Phayul
Tenzin Dharpo
September 19, 2015
DHARAMSHALA, September 19: Activists from the Student of Free Tibet confronted a Chinese official at an event to launch a book by Chinese President Xi Jinping titled‘Xi Jinping Governance of China at a book storein Washington DC, United States on Friday.
Lhadon Tethong, Director of Tibet Action Institute and Pema Yoko, Acting Executive Director of Students for Free Tibet, accompanied by other members of the group confronted Mr. Guo Weimin, Vice Minister of China’s State Council Information Office (propaganda wing of the Politburo), at Xi Jinping’s book launch at Politics and Prose book store.
In a video Lhadon Tethong was seen saying, “What I am wondering is that, if the question of Tibet is addressed in this book. A 150 Tibetans have self immolated, burned their bodies in protest because China’s repression in Tibet is so bad”.
She continued, “The Tibetan, Chinese, Uyghurs and people of Inner Mongolia should be allowed to live their lives in freedom and enjoy the rights people here have”.
“Is the Tulku Tenzin Delek’s murder and death in Chinese prison included in this book? These are questions Tibetans want to know. What about the over 300 lawyers hounded, arrested and disappeared in China? This is a book of a dictator,” asks Pema Yoko in the same video.
PR activities such as the book launch are part of preparation for the upcoming state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sep 22, says Pema Yoko of SFT.
The owner of Politics and Prose, Bradley Graham, and a few Chinese officials intervened and pushed the duo out of the bookstore. However, the activists waited outside the store for the duration of the event and again confronted the Chinese official and his entourage blocking their passage for a few minutes. The activists held Tibetan flags and signs reading: “Xi Jinping: Tibet Will Be Free.”
“Xi Jinping can publish as many propaganda books as he likes, but he cannot rewrite history and change the fact that Tibet was an independent nation and Tibetans have never given up their struggle for basic rights and freedom,” says Pema Yoko.
Meanwhile the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress held a hearing on the deceased Tibetan philanthropist and leader Tulku Tenzin Delek in Washington DC on Thursday.
The hearing saw Gyeshe Nyima, cousin of Trulku Tenzin Delek, speak on the circumstances under which the Tulku was wrongfully convicted of ‘inciting separatism’, sentenced to life imprisonment and later succumbing to torture in Chinese prison under mysterious conditions on July 12. Congressman James P. McGovern moderated the event and also gave the opening remark at the hearing.
The hearing held at the 441 Cannon house office at the Capitol Hill was attended by more than 50 congressional staff and supporters.
