The Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan (HRNTT) held a “Cycling for a Free Tibet” event in Taipei on Wednesday ahead of the March 10 Uprising Day to raise public awareness of the Tibetan desire for freedom.
The event, which saw cyclists take to the streets of the capital, marked 65 years of Tibetan resistance against China’s occupation of their homeland and the Lhasa uprising that took place on March 10, 1959, organizers said.
Tashi Tsering, founder of the organization, told a news conference outside the Legislative Yuan that since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forced Tibet to sign the “Seventeen Point Agreement” in 1951, the Dalai Lama has been in exile, and Tibetan children have been forced to leave their parents and been subjected to China’s “brainwashing education.”
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Tsering added that the CCP even enacted laws to stipulate how Rinpoche — a honorific term in Tibetan that translates as “precious one” — are chosen to control and suppress Tibetan Buddhism.
The CCP should not be able to decide who the 15th Dalai Lama is, as it is planning to, he added.
Also at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said that China has been attacking Taiwan economically and diplomatically, and that the signing of the “peaceful treaty” with Tibet should be a warning to the nation.
Given the situation in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong, Taiwan has to defend itself against tyranny in any way necessary, Shen said, adding that he would continue to voice support for freedom, democracy and human rights in the legislature.
Sky Fung (馮詔天), chief secretary for the Hong Kong Outlanders, said that after Tibet was invaded by China, its religion, culture and traditions were persecuted, and many of its people were forced to leave their homeland.
However, the Tibetan people have not given up believing their homeland can one day be free, Fung said, adding that as a Hong Kong citizen, he regretted not identifying China’s deception sooner and not doing more to stand up for Tibet.
Fung said people should not take freedom for granted, and that Taiwan could be China’s next target.
Everybody should come together in the fight for freedom and human rights, he said.
Similar cycling events are also to take place in Taipei on Wednesday next week, on Feb. 28 and March 6, as well as in Kaohsiung on March 2.
The HRNTT posted on Facebook that the cyclists are to gather at 9am for the Taipei events and begin from 228 Peace Memorial Park, but the routes would be different each time.
For the Kaohsiung event, cyclists are to meet at 1:30pm on March 2 at Exit 3 of the Kaohsiung MRT Cultural Center, it said.
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