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.
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data
The Supreme Court today rejected an appeal filed by former Air Force officer Shih Chun-cheng (史濬程), convicted of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) espionage, finalizing his sentence at two years and two months for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法). His other ruling, a ten-month sentence for an additional contravention, was meanwhile overturned and sent to the Taichung branch of the High Court for retrial, the Supreme Court said today. Prosecutors have been notified as Shih is considered a flight risk. Shih was recruited by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intelligence officials after his retirement in 2008 and appointed as a supervisor
RSS