Building the Anti-Beijing Bloc: Biden and Tibet

https://www.centralasianews.net/news/270504470/in-india-blinken-meets-representative-of-dalai-lama

The article is most correct. Beijing will respond to this meeting with great hostility. The Dalai Lama and all things Tibet are touchy. Tibet is one of the three 'T' issues – Tibet, Tiananmen, and Taiwan – issues not to be spoken of and that can land one in hot water with the authorities.

The US is stepping up naval actions in the South China Sea. Japan is moving toward militarisation. Washington is forging alliances with nations on the Chinese periphery. Uighur militants allied with al Qaeda have been removed from the terror list. The US continues to strengthen ties with India. And while the Tibet situation is largely hopeless, the US will want the exile community to play its part.

The US broke with the Tibetan independence movement in the early 1970's as Nixon sought to 'flip' China over to the US column and exploit the Sino-Soviet split. He also wanted Beijing (then Peking) to help bring an end to the Indochina wars. Previous to this the US had been flying Tibetan insurgents over the Himalayas in an attempt to counter Beijing's brutal conquest of the plateau.

Fifty years later the situation has dramatically changed. While the US has always remained on good terms with the Dalai Lama, there isn't a great deal of affection. And yet Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama has taken a more reflective stance in recent years. It's unclear as to whether or not he would support an armed insurrection or uprising even if backed by Washington and New Delhi.

Though it has been largely forgotten, the Kuomintang (KMT) was active in Burma in the early 1950's and during the Korean War there was serious consideration of them opening a Southern Front into China. Today if conflict were to erupt, you can be sure the US will want to exploit the Xinjiang front as well as the Himalayan – which would include both India and possibly Tibetan elements.

Trump certainly took an anti-China stance during his presidency and yet in many ways plowed up the groundwork for an anti-China bloc laid by Obama – undermining his own rhetoric and verbal policy. Under Biden the 'Pivot' strategy has returned and with greater vigour. More nations are signing on to the US project. It will be interesting to see how the Tibetan leadership responds. They of course face their own pressures.