As the one-year countdown to the Beijing Olympics began yesterday, Tibetans living in Taiwan and their supporters announced the launch of coordinated international action for Tibet.
"Tibetans in Tibet have no freedom of religion, no freedom of speech and no basic human rights," Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association chairman Rinzin Tsering told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Tibet has been under Chinese occupation since China invaded in 1950.
Tibetan uprisings against the occupation were brutally oppressed by the Chinese military and several religious leaders who refused to recognize Chinese rule were either imprisoned without fair judicial process or have gone missing, Rinzin Tsering said.
The Chinese government has also sought to tighten its control over Tibet by interfering in religious affairs, he said.
"Beijing has said that reincarnations of high lamas -- such as the Panchen Lama -- have to be recognized by the government in Beijing," said Khedroob Thondup, a member of the Tibetan parliament in exile.
Tibetans believe that high lamas -- or Tibetan Buddhist monks -- reincarnate after their death.
Traditionally, reincarnations of high lamas were confirmed, through a complicated process, by the Dalai Lama or other high-ranking lamas.
"No Tibetan will recognize a high lama announced by Beijing," Khedroob Thondup said.
"A country that doesn't care about human rights should not host the Olympic Games," Taiwan Friends of Tibet president Chou Mei-li (周美里) said.
"It's a shameful decision to allow China to host the Olympics," Taiwan Labor Front chairman Sun Yu-lien (
Tibetan organizations worldwide will concentrate efforts into calling for improvements in human rights in China, the group said.
Rinzin Tsering said: "We the Tibetan community in Taiwan will submit appeal petition[s] to all the international institution[s] and the government of Taiwan to support the Tibetan people's struggle for freedom and human right[s]."
A boycott of the sponsors of the Beijing Olympics is another measure the group intends to take.
"We hope [the sponsors] will withdraw their support," said Democratic Progressive Party Department of Ethnic Affairs Director Yang Chang-chen (
"We know there's one Taiwanese corporation sponsoring the Beijing Olympics. We will refrain from naming it at the moment," Yang said. "But should it become necessary, we'll call for a boycott."
Also see story:
Air pollution could force delays during Games, Rogge says
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS