(TibetanReview.net, Jun04’25) – The Chinese women’s national soccer team has failed to keep out a handful of “free Tibet” protesters and also lost the match in a friendly international match in the US state of Minnesota on May 31.
Calling for a “Free Tibet”, eight Tibetan activists staged a protest in the Allianz stadium in St. Paul during the Chinese women’s national soccer team’s international friendly match with its US counterpart. Dressed in white T-shirts, the Tibetans shouted slogans as they held up white banners that read “Free Tibet” during the second half of the game.
Members of the Chinese team and support staff confronted the Tibetans, who were seated close to them, and also sought their removal. The Tibetans were then asked to leave the stadium by security guards. However, this prompted boos from other spectators who shouted, “Let them stay!” and chanted “Free speech!”
Within moments, stadium officials allowed the activists to return to their seats but confiscated their white banners. And so, the activists watched the rest of the game holding up the Tibetan national flag that is banned by China inside Tibet. They also still wore their “Free Tibet” T-shirts and witnessed the Chinese side lose the match 0-3.
“The biggest takeaway (from this campaign) is that if Tibetans stand up, raise our voices, and take action for our own cause, then the people of the world automatically rise up in support,” Radio Free Asia (rfa.org) Jun 3 quoted one of the protesters, Tenzin Palsang, as saying Jun 3.
“China doesn’t just play soccer. They also play games with human rights,” Palsang, president of the Minnesota chapter of the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, has said.
She has cited harsh conditions inside Tibet, where children aged 6-17 are suffering “colonial boarding school policies,” in “prison-like” conditions and forced to study a Mandarin-heavy curriculum that promotes party loyalty and a state-approved “patriotic education.”