(Pretoria – February 9) The head of so-called "Tibetan Administration in Exile" Lobsang Sangay was forced to cancel his plan to speak at a South African university due to fierce protest by hundreds of outraged South African locals and members of the Chinese community in South Africa.
When the news spread that the self-proclaimed "president" of the "Tibetan Administration in Exile" Lobsang Sangay attempted to address the Faculty of Law at the Stellenbosch University on February 8, hundreds of South African locals and members of the Chinese community traveled to the school to express, in a peaceful and orderly gathering, their strongest anger and rejection of the move by the politician to sabotage China-South Africa relations.
With the ill intention to split China and to undercut China-South Africa relations, Lobsang Sangay sneaked into South Africa visa-free with his U.S. passport. Upon receipt of the information, the Chinese Embassy in South Africa immediately raised strong representation and protest to the country's Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). DIRCO then issued a stern warning to the so-called representative of the Dalai group in South Africa, who claimed that Lobsang Sangay will not engage in any public activities. Due to the furious opposition and rejection from the South African Government, the ruling party, and people from across the society, Lobsang Sangay was forced to cancel all public activities in South Africa. However, Lobsang Sangay and his associates brags on their website the trip as the "first ever official visit of a Tibetan political leader to the African continent since 1996," and even posts the picture of doing media interview on Facebook.
Lobsang Sangay and his associates' stay in South Africa and their attempted political show at the Stellenbosch University have generated fury among the common South Africans. When Lobsang Sangay arrived at the Stellenbosch University, several hundreds of angry protesters have already gathered and were time and again shouting slogans with banners "Only one China in the world," "Tibet is an inalienable part of China," "Hands-off one-China principle," "Stop sabotaging South Africa-China relations," "No splitting China." When he exited from the back door the building, some protesters shouted, "Get out of South Africa." Protesters said that, to allow Lobsang Sangay to visit South Africa, and even worse, to put up a stage for this person to make political shows itself runs against the South African Government's long-standing commitment to the one-China policy. It has sent a wrong political signal to the world community, and has undermined the political mutual trust between China and South Africa. It runs against the common interest of South Africa-China relations, and will undoubtedly discourage Chinese investors' confidence in South Africa, undermine South Africa's efforts for poverty reduction, and cause grave harm for the interest of South Africa and the South African people. It undermines South Africa-China cooperation and will eventually undermine mutual interests.
People are extremely outraged by Lobsang Sangay sabotaging the China-South Africa friendly cooperation that the two peoples have spent so much energy and efforts to build and grow. They are extremely outraged that the Dalai group would sacrifice the interest of the South African people to split China. They urge the South African Government, all political parties and the whole public to unite together in condemning and stopping the hostile forces that have viciously taken hostage the interest of the South African people.
(Source: Chinese Embassy to South Africa)
