Ex-Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile details China’s expansionist designs

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Lobsang Sangay, who served as the Tibetan Prime Minister-in-exile from 2011 to 2021 spoke about China’s overarching strategy to assert itself as the sole superpower and its tactics in claiming territories.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, he insisted that for India to understand China, it must comprehend Tibet’s situation.

“In the 1950s, when the Chinese Army invaded Tibet, Chinese leaders said Tibet is the palm, we have to take over, then we have to go after five fingers Ladakh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Our country was occupied, then they will come after you. We have been saying that. They are trying to pressure Bhutan now. They are claiming Doklam in Sikkim. They have already shown Arunachal’s area in their map. So five fingers have already been spotted” Lobsang said.

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While discussing the history of China, Lobsang said that 60 per cent of the Chinese territory was occupied by Beijing.

“If we look at the Great Wall of China, which they proudly say that you can even see from the moon, was the permanent borders between China and all the northern neighbours. They took a thousand years to build that wall while claiming that they wanted to safeguard themselves from Mongolia. The Great Wall is inside Mongolia, Manchuria and the whole northern belt,” Lobsang said while discussing Beijing’s claims on Taiwan and the South China Sea.

On the question of the One China policy and Taiwan issue, Lobsang sheds light on the actual dream of China. Citing leaked documents, he said that Chinese President Xi Jinping “apparently” told his US counterpart that Beijing plans to take over Taiwan.

“The Communist Party of China and Xi Jinping have declared that they want to get the top position by 2049. To become no-1, they want to consolidate the things which they claim. On several occasions, Xi Jinping has told his generals to prepare themselves for the war. According to a leaked document, Xi Jinping apparently told Biden that Beijing plans to take over Taiwan” Lobsang said while discussing the threat of conflict between China and Taiwan in the near future.

Lobsang Sangay is the first person without a monastic background who served as the Tibetan Prime Minister. Born in 1968 in a refugee community in Darjeeling, Sangay earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Delhi. He studied International law and democracy at Harvard University. Later, he became an American citizen. (ANI)