Hundreds of demonstrators yesterday thronged the streets of Taipei to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising and express solidarity with Tibetans in exile.
Waving Tibetan flags — also called snow lion flags and seen as symbols of Tibetan independence — the marchers accused the Chinese government of infringing upon the human rights and religious freedom of Tibetans.
The demonstrators paid tribute to the 1959 uprising, which led to the flight of the Dalai Lama and the establishment of the current Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.
Headed by a coalition of Tibetan advocacy groups and Taiwanese human rights organizations, the protesters also paid respect to more than 130 Tibetans who have self-immolated since 2009 to protest what they call the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
The procession drew a diverse crowd of different nationalities, as monks draped in maroon-and-yellow robes walked alongside Taiwanese supporters dressed in traditional Tibetan garments.
Activists in Tibet face a common threat with those in Hong Kong and Taiwan: repression of human rights by the Chinese government, Taiwan Association for Human Rights Secretary-General Chiu E-ling (邱伊翎) said.
The theme of this year’s parade, “Next Stop: Tibet,” refers to mass protests that began in Taiwan and Hong Kong last year, she said, adding that pro-democracy activists from both sides of the Taiwan Strait must stand in solidarity with Tibetans in their human rights campaign.
The theme also conveys organizers’ hope for Tibetans to be allowed to return to their homeland, as the Dala Lama and his followers have been barred from entry into China for more than five decades, organizers said.
They accused President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration of ignoring China’s treatment of Tibetans and urged the government to take a stand on the issue.
“While Taiwan and China establish ever-closer economic ties, Taiwan’s government has failed to stop the Chinese government from massacring Tibetans,” Green Party co-chair Lee Ken-cheng (李根政) said.
After walking from Taipei’s Zhongxiao-Fuxing MRT station, the demonstrators lay down on the pavement together in memory of the self-immolated Tibetans when they reached Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
Dhundup Gyalpo, secretary of the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama — the Tibetan government-in-exile’s de facto embassy in Taiwan — said the event’s main purpose was to honor the pain and suffering that Tibetan activists endured.
Although Beijing has begun to loosen up on restrictions that barred Tibetans from attending religious events, Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association vice president Tenzin Namda said he considers recent reforms to be mostly superficial, as key teachings of Buddhist philosophy are still banned.
Beijing has attempted to prevent Tibetans from learning their culture, which centers on Buddhist philosophy and ideas of universal compassion, he said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS