By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, July 2: A Prague court has imposed a fine of 15,000 Crowns or two months in jail on a Chinese man named Dong Jiangqing, who snatched a Tibetan national flag from a protester during the Chinese President Xi Jingping’s state visit to Czech Republic’s capital in March.
The incident broke on March 28 when a Czech national, Jakub Seda, who was trying to wave the Tibetan flag in front of Xi’s motorcade was met with mob of Chinese protesters trying to cover his protest with huge Chinese flag.
The verdict is not in effect, as both Dong (41) and the state attorney said that they would consider whether to appeal it.
Dong who was originally sentenced to ‘expulsion from the country for five years’ took the flag from Seda and hid it from the president’s view.
“They surrounded me and whistled in my ears with small vuvuzelas. I tried leaving the place but the group came after me. As the arrival of the motorcade came nearer they grew more and more fanatic. They evidently felt that they would fail their president if he spotted any anti-Chinese protests,” said the 29-year old protester.
Dong, a cook who does not speak Czech said with the help of an interpreter that the Tibetan national flag is a symbol of division of China, which is banned in China.
“I considered its presence in that place inappropriate. I believed that in the time when the Czech and Chinese peoples are coming close to each other, there should not be a flag that symbolizes faction,” he added.
Xi’s two-day state visit was met with series of protests by the Tibetans and its supporters, including replacing Chinese flags with Tibetan flag and defacing Chinese flag along a road leading from the airport to downtown Prague.
