Pat Dollard

Tweet

WASHINGTON– The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution Wednesday calling on China to end its crackdown on Tibet and release Tibetans imprisoned for “nonviolent” demonstrations.

The vote was 413-1. Rep…. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who has not dropped out of the presidential race, was the lone congressman voting against it.

The resolution passed just hours before runners were to carry the Olympic torch on a six-mile route around San Francisco Bay.

San Francisco, California, which is in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 8th District, is the only U.S. stop for the torch relay, which is wrapping up the first week of a 23-city international tour.

Pelosi and other House members introduced the resolution, which urges China to end the crackdown in Tibet and “enter into a substantive dialogue” with the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in northern India.

“It is my hope that the House of Representatives will send a clear message that we support the fundamental freedoms of the Tibetan people and a peaceful solution to the instability in Tibet,” Pelosi said Tuesday on the House floor.

“It is long past time for Beijing to reassess its failed policy to attack and demonize the Dalai Lama, and show the world it can have civilized discussions as a responsible world power,” she said.

The resolution, which has no force of law, also asks the State Department to reconsider its decision to exclude China from its list of countries considered the “world’s most systematic human rights violators,” and calls Chinese officials to allow independent international monitors and journalists access to Tibet.

In the Senate, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and Oregon Republican Gordon Smith introduced a similar resolution, The Associated Press reported.

(CNN)