President Donald Trump has proposed zero aid to the Tibetans in 2018, reversing the decades-old US policy of providing financial help to the community to safeguard their distinct identity under the Chinese rule.

The State Department, which sent the detailed proposal to the Congress as part of Trump's maiden annual budget, described the move as one of the "tough choices" that it had to make as its budget itself has been slashed by more than 28 per cent.

The Trump administration now wants other countries to jump in to help the Tibetan community.

Leaders of the Tibetan community in the US refrained from commenting on the Trump administration's move, saying they are still reading the budget papers.

At the same time, they observed that majority of the assistance to the Tibetan people, including for Tibet, so far have been Congressionally- driven.

The president of the Central Tibetan Administration  Lobsang Sangay had said on Wednesday in Washington that the Chinese government "is hell bent upon the destruction of Buddhism in China".