By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, April 21: A group of student activists representing organisations like Students for a Free Tibet and the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP disrupted an address by the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, at Harvard University on Saturday. The student activists voiced their strong opposition to Ambassador Xie’s involvement in the erosion of freedom in Hong Kong, the suppression of democracy, support for genocide in Tibet and East Turkestan, and advocacy for military action against Taiwan.
In a widely circulated video, a female Taiwanese student activist from Harvard is seen denouncing Ambassador Xie’s complicity in tarnishing Hong Kong’s freedoms and democracy, extending to similar intentions in her native Taiwan. “Xie Feng, you come to paint your delusion of a “prosperous China” when your hands are painted with blood. You robbed the Hong Kongers of fundamental freedoms and devastated their democracy. Now in my country, Taiwan, you sought to do the same.”
Another female Tibetan student activist in the same video decried China’s policies, asserting, “China lies, people die. 80% of Tibetan children are forced into larger colonial-style boarding schools which are aimed at destroying my Tibetan people’s existence. Shame on Xie Feng. Free Tibet. Free East Turkestan. You have blood on your hands. Guilty of genocide. Shame on Xie Feng.”
In another widely circulated video, a male Tibetan student activist named Topjor is seen holding the Tibetan national flag and shouting, “Free Tibet. How can you be here when the Chinese government is in direct contravention of every human rights law in the world? You are a representative of a government that advocates for genocide. The genocide of the Tibetan people, of the Uyghur people, the occupation of Hong Kong. You are a travesty. You do not deserve to be here. This is a free country. You cannot project your transnational repression in this country, in this continent. You are a shame, a stain on this institution. Shame on you Xie Feng. Shame on China.”
Furthermore, the two female Harvard student activists, who were expelled from the event expressed, “We just got kicked out of our own university. Right now, Xie Feng, the Chinese Ambassador to the United States is inside giving a propaganda speech. We Harvard students went in to tell him that we will not give him this undeserved platform. Xie Feng is spinning bloody, bloody lies touting the “good China story.”
In response to Ambassador Xie’s address at Harvard University, Students for a Free Tibet issued a statement, asserting, “Ambassador Xie Feng’s job is to spread propaganda about China and the CCP, but today the truth was louder. These student activists sent a strong message that advocates of genocide are to be welcome on our campuses and the presence of the CCP on campus is a stain on the institution.”
