; and (B) when such requests are granted, diplomatic personnel are closely supervised and given few opportunities to meet local residents not approved by authorities. (7) The Government of China delayed United States consular access for more than 48 hours after an October 28, 2013, bus crash in the Tibet Autonomous Region, in which three citizens of the United States died and more than a dozen others, all from Walnut, California, were injured, undermining the ability of the Government of the United States to provide consular services to the victims and their families, and failing to meet China’s obligations under the Convention on Consular Relations, done at Vienna April 24, 1963 (21 UST 77). (8) Following a 2015 earthquake that trapped dozens of citizens of the United States in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the United States Consulate General in Chengdu faced significant challenges in providing emergency consular assistance due to a lack of consular access. (9) The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015 of the Department of State stated With the exception of a few highly controlled trips, the Chinese government also denied multiple requests by foreign diplomats for permission to visit the TAR. . (10) Tibetan-Americans, attempting to visit their homeland, report having to undergo a discriminatory visa application process, different from what is typically required, at the Chinese embassy and consulates in the United States, and often find their requests to travel denied. (11) The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016 of the Department of State stated The few visits to the TAR by diplomats and journalists that were allowed were tightly controlled by local authorities. . (12) A September 2016 article in the Washington Post reported that The Tibet Autonomous Region … is harder to visit as a journalist than North Korea. . (13) The Government of China has failed to respond positively to requests from the Government of the United States to open a consulate in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region. (14)