NPC Headliners: Sikyong Penpa Tsering
Registration to this event is essential in gaining access to the club.
Oct 29 2025
WHEN:
Oct 29, 2025 at 10:00am
WHERE:
Fourth Estate Room
CONTACT INFO:
Cecily Scott Martin
MORE INFO:
NPC Newsmaker
This event is open only to NPC members & credentialed press
Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the democratically elected political leader of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (formally known as the Central Tibetan Administration or CTA) will address the National Press Club at a Headliners Newsmaker event Oct. 29 at 10 a.m.
Penpa Tsering will speak about the global significance of Tibet and provide a detailed account of the human rights situation, the environmental importance of the region and its destruction by the CCP, and the latest political developments in the Sino-Tibet conflict as His Holiness the Dalai Lama turns 90 this year.
China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries but established direct administrative control after the 1959 invasion of Tibet, following the Communist Party's victory in 1949. The Dalai Lama formed the CTA in 1959 after being exiled to India.
This Headliners event is open to credentialed media and club members. Registration is essential.
To submit a question for the speaker, please email [email protected] and put TIBET in the subject line. The deadline for submitting questions close of business Oct. 28.
Tsering last appeared at the Club in 2023. He has held the office of sikyong, or political leader, since May 27, 2021, was born in a Tibetan refugee settlement in Southern India. He joined the Tibetan freedom movement in college and was elected to Tibet's parliament-in-exile in 1996. He served as speaker of the parliament from 2008 to 2016. He subsequently served as the representative of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile in North America, engaging with Congress and top administration offices to resolve the Sino-Tibet conflict.
The issue of China’s suppression of free speech has recently returned to the headlines.
Namkyi was 15 years when she was detained after participating in a protest while carrying a poster of the Dalai Lama. She was released after years in prison but then subjected to around-the-clock surveillance before fleeing China. Her case made healdines in light of recent questioning by a group of United Nations human-rights experts about the details of Namkyi’s detainment, arrest and post-release surveillance.
The Associated Press reported that another young woman, Zhang Yadi, was detained by state-security officers in Changsha in central-southern China for “inciting separatism” while speaking out on behalf of Tibet while living and attending school in Europe.