Tibetan and Uyghur activists on Sunday unfurled the Tibetan flag and demanded justice for alleged human rights violations suffered by Uyghurs above Chinese President Xi Jinping’s motorcade.
UPDATE: After 2.5+hrs 2 SFT activists have been detained after they deployed 2 banners + Tibetan FlagBut their message has already been made clear: Xi is committing genocide in Tibet.
A unidentified man was seen liaising with the police as the activists were detained. pic.twitter.com/pYLFQ1sWox
— Students for a Free Tibet (@SFTHQ) May 4, 2024
Xi Jinping arrived in France on a state visit and will later visit eastern European nations Hungary and Serbia, marking his first European visit in five years.
BREAKING SFT unfurled a giant banner on an overpass above Xi’s motorcade as he was arriving in Paris. In China, Xi may be able to ignore the plight of Tibetans, but in France we are going to expose his lies and guarantee that Xi cannot forget us. #FreeTibet #TibetLibre pic.twitter.com/YZt3gt1aoS
— Students for a Free Tibet (@SFTHQ) May 5, 2024
Following Xi’s arrival, campaigners for Tibet and Uyghur took to the streets demanding justice for those being allegedly oppressed by the Chinese government in those regions.
Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), who said that they were behind the unfurling of banners, later said that 2 activists who are part of the group were detained hours after they unfurled the banners.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged French President Emmanuel Macron to publicly address issues related to Uyghurs, Tibetans and Hong Kongers during Xi’s visit to Paris and demanded that the individuals who have been arbitrarily detained be released immediately. The demand was put forth by Ilham Tohti, an Uyghur economist and recipient of the Sakharov Prize.
Tibetan activists also demanded that Macron should raise concerns about Tibet and Hong Kong when he meets Xi and said that alleged repression faced by Tibetan children in boarding schools and the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong should be discussed.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in France Sunday on a state visit hosted by Emmanuel Macron where the French leader will seek to warn his counterpart against backing Russia in the conflict over Ukraine.
Xi’s arrival for the visit marking 60 years of diplomatic relations between France and China.
The leader of the one-party Communist state of more than 1.4 billion people, accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, was welcomed under umbrellas at a drizzly Paris Orly airport by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.
Xi is to hold a day of talks in Paris on Monday — also including EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen — followed by a state banquet hosted by Macron at the Elysee.
Tuesday will see Macron take Xi to the Pyrenees mountains to an area he used to visit as a boy for a day of less public talks.
In an op-ed for Le Figaro daily, Xi said that he wanted to work with the international community to find ways to solve the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while emphasising that China was “neither a party nor a participant” in the conflict.
“We hope that peace and stability will return quickly to Europe and intend to work with France and the entire international community to find good paths to resolve the crisis,” he wrote.
(with inputs from AFP)
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