A group of advocates calling for the protection of Tibetans’ rights and freedoms yesterday said it would hold a large demonstration in Taipei on Saturday.
The group told a news conference in front of the Legislative Yuan that the human rights situation in areas controlled by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been worsening, citing conditions in Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, where it said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is engaged in “genocide.”
The group called for people from those regions to join Saturday’s demonstration to “speak up for the protection of human rights and freedoms.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The rally would mark Tibetan Uprising Day, which is commemorated annually on March 10, Tibetan government-in-exile representative Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa said.
Kelsang compared Tibet’s plight to that of Ukraine, saying that former PRC leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) had ordered the invasion of Tibet after issuing a statement that the region was “an inalienable part of China,” just as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Ukraine’s invasion after claiming it to “share a historical unity” with Russia.
“The CCP says the same about Taiwan. History will repeat itself if we do not learn from its lessons. Taiwanese must learn from what Tibet’s experience has taught us,” he said.
Despite Tibet being forced into the Seventeen Point Agreement by Beijing, innumerable Tibetans died in continued aggression in the region by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and PLA-backed militias, he said, adding that Taiwan could suffer the same fate at the hands of the CCP.
“The Tibetan government has been stuck in exile for 63 years due to Chinese oppression. Taiwan is a beacon of democracy in Asia, so it must bravely stand up to CCP aggression,” he said.
“Even during this year’s winter Olympics in Beijing, CCP officials were arresting dissidents in Tibet,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said. “Meanwhile, Tibetans who communicate with others abroad have been monitored and punished, even when the content of their discussions does not touch on sensitive topics.”
The experiences of Ukraine and Tibet show that agreements signed with autocracies do not guarantee peace, DPP Legislator Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) said.
“Not only will an agreement with a dictatorship not guarantee that tanks will not roll in, it might even serve as an excuse for invasion,” she said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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