Voice of America (September 24) reported that Columbia University recently saw the launch
of Students for a Free Tibet, its first Tibetan student organization and an offshoot of the
international organization Students for a Free Tibet (SFT). The association hopes to provide a
platform for the students to communicate and engage in activities in solidarity with the people
of Tibet who are under the oppressive rule of the Chinese Communist Party. The organization
has put up posters in several academic buildings, inviting students interested in Sino-Tibetan
studies and Sino-Tibetan relations to learn about Tibetan culture and participate in campus
activities. Examples include such as topics as Tibetan food, movies, and cultural festivals. It
said on Wednesday September 21, a number of SFT posters “disappeared.” In their place
someone scrawled the words “Tibet is an inseparable part of the People’s Republic of China.”
A letter in Chinese appeared next to a poster at Columbia’s School of International Public
Affairs (SIPA), warning students that, as Chinese, they should not tolerate but should back
down from this “separatist act” and should not be silent or appeased. Sveta Li, one of the
founders of SFT Columbia, suspected that the Chinese embassy was behind the incident and
that the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) played the role of collecting
information from the campus and reporting to the Chinese Embassy.
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