More than 200 people from more 20 civic groups and lawmakers marched through downtown Taipei yesterday in a call to free Tibet and uphold human rights.
The march was to commemorate Tibetan Uprising Day — the March 10 anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule — which sparked a sharp crackdown and led to the Dalai Lama’s exile.
Members of the Welfare Society for Tibetans in Taiwan (在台藏人福利協會), Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan, Taiwan Association for Human Rights and other groups gathered in front of Pacific Sogo’s Zhongxiao E Road department store for a rally before setting off on the march, with numerous speeches by legislators expressing solidarity with the Tibetan cause.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) called for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to allow the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan.
“President Ma has said many times that cross-strait relations have never been better, so I cannot think of a better time,” Lim said, adding that the president has cited a need to repair cross-strait ties in denying previous visits.
Ma’s government has refused to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama since his previous visit in 2009.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Yi-yu (蔡易餘) said that Tibet should serve as a “warning” of what might happen to Taiwan, calling for the Executive Yuan’s Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission to be frozen to express solidarity with the Tibetan cause.
“The function of the commission is not clear and it looks like a deformity even when run by the Republic of China, because Mongolia does not belong to China anymore. That we still use the ‘Republic of China’ framework to lay claim to Tibet is at odds with their struggle for human rights and freedom,” Tsai Yi-yu said, adding that he would propose a refugee act to allow Tibetan exiles to be granted asylum.
DPP Legislator Kolas Yotaka — a Amis Aborigine elected on the party’s at-large legislative slate — said that Aborigines and Tibetans face similar challenges.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
Tibetans “are like China’s indigenous people, so we feel for them and should support them both in spirit and politically,” Kolas said, adding that Aborigines and Tibetans desire true autonomy to protect their cultures.
“We were both originally independent nations, but have been losing our political systems, social structures, religious beliefs and languages ever since colonizing powers came,” she said.
The group sang the Tibetan national anthem, while Tibetan monks prayed for a long life for the Dalai Lama before they marched away to chants of “Free Tibet” and “Long Live the Dalai Lama.”
A large portrait of the Dalai Lama led the procession, followed by more than a dozen Tibetans waving large Tibetan flags.
The group marched to the Kelti Building, which is often used to symbolize the Chinese government in the absence of a formal representative office, as it houses the offices of the Cross-Strait Economic and Cultural Interchange Association, the Bank of China and other Chinese associations and firms.
The group held a “die-in,” sprawling on the road in front of the Kelti Building in solidarity with Tibetan monks who have self-immolated to protest Chinese rule of Tibet.
The group marched to Taipei 101, saying they wanted to share their message with Chinese tourists.
Further events to mark Tibetan Uprising Day are scheduled for Thursday night at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall’s Freedom Square and Kaohsiung’s Human Rights Learning Study.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat