By Tsering Passang, Founder & Chair, GATPM / 18th September 2023
China’s persecuted communities and rights groups staged a peaceful protest outside the InterContinent Hotel in Mayfair, London on Sunday 17th September, where the Chinese Embassy was hosting its 74th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Ahead of the 1st October PRC National Day, this secretive official function of the Chinese Embassy states: ‘A gala dinner to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, attended by Ambassador Zheng Zeguang and other embassy officials’.
Attending the protest were leading activists and leaders of China’s persecuted communities and rights groups from Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities, Hong Kong Aid, Hong Kong Liberty, Stop Uyghur Genocide, Tibetan Community UK and UK Uyghur Community. They chanted “No Celebrations – China’s Dictatorship”, “No Celebrations – Genocides demand Justice”, “Free Tibet”, “Free East Turkestan” and “Free Hong Kong”. Chinese officials were seen taking photos of the peaceful protesters.
The coalition of rights groups are now getting ready for their next annual protest, on 1st October, when their members and supporters will join in from London’s Trafalgar Square to the Chinese Embassy to protest against the CCP regime.
After the protest, Rahima Mahmut, Executive Director of Stop Uyghur Genocide, posted on her social media: “This evening, officials from the Chinese Embassy marked their National Celebration Day with a dinner at the Inter Continental Hotel in London. Together with our friends from Hong Kong and Tibet, we organized a small protest outside the hotel to emphasize that there can be no true celebration amid genocide and dictatorship.”
Tenzin Kunga, Chairman of Tibetan Community UK also tweeted, “We made sure that our voices calling for #FreeTibet #FreeHongkong #FreeUyghurs echoed through the hotel doors to those attending the Chinese event. Our groups united in #resistance.”
The People’s Republic of China was established soon after the Communist Party of China (CCP) defeated the Kuomintang (The Nationalist – Republic of China (ROC), now Taiwan) on 1st October 1949. China’s ruthless dictator Mao Tsetung ordered his PLA troops to invade Tibet. Since the CCP came to power through brutal force, immeasurable atrocities and destruction have been committed by the Chinese regime, including tens of millions of people killed. The Uyghur genocide in China’s occupied East Turkestan is the evidence of CCP’s atrocities committed against the Uyghur people. Over 800,000 Tibetan children are forcefully being admitted in China’s ‘colonial boarding schools’ with the main object of annihilation of the Tibetan identity, language and culture. Mongolians still cannot exercise their native language rights in Southern Mongolia, which is still under China’s occupation. Since the CCP imposed their “National Security Law”, the fundamental rights of the people of Hong Kong, including the rights to protest and free speech, have been taken away by the Chinese authorities. Consequently, several hundred thousands of Hongkongers have fled their homeland.
Useful links
Global Alliance for Tibet & Persecuted Minorities (GATPM) 