Senator Biden has a long record of support for Tibet on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), both as Chairman and before. He was a cosponsor of the Tibet Policy Act, which established the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues within the State Department, and helped shepherd the bill to enactment as Chairman of SFRC in 2002. He was also instrumental in creating Radio Free Asia and its Tibetan language service. He was an original co-sponsor of the bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 14th Dalai Lama. In his frequent meetings with senior Chinese officials, Senator Biden has criticized the government’s persecution of Tibetans and has pushed for genuine dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to seek a lasting solution  to the Tibet issue.