"Free Tibet!" "Boycott the Beijing Olympics!": nearly 200 people -- Tibetans and Taiwanese alike -- shouted as they marched through streets in Taipei City to commemorate the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese invasion.
"More than 100,000 [Tibetans] were killed during the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule," Chou Mei-li (周美里), president of Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT), said as she explained the importance of the event before the demonstrators departed from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall yesterday afternoon.
"Each year on this date, Tibetans worldwide and their supporters walk out of their homes to commemorate the day," she said. "We, the Taiwanese, certainly won't be absent from it."
The parade, organized by TFOT, the Taiwan-Tibet Exchange Foundation and the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association, began right after a simple memorial ceremony in which Tibetans in Taiwan sang the Tibetan national anthem and Tibetan monks chanted Buddhist chants.
The marchers held up placards that read "stop Chinese colonization in Tibet" and "free Tibet," as well as photos of some Tibetan political prisoners.
"The youngest political prisoner in the world -- the Panchen Lama," the inscription above a picture of a child on a placard said.
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, born in 1989, was named the 11th Panchen Lama -- the second-highest ranking monk in the Tibetan religion -- by the Dalai Lama in 1995.
However, as soon as he was named the Panchen Lama, he disappeared and the Chinese government appointed its own Panchen Lama.
The whereabouts of Gedhun are unknown to this day.
Another placard bore a picture of Rungyal Adrak, who openly advocated the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet and demanded Gedhun's release last August. As a result, he was arrested and sentenced to eight years in prison.
The procession ran into a Fuwa, the mascot of the Beijing Olympics, when they were approaching Taipei 101 Tower.
At the entrance of an exhibition hall to promote the exhibition, the exhibition organizer had someone dressed up as a Fuwa to promote the event.
As soon as the demonstrators spotted the Olympic mascot, some started to yell "Fuwa, get out" and "boycott the Beijing Olympics."
No further exchange continued as the exhibition staff quickly pulled the Fuwa inside.
Not all participants support boycotting the Olympics.
Erinn Low, a Canadian who is studying Mandarin in Taiwan, said that athletes' rights to fulfill their life-long dreams to take part in the Olympics should not be taken away, but added she supported the demonstration because it would raise public awareness on the Tibetan issue.
Having participated in the event in India several times, it was the first time that Dhundup Gyalpo, a Tibetan student at Tamkang University, took part in the rally in Taiwan.
He was surprised at the turnout for the parade.
"Even though there are only few Tibetans here, the support is huge," Gyalpo said. "This just shows that the Tibetan issue is well alive."
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as