Published by World Tibet Network News - Tuesday, March 19, 1996

From: Jack E Churchward

By Beth Foushee - Tribune Staff Writer

Kissimmee, March 17, 1996, (The Tampa Tribune) -- Five college students forming human chain across the entrance to the amusement park Splendid China were arrested peacefully Saturday as about 100 demonstrators protested nearby.

About 75 Taiwan-born Americans from around Florida and 25 college representatives from around the country for Students for a Free Tibet said they came to protest "Chinese oppression." The five students, connected arm-in-arm with pipe, formed a human chain blocking the park's entrance. By the end of the hour-long demonstration they were handcuffed and carried to patrol cars by Osceola County sheriffs deputies and taken to the county jail. The officers donned riot gear and held body shields in front of them. But the officers and students talked peacefully during the arrests.

The Taiwan-born Americans came to show their outrage at China "testing" missiles too close for comfort to their homeland. They see the military move as nothing more than an intimidation tactic to try and chip away at Taiwan's efforts to become a peaceful, democratic society, protesters said. "When I heard that China was doing the military exercise with live ammunition over Taiwan, that made me so angry," said protesters Charles Yang, and Orlando hotel manger. "Taiwan has been independent for almost 100 years." The Taiwanese protesters said its clear the Chinese military actions are designed to try and interfere with Taiwan's presidential election March 23. Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, instrumental in achieving democracy there, is expected to be re-elected, protesters said. "I think that what China is doing right now is really outrageous and very unnecessary and risky," said Chin Tsai, a medical student in Missouri doing training in Largo.

The college students with Students for a Free Tibet, a group with 80 university chapters around the country, came to protest China's long history of communist oppression over Tibet and Taiwan. They came to protest attractions at the amusement park they say have been "misrepresented." They came to convince American leaders to condemn China at the United nations Human Rights Commission beginning in Geneva. "Once you've seen it first hand you can't ignore it," Starrett Zenko, a student in Hamilton college in Clinton N.Y., said about what she saw during a research trip to India. She and other students met with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled leader. "I think that its our obligation as privileged Americans to take a stand."

Robert Chen, a mathematics and computer science professor at the University of Miami, drove to make the protest. He said his brother, who worked in the United States for Taiwan independence, was murdered mysteriously during a visit back home 15 years ago. Splendid China was picked for the protest site because protesters said the park is owned by the Chinese government. Frank Langley, spokesperson for the park said Saturday the park is owned by the China Travel Service, a publicly sold and held conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong.