A Century of Oppression and Torture, nothing to celebrate, SFT says as CCP marks centenary
DHARAMSALA, 1 July: Students for a Free Tibet (SFT)- India organised a photo action today to protest against the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party.
While China has been celebrating occasion with great pomp, SFT’s photo action campaign on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party declared that it marks ‘A Century of Oppression and Torture’ and that there is nothing to celebrate.
“Under Xi’s leadership, the Chinese government has intensified its crackdown on the voices demanding human rights and freedom not only in Tibet but also across China and its occupied countries,” SFT stated in its statement.
Highlighting the grave situation prevalent under the CCP, the group added that between 1.8 and 3 million Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples are arbitrarily detained in ‘re-education camps,’ Hong Kong’s vibrant community of human rights activists and outspoken youths being crushed by the National Security Law, he erasure of Southern Mongolian culture and language, the ongoing military intimidation and geopolitical bullying of Taiwan, and the detention, disappearance and death of countless Chinese lawyers, feminists, democracy activists, and anyone else deemed a threat by the Chinese Communist Party.
“China’s policies have created a crisis in Tibet and provoked an unprecedented wave of self-immolations by monks, nuns, and laypeople. More than 155 Tibetans have set light to themselves in Tibet since 2009; the vast majority have died,”the statement added.
SFT India’s Grassroots Director Rinzin Choedon said that today is a black day for us Tibetans and all those countries under Chinese occupation. We want to send a strong message to the Chinese President XI Jinping that we will not give up and keep resisting and fight on.
“There’s nothing to celebrate, in fact it’s a blackday in history. It’s a century of bloodshed, oppression and torture.We must all stand with the right side of history and say NO to supporting Beijing 2022.”
She further declared that China hosting the 2022 winter Olympics goes against the spirit of the game and as the International Olympic Committee awarded China the prestigious 2008 Summer Olympics claiming the Games would have a positive impact on human rights.
Instead the the situation became worse with “rampant abuse of power and human rights crisis under the Chinese government that do not concur the core principles of the Olympic Charter,” she said and added that “a boycott would deny China the chance to turn the brutal and illegal occupation of Tibet – which has seen Tibet ranked as the least-free country in the world alongside Syria – and the genocidal treatment of the Uyghur people into a PR victory.”
“China cannot be allowed to use the Games to showcase itself as a respectable, open and free country when in reality it is the ‘worst of the worst’ for human rights atrocities – including the brutal occupation of Tibet and the genocide of Uyghur communities.”
As Tibetans and Tibet supporters took part in the photo action campaign that “highlights millions of people murdered by the CCP across its all occupied countries,” she concluded by saying that “Xi is the cult leader responsible for all the evils, crimes against humanity and gross violation of human rights.”
“Given the IOC’s failure to act, it falls on Governments, National Olympic Committees, athletes, and people of conscience everywhere to take a stand against China’s human rights disaster. There must be a boycott of the Beijing 2022 Games,” said SFT India’s Campaigns Coordinator Tenzin Lekdhen.
