Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition Expresses Its Support to the Tibetans' Freedom Fight

March 14, 2008

We have closely watched the events evolving in the last a few days related to the Tibetans' freedom fight all over the world, especially in Lhasa, Capital of Tibet. Exactly 49 years after the brutal military crackdown and massacre of the Tibetans by the Chinese Communists' army, once again the brave Tibetan people, asking for freedom, especially freedom of religion, are staging a massive protest and demonstrations.

These demonstrations do not come as a surprise. Led by his holiness the Dalai Lama, the patient efforts of the Tibetans to seek freedom and true autonomy have continuously failed due to lack of sincerity from the Chinese Communist government. Once again, the calls for freedom and demonstrations in Tibet have been met with military force and bloodshed. This reaction by the Chinese Communists in Lhasa is similar to what happened in 1989 in Lhasa prior to the June 4 massacre in Beijing in front of the eyes of the whole international society, under the same leadership of Hu Jintao. As now the international society is eyeing the upcoming 2008 Olympics, the Chinese Communist government has once again chosen its iron fist as the way to answer a call of freedom and peace.

Here, we want to emphasize what Mr. Wei Jingsheng has repeated in the last several years:

1. The suffering of the Han Chinese and Tibetans are the same.

2. In 1959, the protests of the Tibetans were crudely suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party. The massacre lasted for more than one year, while almost one million Tibetans lost their lives. Meanwhile, the Han Chinese were also under the political persecution of the Chinese Communist Party, and several tens of millions lives were lost due to political persecution and starvation.

3. In 1989, it was the current Chinese Party leader HU Jintao who led the army to kill the Tibetans on the streets of Lhasa. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and DENG Xiaoping massacred hundreds and thousands of people on the streets of Beijing.

4. In the last several decades, suppressed people are all against the Chinese Communist Party's tyranny. We must mutually support, mutually help each other. In the past, due to the lies and propaganda of the CCP, many Han Chinese did not know the suffering of the Tibetans, did not understand that the Tibetans' struggle against tyranny is the same goal as the Chinese. Now, more and more Han Chinese has learned of the suffering of the Tibetans, and are in agreement and support of the Tibetans' goal.

5. Due to the struggle and the pressure of the Tibetan people and international society, the CCP expressed that they are willing to solve the Tibetan issue via negotiation. However, just like before, they have no sincerity for negotiation, but play with international public opinion, in an effort to dissolve the determination of Tibetans' struggle. Thus, we must keep the successful approaches of the struggle from the past few decades, and maintain the pressure on the CCP both internally and internationally so we could get some real solid results from the negotiation. In dealing with reasonable parties, we could use reasonable manners for negotiation. However, in dealing with a hooligan government like the CCP, it is impossible to get some serious negotiation if there is not enough pressure.

Hereby, with all the freedom and democracy loving people of the world we want to express solidarity with the Tibetans' freedom fighters and ask the international society to not only put its attention but add more pressure on the Chinese government. We express outrage at the IOC chairman Mr. Jacques Rogge's disregard of the Olympic spirit and refusal to give a comment or stand on Tibetans' outcry, not to mention of express any will of effort to stop this tragic development. Nevertheless, we believe in and are thankful to the majority of the righteous-minded people on this world who support the freedom and human rights of the Tibetans.

The freedom and human rights of the Tibetans is the freedom and human rights of all the people.

-- Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition