More than 100 demonstrators yesterday marched in Taipei ahead of the 62nd anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, with several politicians calling on Taiwanese to show support for Tibetans.
Demonstrators carried the Tibetan flag and held signs reading: “Tibet belongs to Tibetans,” “Free Tibet” and “Stop killing in Tibet.”
Yesterday’s Tibetan Uprising Day rally was the 18th to be held in Taiwan, organizers said.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
Participants gathered in front of the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station in Daan District (大安) before marching toward Taipei 101 in Xinyi District (信義) at about 2:30pm.
Representatives from several political parties, including the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the New Power Party (NPP), the Taiwan Statebuilding Party, Green Party Taiwan and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), attended the event.
DPP Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰), the vice chair of the cross-party Taiwan Parliament Group for Tibet founded in 2016, addressed the crowd before the march began.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“In the past 50 to 60 years, Tibetans have been unable to go home,” Hung said, calling it their “biggest wish.”
“This path is very, very long,” he said, adding that “we will definitely walk with our Tibetan friends.”
“Tibet’s problem is Taiwan’s problem — to help Tibet is to help Taiwan,” said DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲), who is also a member of the Taiwan Parliament Group for Tibet.
Photo: CNA
“In the face of the brutality of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], our pursuit of progress and democracy must not stop even for a while because of resistance,” Taipei City Councilor Miao Po-ya (苗博雅) of the SDP said.
Noting the presence of a “Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now” flag in the crowd, Miao said: “Today, Taiwanese, Tibetans and Hong Kongers stand together. What we pursue is democracy, freedom and dignity.”
DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and NPP Secretary-General Christy Pai (白卿芬) also joined the parade.
The demonstrators also marked the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Seventeen-Point Agreement in 1951, calling it a “lie.”
The agreement ceded control of Tibet to China, but it is considered to have been signed under duress.
The annual rally was organized by more than 30 groups, including the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association, the Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan, the Taiwan Parliament Group for Tibet, the Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan and Students for a Free Tibet, Taiwan.
Other organizers included the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Taiwan Labour Front, the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy and the Taiwan Alliance for Thai Democracy.
The groups are to lead a prayer at 7pm on Wednesday at Liberty Square in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正), they said.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS