China slams US appointment of special coordinator for Tibet

China has rejected the United States’s appointment of a special coordinator for Tibetan issues, saying the move could “destabilise” Tibet and infringes on Chinese internal affairs. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday announced that State Department official Robert Destro would assume the additional post, which has been vacant since the start of President Donald Trump’s term in 2017. The move comes amid heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington, which has routinely criticised the Chinese government’s human rights record, especially on the treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet. China has routinely refused to deal with the US coordinator for Tibet, seeing it as an infringement on its internal affairs. “Tibet affairs are China’s internal affairs that allow no foreign interference,” said Zhao Lijian, a spokesman at the Chinese foreign ministry. “The setting up of the so-called coordinator for Tibetan issues is entirely out of political manipulation to interfere in China’s internal affairs and destabilise Tibet. China firmly opposes that,” Zhao said at a regular media briefing. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">