Tibetans in India express solidarity with Covid protests in China
New Delhi, Dec 2 (EFE).- About 100 Tibetan refugees in India on Friday expressed their solidarity with the recent Covid protests in China that have been dubbed the “blank paper revolution.”
“As Tibetans today, we want to tell the people of China who are revolting that we understand you, we stand in solidarity with you, we know what you are going through, the frustration, the disappointment, the danger on your lives, we know, because we have been undergoing this for over 70 years,” Tibetan writer-activist Tenzin Tsundue said during a protest in New Delhi.
“There is a revolution happening in China, it’s not just a protest, it’s a revolution…they are asking the Communist Party of China to go, they are asking (Chinese President) Xi Jinping to go, and the protest is not happening just in one place but all over China,” he added.
Tsundue also accused President Xi of using coronavirus restrictions to “remain president forever.”
Friday’s protest was called by the Tibetan NGO Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), which has carried out several demonstrations in recent days to show their support for the Chinese protesters.
Many of the mobilizations in China began with vigils and tributes for the ten people who died on Nov. 24 in a fire in a building apparently under lockdown in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi.
There is also a growing weariness among the working population on the outskirts of large cities, who have seen their work suffer due to the strict measures of the “zero Covid” policy.
China claims Tibet has been an inseparable part of its territory for centuries, although Tibetans-in-exile maintain the region was independent for hundreds of years before it was occupied by communist troops and incorporated into the People’s Republic in 1951.
India hosts more than 130,000 Tibetan refugees, according to data from the government-in-exile which is based in India. EFE
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