The people of the Himalaya and Asia broadly have been two of my biggest passions for more than fifty years.

During that time, no nation in the world has done more than China to help its people out of poverty. We should celebrate this. At the same time, no nation in South Asia has suffered more from mistaken Chinese policies than Tibet. We cannot accept this.

China claims that it liberated Tibet in 1950 from a centuries-long feudal era and portrays the long line of Dalai Lamas dating to the 15th century as powerful rulers who enslaved the peasantry. Most Tibetans view China as an invading force that has illegally occupied their country since the 1950 invasion. More than a million Tibetans have died as a result of China’s occupation. Millions live in exile in India, Nepal and neighboring countries, and several million still live in Tibet.

My wife, Senator Dianne Feinstein, has long believed that personal relationships are essential for political leaders to govern creatively and effectively, especially when hammering out positive solutions to bridge deep disagreement. When she was San Francisco’s mayor in the 1980s, she established a sister-city arrangement with Shanghai. This was an important step in China’s retreat from isolation. Dianne soon opened the first Chinese consulate in the United States.

Two of Shanghai’s mayors during those years later became China’s paramount leaders, Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji. Jiang is a warm, gregarious man. At a banquet hosted by the sister-city marking his first trip to San Francisco in 1985, he waltzed with Dianne. His English was pretty good, and he loved San Francisco. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is a warm, open person as well, with a sharp wit and easy laugh. His trip to San Francisco in 1979, his first to the U.S., was a turning point in calling attention to China’s treatment of Tibetan people.

Our relationships with these men over the years have given us unusual insights. There have been times when Dianne and I thought the Chinese government would soften its position. We learned once that Jiang demoted a government administrator in Tibet after being informed that state police broke into homes in the middle of the night, arresting many Tibetans for no reason. Jiang was angry about that abuse.

Yet we see plenty of evidence that China’s current policy toward Tibet is the harshest in years. The official hard line is that His Holiness is a rebel, a secessionist, and a schemer who secretly promotes violence and self-immolations of nuns and monks. This is nonsense. He has stated many times that he does not support independence of Tibet, espouses nonviolence and is deeply saddened by self-immolations. His Holiness advocates a Middle Way that would continue China’s political control of Tibet but allow cultural and religious autonomy for all Tibetans living there.

Tibetans deserve better, and the Chinese deserve better too. Our message to the Chinese government is this: oppression is never a final solution, and lies don’t live forever. If China wants to become a great nation, it needs to become a moral nation, and what goes on in Tibet is immoral.