Bay Area Tibetans and Formosans promote Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan
From left: Dechen Tsering (president of TANC), Chih-Daw Zheng (president of TSA-NC), John Hsieh (president of LOTA), Ching-Chu Wu Chen & Cheng Kuang Chen (president of GF), Keiko Huang (Japanese language teacher), Giovanni Vassallo (president of BAFoT).
Six members of the World Friends of Lee Teng-Hui Association, John Hsieh (president of Love of Taiwan Association), Cheng Kuang Chen (president of Global Forum) & wife Ching-Chu Wu Chen, Keiko Huang (a Japanese language teacher), Chih Daw Zheng (president of Taiwanese Senior Association of Northern California) and Jerry Tsai (executive director of Taiwan Solidarity Union of San Francisco) attended the 23rd anniversary of Tibet Day on Saturday December 6, 2008 at the Fort Mason Conference Center, San Francisco. Tibet Day is the Bay Area's annual tradition and celebration of Tibetan art, politics, culture, and music. It is sponsored by the Bay Area Friends of Tibet (BAFoT) and the Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC).
John Hsieh on behalf of the visiting group was invited to give his remarks. He pointed out that Tibetan and Formosan are brothers and sisters. And Tibet has been a hot topic in Formosa recently. Since Dalai Lama expressed he has interest to visit Formosa couple weeks ago, the president of Republic of China, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou repeated rejected Dalai’s visit on December 3. Dalai Lama is well respected by Formosa people and he has visited Formosa twice before. Ma’s rejection has seriously violated the basic Human Rights and also infuriated all the pan green supporters in Formosa. Because Ma said he welcomes all religious leaders in the world, except Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan. As a matter of fact, Ma’s authority is the exiled government of ROC. He only represents the interest of China/Chinese, not Formosa/Formosan. Since Chinese Ma does not welcome Dalai»s visit, but the Preparatory Committee for the organization of Taiwan civil government and Taiwan people do welcome Dalai Lama. So, Bay Area Formosan and Bay Area Tibetan commit to promote Dalai Lama’s visit to Formosa at the soonest future.