[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 204 (Thursday, December 14, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H9934]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                LET HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA GO HOME

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is 
recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, this week, people all around the world are 
commemorating Human Rights Day, the annual celebration of the adoption 
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  Article 13 of the declaration affirms that everyone has the right to 
leave any country, including his own, and return to his country. I have 
that right. As a citizen of the United States, I can leave my country 
whenever I choose, and I have the right to return whenever I like. For 
me, this right is not theoretical. I exercise it every time I travel 
abroad and every time I return home.
  But, Mr. Speaker, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, born and 
educated in Tibet, has not seen his homeland since he was forced into 
exile in 1959.
  The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, describes himself as a 
simple Buddhist monk. He was recognized as the reincarnation of the 
previous Thirteenth Dalai Lama when he was only 2 years old, and he was 
only 6 when he began his monastic studies. But well before he finished 
his education, at the young age of 15, he was called upon to assume 
political leadership after China's invasion of Tibet in 1950.
  For the next 9 years, he worked to preserve Tibet's autonomy and 
Tibet's culture. But after years of growing resentment against 
restrictions imposed by the Chinese Communists, a full-scale revolt 
broke out in March 1959, and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee as the 
uprising was crushed by Chinese troops. On March 31, 1959, he began a 
permanent exile in India, settling in Dharamsala in northern India.
  Since then, he has not returned to Tibet, or, more accurately, he has 
never been permitted to return. He has spent more than 60 years in 
exile.
  Today, the Dalai Lama is 82 years old, a man renowned all over the 
world for his commitment to peace. He has consistently advocated for 
policies of nonviolence, even in the face of extreme aggression.
  In 1989, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of what was then 
his nearly 30-year nonviolent campaign to end China's domination of his 
homeland.
  In 2007, the Congress awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal, and 
at the time, then-President George W. Bush called him a man of faith 
and sincerity and peace.
  Now, I have long believed that the Dalai Lama is part of the solution 
to resolving Tibetan grievances. There was a time, from 1959 until 
1979, when the Tibetan goal was independence. But since the 1970s, the 
Dalai Lama has been looking for a way to resolve the situation of the 
Tibetan people through negotiations. In the late 1980s, he proposed the 
Middle Way Approach as a path toward Tibetan autonomy within China.
  His commitment to nonviolence and his recognition as the spiritual 
leader of Tibetans worldwide confers on him an undeniable legitimacy 
that would be of great benefit were China willing to restart the 
dialogue that has been suspended since 2010.
  But the Chinese Government has not recognized or taken advantage of 
this opportunity to achieve a peaceful resolution. Instead, Chinese 
authorities continue to view the Dalai Lama with suspicion, disparage 
him, and accuse him of fomenting separatism. They seem to believe that, 
with his inevitable death, they will be assured of consolidating their 
hold on Tibet.
  Well, I would not be so sure. Today, all around the world, we are 
seeing the consequences of repression of religious and ethnic 
minorities. For the Chinese, there is still time to recognize that 
inclusion and respect for human rights of Tibetans offers the best path 
to security.
  So today, I call on China to follow a different path. I call on the 
Chinese authorities to affirm the right of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to 
return to his homeland, whether to visit or to stay. I call on them to 
welcome him home, afford him the respect he deserves as a man of peace, 
and sit down with him to resolve Tibetan grievances so as to prevent 
the deepening of tensions and eruption of conflict.
  Were China to take such a step, I believe the international reaction 
would be very positive. I would be among the first to recognize and 
congratulate an important gesture.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to be in the business of preventing and 
transforming conflicts instead of being forced to respond to their 
consequences after the fact.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in calling on the 
Chinese authorities to allow the Dalai Lama to return to his homeland. 
The Chinese Government should allow His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is 
revered all around the world, the ability to go back to his home, to go 
back to where he was born.
  This is a time for bold action, and I urge my colleagues to speak out 
along with me in urging the Chinese Government to do the right thing. 
Now is the time to raise our voices--now, before it is too late.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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