More than 200 people from more 20 civic groups and lawmakers marched through downtown Taipei yesterday in a call to free Tibet and uphold human rights.
The march was to commemorate Tibetan Uprising Day — the March 10 anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule — which sparked a sharp crackdown and led to the Dalai Lama’s exile.
Members of the Welfare Society for Tibetans in Taiwan (在台藏人福利協會), Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan, Taiwan Association for Human Rights and other groups gathered in front of Pacific Sogo’s Zhongxiao E Road department store for a rally before setting off on the march, with numerous speeches by legislators expressing solidarity with the Tibetan cause.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) called for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan.
“President Ma has said many times that cross-strait relations have never been better, so I cannot think of a better time,” Lim said, adding that the president has cited a need to repair cross-strait ties in denying previous visits.
Ma’s government has refused to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama since his previous visit in 2009.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said that Tibet should serve as a “warning” of what might happen to Taiwan, calling for the Executive Yuan’s Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission to be frozen to express solidarity with the Tibetan cause.
“The function of the commission is not clear and it looks like a deformity even when run by the Republic of China, because Mongolia does not belong to China anymore. That we still use the ‘Republic of China’ framework to lay claim to Tibet is at odds with their struggle for human rights and freedom,” Tsai Yi-yu said, adding that he would propose a refugee act to allow Tibetan exiles to be granted asylum.
DPP Legislator Kolas Yotaka — a Amis Aborigine elected on the party’s at-large legislative slate — said that Aborigines and Tibetans face similar challenges.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Tibetans “are like China’s indigenous people, so we feel for them and should support them both in spirit and politically,” Kolas said, adding that Aborigines and Tibetans desire true autonomy to protect their cultures.
“We were both originally independent nations, but have been losing our political systems, social structures, religious beliefs and languages ever since colonizing powers came,” she said.
The group sang the Tibetan national anthem, while Tibetan monks prayed for a long life for the Dalai Lama before they marched away to chants of “Free Tibet” and “Long Live the Dalai Lama.”
A large portrait of the Dalai Lama led the procession, followed by more than a dozen Tibetans waving large Tibetan flags.
The group marched to the Kelti Building, which is often used to symbolize the Chinese government in the absence of a formal representative office, as it houses the offices of the Cross-Strait Economic and Cultural Interchange Association, the Bank of China and other Chinese associations and firms.
The group held a “die-in,” sprawling on the road in front of the Kelti Building in solidarity with Tibetan monks who have self-immolated to protest Chinese rule of Tibet.
The group marched to Taipei 101, saying they wanted to share their message with Chinese tourists.
Further events to mark Tibetan Uprising Day are scheduled for Thursday night at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall’s Freedom Square and Kaohsiung’s Human Rights Learning Study.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS