China had previously criticized the role of the United States, accusing it of interfering in China’s internal affairs.
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Published February 18, 2026
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration has appointed a special envoy to serve as the U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibet.
The role, created by the U.S. Congress in 2002, will be filled by Riley Burns, who also currently serves as assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor.
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Rubio announced Burns’ appointment Tuesday in a statement coinciding with Losar, the Tibetan New Year.
“On the first day of the Year of the Horse of Fire, we celebrate the fortitude and resilience of Tibetans around the world,” Rubio said in a statement.
“The United States remains committed to supporting the inalienable rights of the Tibetan people and their unique language, culture, and religious traditions,” he added.
The new appointments come as President Donald Trump’s administration has retreated from speaking out on a range of human rights issues globally, with the United States directly intervening or threatening other countries, including Venezuela, Iran, Cuba and Denmark’s Greenland.
China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately react to Rubio’s announcement, which was made over the Lunar New Year holiday, but Beijing has criticized similar appointments in the past.
“The establishment of the so-called Coordinator for Tibetan Affairs is completely a political maneuver to interfere in China’s internal affairs and destabilize Tibet. China firmly opposes it,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, following a similar appointment by the US State Department in 2020 under President Trump.
“The Tibet issue is China’s internal affairs, and foreign interference is not acceptable,” Lijian said.
China has ruled the Tibetan frontier since 1951, after its military marched in and seized control of what it called a “peaceful liberation.”
Exile Tibetan leaders have long criticized China’s policies in Tibet, accusing the Chinese government of separating families in the Himalayas, banning the Tibetan language and suppressing Tibetan culture.
China denies any wrongdoing and says its intervention in Tibet has ended “backward feudal serfdom”.
More than 80 percent of Tibet’s population is ethnic Tibetan, with the remainder being Han Chinese. Most Tibetans are also Buddhists, and China’s constitution allows freedom of religion, but the ruling Communist Party strictly adheres to atheism.
Also on Tuesday, the head of Washington-based Radio Free Asia announced that the U.S. government-funded news organization had resumed broadcasting to China after suspending news operations in October due to cuts by the Trump administration.
Bei Huang, president and CEO of Radio Free Asia, wrote on social media that the resumption of broadcasts to Chinese audiences in “Mandarin, Tibetan and Uyghur” languages was due to “private contracts with transmission services” and funding from Congress approved by President Trump.
