The de facto representative of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Taiwan yesterday took exception to claims made by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) that Tibet had signed its 17-point peace agreement with China as a local government in 1951.
Ma made the comments yesterday when responding to Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) remarks on Wednesday comparing the cross-strait peace agreement that Ma has proposed signing to the agreement signed between China and Tibet.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Tsai said a peace agreement with China would not necessarily guarantee cross-strait peace and security. Using the 17-point peace agreement Tibet signed as an example, Tsai said that despite promises to ensure genuine autonomy, freedom of religion and Tibetan culture, the Chinese occupation of Tibet only brought repression on the Tibetans, their religion and culture, forcing the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959.
Responding to Tsai, Ma said her remarks were “downgrading” Taiwan’s status as a sovereign country, as the title of the Sino-Tibetan agreement shows that the agreement was signed between the “central government” and the “Tibetan local government.”
However, Dawa Tsering, chairman of the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, disagreed with Ma.
“Tibet was forced to sign the peace treaty with China because the Tibetan army was defeated and Chinese troops were right outside the city of Lhasa at the time,” Dawa told the Taipei Times by telephone. “A delegation was sent to Beijing to hold talks with the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] regime and the delegation was forced into signing the agreement without receiving prior authorization from the government in Lhasa.”
The delegation had to make a new seal in Beijing to stamp on the agreement as they were not able to get authorization and the official seal from Lhasa, he said.
Aside from the title and how the Sino-Tibetan agreement was signed, Dawa said that what happened to Tibet afterwards, despite the “beautiful promises” by China, “should teach anyone or any country in the world that tries to make a deal with China a lesson.”
“The Chinese government is insincere, dishonest and it upholds no moral values,” he said.
A Tibetan living in Taiwan, Tashi Tsering, who is a member of the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association, shared Dawa’s views.
“We Tibetans don’t trust the CCP regime at all, no one should trust them,” he said. “I actually agree with what Tsai said.”
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS