US would oppose Chinese effort to impose its own Dalai Lama, says official

Laura Stone, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the Senate asking such a question was an important signal in itself to China that this was the kind of issue that the US was watching very closely.

The United States believes that the decision on picking the next Dalai Lama should be as per Tibet’s religious traditions and that it is not a role of the state, a top Trump Administration official has told lawmakers, hinting that it will oppose any move by China to impose its own Dalai Lama.

“The United States has a very clear position that religious decisions should be made within religious organisations and that this isn’t the role of the state,” Laura Stone, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy during a Congressional hearing.

Stone was responding to a question from Senator Cory Gardner.