Activists disrupt Chinese ambassadors’ address at Harvard
By Tsering Choephel
DHARAMSALA, 23 April: Five Tibetan and Taiwanese American activists disrupted the Chinese Ambassador’s address at Harvard Kennedy School on Saturday, 20 April, by protesting against China’s stance on Tibet, Hong Kong, East Turkestan, and Taiwan, reported thecrimson.com.
Collectively organised by Students for a Free Tibet and the Coalition of Students Resisting China, the activists’ protest at the event delayed Xie’s address. The protesters stood up one by one, shouting and holding Tibetan flags and banners reading “China Lies, People Die.”
Outside the venue, a rally of Tibetans, Hongkongers, Uyghurs, Taiwanese, and Chinese dissidents and supporters waved flags and slogans against the Chinese communist regime. According to the report, there were approximately 35 protesters, including both Harvard students and local residents of the Boston area at the site.
Cosette T. Wu, 25, co-founder of the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP and the first protester to interrupt the talk, said Xie’s past actions stand “in direct contradiction to our values and Harvard’s values.”
“These types of viewpoints should not have any place in the Harvard community,” Wu added. “We are not going to allow somebody who has had such a huge role in advocating for a genocidal government and enacting such significant human rights abuses.”
Tsering Yangchen, 26, co-president of the Boston chapter of Students for a Free Tibet, said in a press release that her “family escaped Tibet because China had massacred tens of thousands of Tibetans during the CCP’s military invasion and colonisation of my homeland.”
“Xie Feng is an advocate for the genocide of my people and, as a Tibetan Harvard student, it’s my duty to show the world the truth,” Yangchen added.
Steven G. Catalano, the spokesperson of the Harvard University Police Department, stated that his officers escorted out five protesters as they refused to stop their protest and another protester walked out during Xie’s speech.
Xie was there to deliver a speech at the annual student-run event organised by the Greater China Society.
