New York – As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a week-long trip in Asia, Tibet advocates are calling on her to raise Tibet as a core issue at the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue taking place in Beijing from May 24-25. Advocates are also urging her to avoid the controversial Tibet Pavilion during her visit to the Shanghai Expo tomorrow. Clinton’s China visit comes amidst reports of intensifying repression against Tibetan writers, bloggers, and anyone who dares to openly criticize or share information about Chinese government policies in occupied Tibet. 

“We call on Secretary Clinton to raise Tibet as a core issue in US-China relations and to press for tangible results towards a just and lasting resolution for Tibet,” said Tenzin Dorjee, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “The Obama administration must not shy away from publicly and vigorously raising Tibet and freedom of expression at these meetings. The U.S. will only achieve its foreign policy objectives with China when it stands firm on core American interests.”

“Tibet has become the barometer for this administration’s commitment to engaging China on human rights issues and we urge Secretary Clinton to go beyond the rhetoric by pressing for a results-driven discussion on Tibet at this dialogue,” added Dorjee.

In the lead up to the meetings in Beijing, Clinton will make a stop in Shanghai where she will visit the Shanghai Expo. Tibet advocacy groups worldwide are calling on government leaders to refuse to visit China’s controversial “Heavenly Tibet” pavilion, which attempts to mislead the world about the true situation inside Tibet.

“The ‘Heavenly Tibet’ pavilion is designed to hide the grim reality of China's military rule in Tibet and is an insult to Tibetans and their supporters everywhere. In fact, the Dalai Lama – the legitimate representative of the Tibetan people – has called Tibet under Chinese rule a ‘hell on earth’,” said Kate Woznow, Deputy Director of Students for a Free Tibet. "For secretary Clinton to visit the Tibet pavilion, especially at a time when Chinese officials are imprisoning Tibetans for doing nothing more than critiquing Chinese policies in Tibet, would send the wrong message about the Obama Administration’s commitment to human rights.”

Since protests swept across Tibet in March 2008, dozens of Tibetan writers, bloggers, and educators have been arrested, along with those who have shared information about China’s repression with the outside word. The arrest of leading Tibetan intellectual Tagyal (who goes by pen name Shogdung) and the transfer of imprisoned filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen to a Chinese labor camp are recent examples of the lengths to which China goes to silence Tibetan voices.

-30-