(TibetanReview.net, May30’24) — In a belated, angry reaction, the Chinese Ambassador to Estonia has written to an Estonian MP, reprimanding him for visiting the exile Tibetan community in India at Dharamshala and meeting with their Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) leaders late last month, reported news.err.ee May 29.
The Ambassador, Mr Guo Xiaomei, has also requested a meeting with the MP, Mr Juku-Kalle Raid, who is the chairman of the parliamentary support group for Tibet in the Riigikogu, Estonia’s unicameral parliament.
“No country or government in the world has ever recognized ‘Tibetan independence’,” the report quoted Guo as having written to Raid. “As a responsible politician, a member of the Riigikogu should firmly adhere to international norms, respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, become more familiar with facts related to Xizang, and cease any form of interaction with the so-called Tibetan government in exile.”
Raid has dismissed Gou’s complaint as “a very old and tired tune in which China always reacts very painfully to questions about Tibet.”
“But not only that. Beijing was similarly enraged by a visit to Taiwan, and the same happens every time someone draws attention to the Chinese regime, which relentlessly harasses minority peoples,” Raid has said.
Raid led an Estonian parliamentary and Tibet Support Group (TSG) delegation to Dharamshala late last month. The delegation included Estonian parliament members Henn Polluaas (former speaker) and Tarmo Tamm; former MP Andres Herkel; journalist Roy Strider and Estonian Tibet Support Coordinator; and TSG members Eleri Porroson and Annabel Piiritalu.
The delegation took part in the commemoration on Apr 25 of the 35th birthday of the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, Tibet’s second most prominent religious figure abducted and disappeared by the Chinese government when he was six years old, in 1995. His fate or whereabouts have continued to remain unknown to this day. China has appointed its own 11th Panchen Lama to replace him.
In his address to the gathering at that time, Raid, who is said to be also a member of the Estonian government’s Foreign Affairs Commission, said, “We have had a similar past, and the past was similarly terrible, but we hope we will have a similar future that is not terrible.”
Raid also met with the Dalai Lama and visited the Tibetan Parliament in Exile during the visit, said the CTA in its Tibet.net website reports Apr 25 and 26.