(TibetanReview.net, Oct27’21) – Danish police are considering an investigation while the country’s foreign minister has expressed concern after ten posters of a candidate in a local election standing next to a Tibetan national flag put up outside the Chinese mission in a suburb of the capital Copenhagen were seen removed shortly after, reported Reuters Oct 27. China has condemned the candidate’s action but not acknowledge having removed the posters. The candidate has put up new posters the same day.
“We express our strong indignation at this deliberate provocation,” the report quoted the embassy as saying in a statement on its website “on Anti-China Posters in Front of the Embassy”.
Calling Tibet “an inalienable part of China”, the embassy has said, “We firmly oppose any attempt to interfere in China’s internal affairs and to undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity under the pretext of election campaign or the so-called ‘freedom of speech’.”
Thomas Rohden has said Oct 26 he assumed the posters had been removed by embassy employees.
While China has not been an issue in the local elections, Rohden is a known critic of Beijing and he hung new posters in front of the embassy on Oct 26 itself, the report said.
Reuters cited police as saying they were considering an investigation.
Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod has said in a statement that he found the removal of the election posters “worrying” and that he would await a decision by the police before taking further action in the case.
Rohden has said the posters were meant as a protest against a 2012 partnership accord between Danish health authorities and the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu. While public records show the deal was no longer active, it was yet to be formally terminated, the report noted.
