Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

When dealing with China, Taiwanese constantly talk about maintaining the “status quo,” which is as much a realization and an attitude as it is a policy. There has been a rise in the awareness of national autonomy in Taiwan over the past few years, which has had a clear impact upon both how the “status quo” is defined and on how it might be maintained. This has seen the emergence of a logically consistent, internally coherent trend in public opinion.

It is only by clarifying the situation and understanding the core content of awareness, trends and public opinion, that it will be possible to mount a collective defense and allow Taiwanese to further protect their beliefs and ideas, prevent certain political parties or politicians from selling Taiwan out and stop China from further infringing upon the nation’s borders.

A number of human rights groups — including the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association and the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan — yesterday announced a series of events to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, while advocating for the Tibetan cause to the world.

“It’s been more than half a century, and we Tibetans living in exile are still waiting for the opportunity to go home, while as many as 130 Tibetans living in Tibet and five living abroad self-immolated between 2009 and 2014 to protest the Chinese occupation of Tibet,” association president Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan, told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan.