China has beforehand criticised the function, accusing the US of interfering in China’s inner affairs.
Printed On 18 Feb 2026
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has introduced that the Trump administration has appointed an envoy to the place of United States particular coordinator for Tibetan points.
The function, which was created by the US Congress in 2002, shall be crammed by Riley Barnes, who’s at the moment additionally serving because the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labour.
Beneficial Tales
checklist of 4 objectsfinish of checklist
Rubio introduced Barnes’s appointment in an announcement on the event of Losar, the Tibetan New Yr, on Tuesday.
“On this primary day of the Yr of the Fireplace Horse, we have fun the fortitude and resilience of Tibetans world wide,” Rubio stated in an announcement.
“The US stays dedicated to supporting the unalienable rights of Tibetans and their distinct linguistic, cultural, and spiritual heritage,” he added.
The brand new appointment comes because the administration of US President Donald Trump has stepped back from talking out on a spread of human rights points globally, and because the US has both intervened instantly or threatened different nations, together with Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, and Denmark’s Greenland.
The Chinese language Ministry of International Affairs didn’t instantly reply to Rubio’s announcement, which comes in the course of the Chinese New Year holiday, however Beijing has criticised related appointments prior to now.
“The establishing of the so-called coordinator for Tibetan points is solely out of political manipulation to intrude in China’s inner affairs and destabilise Tibet. China firmly opposes that,” Zhao Lijian, a spokesman on the Chinese language International Ministry, stated after the same appointment was made by the US State Division in 2020, throughout Trump’s first presidency .
“Tibet affairs are China’s inner affairs that enable no overseas interference,” Lijian had stated.
China has governed the remote region of Tibet since 1951, after its navy marched in and took management in what it referred to as a “peaceable liberation”.
Exiled Tibetan leaders have lengthy condemned China’s insurance policies in Tibet, accusing Beijing of separating households within the Himalayan area, banning their language, and suppressing Tibetan tradition.
China has denied any wrongdoing and says its intervention in Tibet ended “backward feudal serfdom”.
Greater than 80 % of the Tibetan inhabitants is ethnic Tibetan, whereas Han Chinese language make up the rest. Most Tibetans are additionally Buddhists, and whereas China’s structure permits for freedom of faith, the governing Communist Social gathering adheres strictly to atheism.
Additionally on Tuesday, the pinnacle of the Washington-based Radio Free Asia introduced that the US-government-funded information outlet has resumed broadcasting into China, after shutting down its news operations in October resulting from cuts from the Trump administration.
Radio Free Asia President and CEO Bay Fang wrote on social media that the resumed broadcast to audiences in China in “Mandarin, Tibetan, and Uyghur” languages was “resulting from personal contracting with transmission companies” and congressional funding permitted by Trump.
