Tibet group urges ​Trump to press Xi on Panchen Lama’s release

The International Campaign for Tibet urged US President Donald Trump to raise Tibet, seek the Panchen Lama’s release and press China on human rights during talks with Xi Jinping. It also alleged AI-assisted surveillance targeting Tibetan organisations and communities

Washington: The International Campaign for Tibet has urged US President Donald Trump to press Chinese President Xi Jinping publicly on Tibet and seek the Panchen Lama’s release, as it raised concerns over reported AI-assisted surveillance of Tibetan groups. The advocacy organisation issued the appeal on Wednesday (local time) ahead of Xi’s planned Washington visit.

It called for talks without preconditions with the Dalai Lama’s representatives and elected Tibetan leaders, and an end to policies it described as forced assimilation.

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ICT President Tencho Gyatso said Trump should use the meeting to advance dialogue. “President Trump must therefore uphold this policy and use his meeting with Xi to press for the resumption of Sino-Tibetan dialogue — especially at this critical juncture, when China’s new, so-called ‘Ethnic Unity and Progress Law’ threatens the very foundations of Tibetan identity,” she said.

ICT sought the release of the 11th Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and other political prisoners. Failing his release, it urged Beijing to allow US officials to meet him independently. The organisation said Chinese authorities had disappeared him more than 31 years ago.

In a separate statement, ICT cited an Anthropic threat intelligence report covering misuse of its Claude AI models between December 2025 and August 2026. It also demanded repeal of the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law.

ICT alleged political interference in Buddhist institutions, demolition of monastic residences and separation of Tibetan children from their families through state-run boarding schools. The organisation joined 28 other rights groups in a letter urging Xi to release prisoners of conscience and end transnational repression. The groups also sought changes to laws used to criminalise peaceful expression, religious practice and dissent.

According to ICT’s account, China-based, government-aligned actors targeted the Central Tibetan Administration, Tibetan Buddhist civil society, ICT and Students for a Free Tibet. The operators used Claude to turn multilingual material into Chinese-language intelligence dossiers, organisational datasets and daily reports. They also collected personal information, monitored social media and gathered floor plans and structural details of religious venues, the statement said.

ICT said Anthropic found operators instructing Claude to adopt “China’s standpoint” and describe the Tibetan administration in exile as an “illegal separatist administration.” A separate operation used AI to recast foreign reporting critical of China for government intelligence briefings, according to the statement.

“Governments and AI companies must ensure that technologies built to expand human knowledge do not become instruments for authoritarian governments to monitor people, intimidate communities and impose their version of history on the digital world,” Gyatso said.

ICT urged AI providers to block political, religious and ethnic profiling, close abusive accounts and share information about threats. It also called for targeted individuals and organisations to be notified wherever safely possible. The organisation asked governments, including the US, to investigate the operations and protect affected communities. Neither ICT statement included a Chinese government response to the allegations.