Worried about the indifference of Taiwanese toward the ongoing repression of Tibetans by the Chinese government and self-immolations by Tibetans, Tibet activists yesterday called on the public to join a march to commemorate the 54th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising in Taipei on Sunday.
“If a group of people stand idly by and watch while another group of people are being beaten on the street, then I would call that society cold-blooded and fallen,” former vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), a lifelong volunteer at the Deng Liberty Foundation, said at a press conference in Taipei. “Sadly, this is what I am seeing in Taiwan — the majority of the people in Taiwan are indifferent, while Tibetans use their own bodies to protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.”
“We should stand with Tibetans, because the goals that the they are trying to achieve — freedom of expression, freedom of religion, preservation of their own culture and living with dignity on their own land — are also our values,” Yeh said.
As the widow of the late democracy activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who self-immolated in 1989 to protest a lack of freedom of speech in Taiwan, Yeh said that she could feel the pain of the families of self-immolated Tibetans.
“Therefore, I think I should stand up to give them my support,” Yeh said.
Meanwhile, the rapper DogG (大支) said he felt ashamed about the indifference showed by mainstream Taiwanese society toward the sufferings of Tibetans and the government’s refusal to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama.
“The rally on March 10 is a good opportunity for us to raise public awareness about the issue and to tell the government that we Taiwanese will always stand with Tibetans in their struggle,” he said.
Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan chairman Tenzin Chompel said that through actions worldwide, Tibetans want to tell China and the world that they will not give up on independence for Tibet.
“With more than 6 million Tibetans under Chinese repression and with 150,000 living in exile as refugees, we will not give up our Buddhist culture and we will not forget that we are Tibetan, not Chinese. We insist that only when we regain independence can our freedom be guaranteed,” he said.
“I also want to say that it’s no use compromising with China, because treaties and negotiations with China are just lies — we hope that Taiwan will not fall like a next Tibet,” he added.
Marchers are scheduled to assemble at 1pm at Exit 2 of Zhong-xiao Fuxing MRT station on Sunday, while the march is to start at 2pm.
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
DETERRENCE: US National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said cross-strait affairs are on the agenda at the US-ASEAN Special Leaders’ Summit The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked the Czech Senate for passing a resolution supporting Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO and other international organizations for the second consecutive year. The resolution was passed on Wednesday with 51 votes in favor, one opposed and 11 abstentions. In addition to the WHO, it also called for Taiwan’s participation in the “meetings, mechanisms and activities” of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Civil Aviation Organization and Interpol. In its opening, the resolution states that the Czech Republic “considers Taiwan as one of its key partners in the Indo-Pacific region,” while noting its