking, I was how can you separate economy with security because if people are unemployed, they will be dissatisfied, then they will rise up against the government because when it comes to stomach, then ideology doesn't make a difference.
12:56You know, and in China, every time changes happened when people go hungry, you know, and then you have this new generation of Chinese who have seen their family built their life in one lifetime.
13:07So much development. And they want to do it better. But right now, if you look at Chinese government policies, even including doing away with the one child policy, the impact of that one child policy is still very much lingering within the Chinese community.
13:22That's why you have young people who don't want to work. You have themes like lie flat, people don't go to work, people go to rural areas, the government asking young educated people to go to rural areas to work, just like during Mao Zedong's time, you know.
13:36So this does not satisfy the Chinese people. So it could result in a lot of problems within China. That's why I always consider China as a stack of dry hay stick.
13:47You just put one match stick there and it can anything can happen. It could be implosion. It could be anything because you're looking at external because China has both internal and external problems.
14:00It's not just external problems from Taiwan or United States or any other country. They have a lot of domestic issues which could implode.
14:09So these are situations that we need to study as to how international developments happen.
14:15Because if there has to be a change in China, there has to be a big change. Otherwise, small small matters will keep the situation at status quo. Nobody would want change.
14:27But then, now if we look at the global scenario, there are possibilities of bigger change. Now, how that will evolve, nobody knows.
14:36How the negotiations will evolve, nobody knows. But this fact I have been mentioning that U.S. is concerned about its threat deficit with China, whether tariff is the only way to do it or the right way to do it, I don't know.
14:49But this is something that the U.S. will not leave China alone.
14:52In what many activities are expecting from this all you are?
14:58Now, you see, now what we have to do if we are smart enough and if we have all the resources, then we have to study all possible political scenarios that could happen to China into the future.
15:10So when that situation happens, then we should be in a position to grasp that opportunity, to understand the challenges, to understand the opportunities under one particular political situation.
15:23So these are things that we are still studying, and we need a lot of experts. We cannot develop on our own. We need a lot of feedback from other countries, experts. These are ongoing things which we are working on.
15:34And from Donald Trump specifically, if we refer to the U.S. aid, it was stopped. How much it has impacted?
15:45It is not only to the Tibetan community, it is to the whole world that the United States decided to do away with or continue with some of the humanitarian programs.
15:55So the present dispensation is not very happy with how U.S. aid was functioning. So there are a lot of names being named on that.
16:07But during the first Trump presidency, I was there as representative of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, in Washington, D.C.
16:14And at that time, he appointed the Special Coordinator for Tibet only in the fourth year. And that too, there were some issues of confirmation from the Senate and all that.
16:25So we are hoping that during the first, second Trump administration, his administration will appoint the Special Coordinator for Tibet, one thing.
16:33And from a political point of view, I personally wrote to Secretary Marco Rubio. He responded to my letter also. Now I wrote a second letter for which I'm awaiting response.
16:46And he assured us that political support, he reiterated U.S. government's policy on Tibet. And he also issued a Tibetan New Year message for the Tibetans in general,
17:01which also talks about these policies of the U.S. government towards the Tibetans. And then he also sanctioned some Tibetans based on this Rata Act.
17:11Rata is reciprocal access to Tibet Act, which means that diplomacy is based on reciprocity. If a U.S. citizen has a visa to go to the United States, if a Chinese person has a visa to go to the United States,
17:26he can go to any parts of the United States. Whereas a U.S. citizen has a visa to come to China, then you need another permit to go into Tibet.
17:35So that is what the reciprocal access is all about. And based on that act, he sanctioned some more Chinese officials.
17:43So these are pointers to the fact that Rubio, when he was in the Senate, was very supportive of Tibet. And he has championed the cause on almost all the acts that have been there on Tibet,
17:55on Mongolia, on Uyghurs, on Hong Kong, on Taiwan. Rubio himself was involved. And he has mentioned that in his letter to me also.
18:04And we are very, very much aware of what he is doing. So now there are so many elements in the U.S. administration.
18:12Now you have a lot of domestic challenges. You have so many international challenges because of the initiatives that the United States has taken.
18:19And I am going back to the U.S. by the end of this month too, because we will be relentlessly working towards getting the grant in aid back from the U.S. government.
18:32Now let's see how it shapes up. One part of the budget is back on track. Those projects which are directly under the State Department, those suspensions have been lifted.
18:42But those programs lying with U.S. A.I.D. Now the administration says the U.S. A.I.D. has been closed. The person who was sent initially to close down U.S. A.I.D.
18:54from Doge side is Peter Marakko. He was moved to the State Department. Now he is out of the State Department. So there are a lot of changes happening.
19:01And within the State Department also there are talks about restructuring to adjust all the oversight of the programs on U.S. A.I.D. that will be integrated with State Department.
19:12So let's see. Let's wait and see how all these shapes up and whether there would be any revision to what is happening.
19:20And I will also be approaching as many Congress people and people from the administration during my visit as much as possible.
19:28So you were saying the response from the second term administration so far as in a positive manner. Are you looking forward to meet Trump as well?
19:37No, I can't. Normally the protocol, you know, it's normally head of states, His Holiness used to visit.
19:44Now our level of meetings are also increasing in terms of status. Like the United States earlier we can, we used to meet with undersecretary who also was the special coordinator for Tibet.
19:55During the last administration of Joe Biden, I met with both the deputy secretaries, Richard Warma and Kurt Campbell.
20:03And now maybe this is for the first time that U.S. Secretary of State is writing to a Sikyong directly as Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration and coming from the officially from U.S.
20:18These are small developments. And we have also been reaching out to other governments to have some more visibility for the Tibetan cause.
20:25So I had a short meeting with President Macron. And we are also working with European countries to see at what level they can increase our meetings.
20:37You know, we have always remained very indebted to the Indian government, whether it's Congress government or BGP government, every successive government since we came into exile have been the same for us, whether it's any government at the center.
20:55So Modiji's government also continues to be very, very hospitable for the Tibetans during his prime ministership.
21:05He started sending birthday messages. He's personally calls His Holiness and developed this personal relationship.
21:12And all the Tibetan settlements in India, we are being now guided by the 2014 Tibet Policy Act, Tibet Policy of the Central Government.
21:24In the case of Himachal Pradesh, we have the 2015 policy. So all these, the majority of the Tibetans are in Karnataka.
21:35As I mentioned before, we are spread across 10 different states and two union territories.
21:40And the central government has been very, very helpful. So whenever we have big problems, then I quote a Tibetan saying, say, when the children cry, they have only their parents to go to.
21:52So Indian government is our parent, whether it's central government or state government, where we are located.
21:57And whenever we face problem, we go to them for help. And they have been receiving us with open arms.
22:04And that is what, and that's also our historical relationship, linguists, Tibetan language having come from India, Tibetan Buddhism having come from India,
22:14and our close relationship with people from the Himalayas who follow similar traditions as Tibetans.
22:21And then Indian government extending us the hospitality. It's more than we can ask for.