Canberra: Hundreds of Tibetans and Tibet supporters from all over Australia joined by activists from the Uyghur, Hong Kong and Falun Dafa communities protested in front of Parliament House on 20 March 2024 against the visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the Australian capital Canberra.
Raising the Tibetan national flag and waving placards bearing messages like, “Free Tibet”, and “Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama” Tibetans and Tibet supporters from across Australia urged the Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong to put human rights above trade and hold Chinese leadership to account for its atrocities in Tibet. The protesters sent a strong message to China and the Australian government: Human Rights are Not for Sale.
Co-Chair of the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet and Greens Senator Janet Rice addressed the gathering, calling for both the Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the opposition’s shadow foreign minister Simon Birmingham to urgently raise human rights concerns with Wang in their meeting.
“My message to both Penny Wong and Simon Birmingham is to put the issue of human rights in China and in Tibet absolutely top of the agenda. We cannot have normal relationships with China while the people of Tibet are being oppressed, persecuted, do not have religious freedom, are being taken off their lands, while kids are being sent off to Chinese-run boarding schools. Australia has to speak out and say this is not good enough.” Senator Rice said.
An Independent Senator Lydia Thorpe spoke of her empathy as an Aboriginal woman at the situation inside Tibet. She also criticised the Australian government for treading around the issue of human rights and expressed her unwavering support for the Tibetan cause.
The other members of the parliament who joined the protest to express their solidarity and support for Tibetans and other victims of CCP include Senator Dean Smith, Senator Jordon Steel-John, Andrew Wallace MP and David Gillespie MP.
The Chinese Liaison officer of the Tibet Information Office, Dawa Sangmo, highlighted the recent crackdown on the peaceful Tibetan protesters in Derge County in the traditional province of Kham and urged the Chinese Government to immediately and unconditionally release all Tibetans detained in Derge protest.
In a statement issued, the president of Australia’s Tibetan community associations Ngawa Choezin, and executive officer of the Australia Tibet Council Zoe Bedford, said, “It is disappointing that, while Tibet has been consistently ranked among the least free countries in the world, the Australian government is rewarding the Chinese government with trade deals rather than issuing Magnitsky sanctions for their human rights abuses”.
The Tibetan activists also protested outside the Chinese Embassy in Canberra to send the message that the Tibetan struggle is very much alive and will continue as long as Tibet is not free.
The Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong at a post-meeting news conference, said, “I raised Australia’s concerns about human rights, including in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong”.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit marks the first time that a senior Chinese leader has visited Australia since 2017, signalling a diplomatic softening in strained relations between the two countries that have clashed in recent years over human rights, trade and COVID-19.
–Filed by Tibet Information Office, Canberra