Tibetan Exiles March in New Delhi Ahead of Xi's BRICS Visit

Around 150 members of the Tibetan Youth Congress staged a protest march in New Delhi on Friday, voicing opposition to Chinese President Xi Jinping's scheduled visit to India for the BRICS summit.

Xi is due to arrive in the Indian capital on Saturday for the two-day gathering and is expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The demonstrators marched near a Tibetan settlement in the northern part of the city, chanting slogans including "Down with Xi Jinping" and "Stop bloodshed in Tibet." Some carried banners reading "Xi you're not welcome" and "Simon Go Back (Done), Xi Jinping Go Back." Others dragged posters bearing a caricature of the Chinese leader, and one protester wore a T-shirt declaring "I am Tibetan first."

Wangdue Dorjee, a member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, said the community would keep pressing its case. "I want to send a message to Xi Jinping that Tibet is not dead," he said, adding that protests would continue against what he described as Chinese occupation and repression inside Tibet.

Dorjee also appealed to the United Nations and the international community, particularly the BRICS nations, to pressure Beijing to halt large-scale construction on the Tibetan plateau.

Yeshi Phunksok, a former deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, said the rally was intended to highlight human rights, environmental protection and cultural concerns. He argued that these issues matter not only to Tibetans but also to India and its neighbours.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, has based himself in Dharamshala in northern India since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. India regards Tibet as part of China, while hosting tens of thousands of Tibetans in exile. China maintains that Tibet has been part of its territory for more than seven centuries and that its Communist Party has governed the region since 1951.