KMT lawmaker Chen Shei-Saint has launched a petition calling on the government to grant the Dalai Lama a Taiwanese visa.
Chen says this allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan will meet the expectations of Taiwan’s Buddhist community and demonstrate Taiwan’s high level of concern about human rights issues.
In a press release issued on Monday, Chen says that the Dalai Lama visited Taiwan in 1997, 2001, and 2009. But Chen says that Taiwan has not given the Dalai Lama a visa since his last visit.
Chen says that Taiwan is home to more than a million followers of Tibetan Buddhism. He says that the Dalai Lama is the representative of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture, but the government has refused to allow him to come preach in Taiwan.
Chen says that this refusal constitutes “a loss of autonomy for Taiwan in the areas of religion, culture, and even its sense of sovereignty.” He says that the Dalai Lama has renounced his role as a political leader, devoting his efforts to religion and culture instead. Chen also says that the Dalai Lama encourages a “middle path” and hopes to provide Tibet with a roadmap for peaceful development.
Chen says that Taiwan is a place where Han Chinese and Tibetans coexist peacefully, and the Dalai Lama’s hope to visit Taiwan shows his approval of this coexistence. Chen says that Taiwan has no reason to view “an eminent monk in his 80’s as a variable in cross-strait relations and to refuse him entry”.