A group of Indian-Americans in Washington protested against China’s hostile stance on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India in front of the Chinese embassy here. The protesters held anti-China banners in their hands, and also raised slogans against Chinese Communism during this time.
The protesters on Sunday, displaying anti-China banners and shouting slogans like “China Communist: Down Down,” said that “the Chinese virus has killed lakhs of people around the world and brought the global economy to a halt.”
Community activist Manoj Sreenilayam said: “We condemn the Chinese violence, land grabbing and killing of Indians in Ladakh Indian territory when the world is distracted by the COVID 19 pandemic.” China has bullied India and other smaller nations over the last few decades, another activist Mahindra Sapa said.
“In South China Sea, China has been illegally capturing land and islands of smaller nations. It has killed 20 Indian soldiers. We are here to raise awareness and urge the world to do horizontal escalation and economically decouple from China,” Sapa said.
The peaceful protest represented a cross-section of the Indian-American cultural and social organizations from Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC.
Prominent among these are the Greater Washington Kerala Group, Durga Temple community, the Howard County Tamil cultural groups and Indian ethnic organizations, the Asian Indian Organizations National Council, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America.
Oppose Chinese Imperialism (OCI) Group 23, which was recently founded in New York, has also sent its members to take part in the demonstration.
“We are here to protest the Chinese attacks on neighbouring Indian land and territories,” Sanjay Patel said.
Indian-Americans have held peaceful protests against China in major US cities in the last few weeks.
The first of those was held in Chicago by eminent Indian-American Dr Bharat Barai at New York’s Times Square where members of the Tibetan community also demonstrated against China.
Another group led by Prem Bhandari in New York recently formed OCI Group 23 to mobilize people in the 23 countries with whom China has territorial disputes.
The group last week held a webinar on the Chinese imperialism addressed by India’s former ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale and former Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman D R Mehta.