By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, March 9 – Tibetans in the American city of Portland gathered outside the City Hall yesterday to protest officials from the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco who had come to ask the City administration to rescind a proclamation to observe March 10 as the “Tibet Awareness Day”.
City Commissioner Randy Leonard told The Oregonian that the Chinese consulate in San Francisco is fuming over the city’s proclamation to declare March 10 as Tibet Awareness Day. Leonard writes on his blog that the proclamation passed on March 3 is a tribute to “the 1.2 million Tibetans who died in their struggle to establish independence.”
Fearing a confrontation with Tibetan demonstrators at City Hall, the consulate asked to meet Leonard at the University Club.
The Chinese delegation which met Leonard and Mayor Sam Adams asked that the city to rescind the proclamation, order a new proclamation in support of China, and deny Tibetans a planned celebration at City Hall on Wednesday. Leonard said no to all three requests; adding he expected the mayor to do the same.
Roy Kaufmann, spokesman for Mayor Sam Adams, said the mayor also declined the requests from Chinese government, despite the importance of trade relations between Portland and China, reported The Oregonian. As for stopping Wednesday’s celebration, Kaufmann said, “This is a publicly owned building.”
The Chinese government reaction, Leonard noted, is “completely out of proportion” to the city’s gesture on behalf of its Tibetan community.
An estimated 450 to 500 Tibetans live in Portland and in Southwest Washington.
“We are here to say thank you” to the council, said Namgyal Gyalnub, a Tibetan resident of Portland. And she wanted to send the message to visiting delegates that in the United States, there is freedom of speech and religion.
“The Chinese consulate asked each one of us to rescind the proclamation,” Leonard said Monday. Members of the Chinese business community met Leonard and told him he would not be welcome on a trip that he had scheduled to Suzhou, Portland’s sister city in China.
“We want to respect the City of Portland to have the guts and gumption to recognize us,” Jampa Lhatsang, a volunteer for the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association told Williamete Week.
