10 April 2008
Rice wants US consulate in Tibet
(The Washington Times) The US wants to open a consulate in Tibet in order to gain full access to developments in the Chinese province, which only one US diplomat has been allowed to visit since protests began last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "We are looking at the possibility of a consulate in Tibet", Miss Rice told a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing. "It's on the internal list to take a look at when we could do it". It was not clear if Washington has discussed the issue with Beijing, but the secretary said she was not satisfied with the Chinese decision to let one American official go to Tibet as part of a group that had a government minder. The US currently has five consulates in China, in addition to its embassy in Beijing. They are in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang and Wuhan.