While Tibetan students and members of the Salt Lake community walked through downtown Salt Lake City on Sunday to oppose China’s occupation of Tibet, Chinese students and community members held a rival protest to show support for the Chinese government and the Beijing Olympics.
The Tibetan group organized a Human Rights Torch Relay to call attention to China’s supposedly poor human rights record. They held signs and shouted about the unfair actions by Chinese police and government officials toward Tibetans. The group rallied outside the Salt Lake City and County Building and listened to speakers talk about a Tibetan riot on March 14 when Tibetans took to the streets in protest and were subdued by Chinese authorities.
The riot in Tibet began after monks, who began protesting March 10, were arrested by the Chinese government. As the Olympic Torch relay began in preparation for the games this summer, Tibetans and people of various nationalities have protested the Beijing games and China’s treatment of the Tibetan people.
“There’s so much violence and aggression in China,” said Lhaksam Choedon, a U nursing student. “The president in China says he wants a harmonious society, but how can that happen when the nation is being oppressed?”
Just one block away, groups of Chinese nationals from the community held banners and waved signs. Jing Hu, a doctorate student in computer science at Utah State University, came to Salt Lake with other students from Logan to protest accusations that China has mistreated Tibetans and to show support for the Chinese government and Beijing Olympics.
“(The Tibetan protestors) describe the riots on March 14 as peaceful protests and say the Chinese government is killing people — it’s not true,” he said.
Students from the Chinese group said the Tibetan protestors were spouting lies. The Chinese group used population statistics to argue the Chinese government isn’t killing Tibetan people.
Choedon painted a different picture of the situation in Tibet. Since 1959, the Chinese government has killed approximately 1.2 million Tibetans, she said.
Students and community members rallying to show support for China denied these allegations and insisted the situation in Tibet has improved significantly since the 1950s.
“(Those in the Tibetan group) say that Chinese are killing them, but most people (who are protesting) have never been to Tibet,” Hu said.
The Chinese group held up traditional Chinese dragons and beat drums while shouting to passersby. Hu said the Tibetan protestors didn’t want the Olympics to be held in Beijing because it would signify that China is unified. They think the Beijing Olympic Games are a good chance for them to create trouble for China, he said.
“We do want the Olympics, but people need to know that Tibetans are being oppressed,” Choedon said.
Jeff Kaessner, a community member who came to support the Tibetan protestors, said he believed the Chinese protestors didn’t understand the atrocities going on in China.
“I’m friends with some of the people who organized this — they just want people in Tibet to be able to practice their religion, their language and their culture,” he said.
Later in the day, Chinese protestors left the area outside the library and walked with banners over to the Tibetan group. Members of each group yelled at the opposing protestors.
Salt Lake police patrolled the area to break up any fights between protestors and to keep them from stepping outside the boundaries of the library and the City and County building.