Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT) chairwoman Chow Mei-li (周美里) yesterday urged the public to voice support for the Tibetan cause by joining a parade on Sunday.
Chow said that doing so would also be a way of voicing support for Taiwan’s freedom.
The group will hold a parade in Taipei to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule on March 10, 1959. The actual parade date this year, March 14, coincides with the date of the most recent protests against Chinese rule in the Tibetan capital Lhasa two years ago, and the date China passed its “Anti-secession” Law in 2005 that threatens to use “non-peaceful means” to bring Taiwan under its control if Taiwan declares independence.
“Fighting for Tibet’s freedom today is fighting for Taiwan’s own freedom in the future,” Chow told a press conference to publicize the parade and the release of the first Chinese translation of the Dalai Lama’s autobiography My Land, My People.
“If we look at the history of negotiations between Tibet and China, we find that all the promises Chinese leaders made to Tibetans during negotiations over the past 50 years were empty ones,” Chow said. “Should we still be so naive as to believe China’s cross-strait promises?”
Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), co-founder of TFOT, agreed.
He said it was ironic that the government put so much effort into promoting cross-strait agreements last year as the Tibetans commemorated the 50th anniversary of their exile, and Mainlander Taiwanese commemorated the 60th anniversary of their escape from China following the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) defeat by the Chinese Communist Party.
“The 17-point agreement signed between Tibet and China, with commitments made by the Chinese [in the 1950s] to leave cultural, social and religious affairs in the hands of Tibetans, was the Tibetan version of ‘one country, two systems,’” Yiong said. “Thinking about the agreement, are we not afraid about the economic cooperation framework agreement [ECFA] that President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] said should be signed with China this year? No one knows what it’s about so far.”
“While many first-generation exiled Tibetans may have passed away as we commemorate the 51st anniversary of the uprising, the next generation of Tibetans will carry on the mission to make Tibet free,” Chow said. “Remember, the Jews rebuilt their country more than 1,000 years after their country was destroyed.”
The Free Tibet parade will begin at 1pm on Sunday outside Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station in downtown Taipei.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS