Thousands of people marched in the streets of Taipei yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising and show their support for Tibetans’ struggle for freedom.
“We Tibetans have been in exile for 50 years. The Chinese government tries hard to make us forget who we are — but we will not,” Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan chairman Tashi Tsering told the crowd before the march began.
“I was born in exile, but I never forget who I am, what my country is, and we all firmly believe that Tibet will become independent again,” Tashi said, as the crowd answered with a resounding “Free Tibet!”
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Nine years after China invaded Tibet in 1950, Tibetans launched an uprising during which the Tibetan political and religious leader, the Dalai Lama, went into exile in India, with tens of thousands of Tibetans following.
Tibetans continued to fight Chinese rule, resulting in more than 1.2 million deaths, Tibet support groups and the Tibetan government in exile have said.
The march started at the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station in Taipei and went through busy shopping districts.
Many shoppers joined in.
“Tibetans want to go home,” “China, get out of Tibet!” the demonstrators shouted as they marched, holding Tibetan flags, a large portrait of the Dalai Lama and various placards.
At 3:10pm, the procession stopped and observed a minute of silence for Tibetans killed in their struggle for freedom.
Several key figures from the Democratic Progressive Party took part in the rally.
Chinese democracy activist Cai Lujun (蔡陸軍) was also among the crowd.
“Opposing dictatorship and tyranny is a universal value that goes beyond nationalities or races,” Cai said. “Ignoring what’s going on in Tibet today is ignoring what will happen to Taiwan tomorrow.”
Aside from showing their usual support for Tibetans, many demonstrators this year voiced their worries about Taiwan’s future.
“We can see that freedom of speech and freedom of press are deteriorating in Taiwan, especially after Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] took over as president [last year],” said Eric Chang (張浩明), a young demonstrator. “If we don’t stand up now, our fate could be the same as that of Tibetans.”
Weng Chih-ming, a 31-year-old technology company engineer, said he supported Tibet out of a sense of justice as a human being, adding that he didn’t want Taiwan to fall “under China’s dictatorship.”
An elementary school teacher surnamed Fu (傅) expressed similar concerns.
“I don’t want Taiwan to become like Tibet … I don’t want our next generation to live a hard life under Chinese rule,” Fu said.
Erinn Law, a Canadian who has been living in Taiwan for five years, echoed Chang’s view.
“Not enough people know about what’s going on [in Tibet], so we need to [speak up],” she said, clearly excited by the large crowd that had gathered for this year’s event.
“I don’t want what happened to Tibet to happen to Taiwan, because I love Taiwan,” she said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AP
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS