Representative of the Office of Tibet-London Meets with Welsh Parliament Members and Government Minister

Cardiff, Wales, 24 March 2025: During the official outreach program in Cardiff, Representative Tsering Yangkey met with two Members of the Welsh Parliament and the Director of the Temple of Peace. These engagements were facilitated by longtime Tibet supporter Eilian Williams and TCB’s Regional Coordinator. 

On 23 March 2025, Representative Yangkey met the Rt Hon Mark Drakeford, Member of Senedd (Welsh Parliament) from the Labour Party, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language, and former First Minister of Wales. She urged him to leverage his influence within the UK’s Labour government to advocate for the closure of Chinese colonial boarding schools in Tibet. Additionally, she raised concerns about transnational repression by the People’s Republic of China against Tibetans in the diaspora. 

Representative Yangkey highlighted China’s systematic suppression of the Tibetan language and requested that he bring attention to Tibetan language rights in the Welsh Parliament. 

Addressing the Representative and his Tibetan constituents in Cardiff, Mark Drakeford MS expressed his pleasure in meeting the Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He acknowledged the alarming repression of Tibetan linguistic rights. While noting that foreign policy falls under Westminster’s jurisdiction, he assured the Representative and Tibetans that he would collaborate with his colleagues in the Welsh Parliament to support motions and statements emphasising the significance of preserving the Tibetan language in Tibet. 

Independent Member of Senedd, Rhys ab Owen, also met with Representative Yangkey and pledged his support for the preservation of the Tibetan language. 

Representative Yangkey presented a briefing paper detailing the urgency of protecting the Tibetan language from Chinese government assimilation policies to both Mark Drakeford MS and Rhys ab Owen MS, urging them to raise the issue in the Welsh Parliament. She also gifted Mark Drakeford MS a copy of DIIR’s publication, International Resolutions and Recognitions on Tibet (1959-2021), as a valuable resource for his office. Both Members of Senedd received Tibet Brief 2020 as a token of appreciation. 

In discussions with the Director of the Temple of Peace, Representative Yangkey proposed a collaboration to host a seminar or panel discussion on the contributions of Nobel Peace Laureate His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the Year of Compassion. The Director agreed to the proposal in principle. 

-Report filed by Office of Tibet, London