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Pro-democracy Chinese supports Tibetan autonomy

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

Pro-democracy Chinese dissidents, who participated in the 51st Tibetan uprising against China, during a press conference in Mcleod Ganj, India, 11 March 2010. From right: David T Chien, Wei Xue, Chin Jin and an identified dissident outside their hotel in Mcleod Ganj.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

A group of high profile pro-democracy Chinese activists, who have arrived in Dharamshala to participate in the 51st anniversary of the 10 March Tibetan uprising against the Chinese rule, expressed their support for the Tibetan demand for autonomy.

Yang Jianli, the founder and head of the Boston-based Initiatives for China, led the 23-member pro-democracy Chinese delegation, which met the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama for three hours on the uprising day.

The dissidents expressed their support towards the Tibetan cause and stressed two sides should join forces to achieve democracy and freedom in Tibet and China. They also called on the global leaders to support the Tibetan freedom struggle and in the process help China transform from autocracy to democracy.

The Chinese people had been aspiring for democracy for the past hundred years, said Chin Jin, who heads the Federation for a Democratic China based in Australia.

“The world leaders has the obligation to help Tibetan and Chinese people to achieve what they want. Chinese people want democracy and Tibetan people want autonomy,” adding that the democracy in China and autonomy in Tibet are two sides of a coin. “We should work together,” he said.

David T Chien, of the international Sino-Tibetan Fellowship from Taiwan, said that the Chinese government took away the freedom of Tibetan people.

“The rulers should get consent of the people they rule. Other wise they don’t have the right to rule them,” Chien said.

He further added that resolving the Tibetan issue could bring democracy in China. “We support the Tibetans because when they get freedom, it will set a good platform for the Chinese to win freedom for all the Chinese people too,” he said.

Responding to questions from journalists what Chinese pro-democracy activists can do to achieve their goals, Wei Xue, the publisher of Beijing Spring, a Chinese-language monthly magazine published in New York, said that there are four things the Chinese dissidents can do to achieve democracy in China.

First, they can speak out for the Chinese people in China who all aspires for a democratic China.

Second, the dissidents living in different parts of the world can appeal to various governments to exert pressure on the Chinese government to release political prisoners, put economic sanctions, and to start a process to achieve democracy.

Third, the dissidents can serve as a bridge between the peoples of the mainland China with the outside world. For years, people in China had been fed the Chinese government propaganda. The dissidents can communicate with them and make them understand that people in the outside world are enjoying real freedom and people in China still suffer from lack of freedom. The dissidents can bring the truth to the people in mainland China.

Fourth, the activists should put democratic principles to practice, so that they can bring democracy back to China and preach what they have practiced and experienced. “We know how to do it and how to operate a real democratic system,” he said.

One of the dissidents, Chen Weiming, a Las Vegas-based sculptor, whose 2×3 metres copper sculpture, named the “Tibetan Way to Freedom”, was brought over to place in the Tibet Museum in Mcleod Ganj. The sculpture depicted the undying spirit of the Tibetan people.

Chin Jin and Wei Xue formed the group to support the Tibetan cause and travel to Dharamshala to join the Tibetan uprising day. The group consisted of members from the US, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, Thailand, Cambodia, Germany and Hong Kong.

Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche hosted the group with a Tibetan cultural show at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, followed by a dinner on Thursday evening.

A smaller group of Chinese dissidents first joined the Tibetan uprising day in 2009.

Copyright © 2010 Tibet Sun

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