Ukrainians attend Taiwan protest in support of Tibet: Report
Mar 06, 2022
Taipei [Taiwan], March 6 : Ukrainians in Taiwan extended their support to a protest march against 63 years of Chinese repression in Tibet on Saturday, media reports said.
The protest march for Tibet is organised by the Taiwanese every year since 2004 to commemorate the Chinese repression of the Tibetan uprising in March 1959. The Tibetan uprising against the rule of communist China lasted for two weeks before it was brutally suppressed.
Ukrainians who attended the march on Saturday drew parallels between the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, Taiwan News reported.
Yulia Koroleva, who has been staying in Taiwan for two years, told the protesters how the situation in Tibet had still not improved after 63 years of occupation, further adding that the Russian war against Ukraine showed that there were still large countries willing to disrespect and attack smaller nations.
"The powerful should respect other people, and not humiliate the weak," Koroleva said while calling for the removal of autocrats and dictators. The Ukrainian resident emphasized that she opposed the war and loved freedom.
The protest march comes amid reports of the Chinese introducing draconian laws and regulations in Tibet in order to suppress its cultural identity.
A new code of conduct for members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Tibet explicitly forbids party members from all forms of religiosity in both public and private life. The six-point code of conduct is the first party regulation that clearly and comprehensively details the specific types of religiosity forbidden for party members in Tibet, according to a report in The Hong Kong Post.
Moreover, a new regulation called 'Measures on the Administration of Internet Religious Informative Services' which came into effect on March 1 bans all foreign organizations and individuals from spreading religious content online in China and Tibet except those who have acquired government licenses.
In November last year, Sikyong Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamshala accused China of implementing a 'One nation, one party, one language, one culture' policy in occupied Tibet and said that Tibetans as a people and culture was being subjected to a slow death.
In the same month, US President Biden had raised concerns about China's practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong with Xi Jinping during an online discussion.
