Legal Materials on Tibet
United States

Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1992-93 (excerpt) (1991) [258]

FOREIGN RELATIONS AUTHORIZATION ACT, FISCAL YEARS 1992 AND 1993 OCTOBER 3, 1991

(EXCERPT)

MR. BERMAN, from the committee of conference,

submitted on the following

CONFERENCE REPORT

[p.To accompany H.R. 1415]

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 1415) to authorize appropriations for fiscal years 1992 and 1993 for the Department of State, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free conference have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows:

That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment as follows:

In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the Senate amendment insert the following:

SEC. 355. CHINA'S ILLEGAL CONTROL OF TIBET.

It is the sense of Congress that--

(1) Tibet, including those areas incorporated into the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Quinghai, is an occupied country under the established principles of international law;

(2) Tibet's true representatives are the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile as recognized by the Tibetan people;

(3) Tibet has maintained throughout its history a distinctive and sovereign national, cultural, and religious identity separate from that of China and, except during periods of illegal Chinese occupation, has maintained a separate and sovereign political and territorial identity;

(4) historical evidence of this separate identity may be found in Chinese archival documents and traditional dynastic histories, in United States recognition of Tibetan neutrality during World War II, and in the fact that a number of countries including the United States, Mongolia, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, India, Japan, Great Britain, and Russia recognized Tibet as an independent nation or dealt with Tibet independently of any Chinese government;

(5) in 1949-1950, China launched an armed invasion of Tibet in contravention of international law;

(6) it is the policy of the United States to oppose aggression and other illegal uses of force by one country against the sovereignty of another as a manner of acquiring territory, and to condemn violations of international law, including the illegal occupation of one country by another; and

(7) numerous United States declarations since the Chinese invasion have recognized Tibet's right to self-determination and the illegality of China's occupation of Tibet.


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