In the News

Exiled Tibetan politician addresses ROC Legislature

• Publication Date：07/02/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  June Tsai

Dicki Chhoyang, Minister for Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration, said June 29 that a high level of autonomy for the Tibetan people is the best means of solving tensions with mainland Chinese authorities.

Speaking at the ROC Legislative Yuan, Chhoyang said what Tibetan people have been calling for is freedom of religion and speech, as well as permission for the 14th Dalai Lama to return to Tibet.

Chhoyang is the first minister for international relations following the Tibetan government-in-exile’s full transition to democratic governance in May 2011, when the Dalai Lama’s proposal that his religious authority be separated from that of the secular government was ratified by its parliament.

The Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 in a failed uprising against mainland Chinese control, has pursued a middle-of-the-road solution with Beijing, Chhoyang said.

He has sought self-rule within Tibet under the framework of mainland Chinese rule, and this, rather than full independence, is also the goal of the current government-in-exile, she stressed.

Since 2009, Chhoyang continued, over 40 Tibetans have burned themselves alive in protest against Beijing’s policies regarding their people, culture and land.

While the government-in-exile has called on Tibetans to respect life, it hopes that the world will understand that the protesters see self-immolation as the only way to make the world see mainland China’s oppressive control, including restrictions on their traditional nomadic lifestyle and forced use of Chinese as the language of instruction in schools.

Chhoyang, on a tour of Taiwan and other Asian countries to talk about the current situation in Tibet, was invited to speak by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim. (THN)