Several hundred Chinese rally in Toronto opposing Tibet independence
1 hour, 24 minutes ago
TORONTO - Canadians got to see the other side of the Tibetan independence movement Saturday as several hundred Chinese-Canadians rallied in Toronto to support Chinese rule.
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Waving both Chinese and Canadian flags, the demonstratyors chanted "One China!" and played patriotic Chinese music on boom boxes.
One middle-aged man, Pei Yiniu, said he came out after members of the Chinese community organized the event and publicized it on the Internet.
"I'm here to show that we are Chinese who want our homeland in one piece," he said. "All the people in China, including Tibetans, we are brothers and sisters. We are a family."
Shirley Huang, 24, simply said Tibet was part of China and should remain so.
"Tibet is part of China and will always be part of China" she said.
Myriad people in the crowd made similar statements about the recent rioting in Lhasa, Tibet, insisting it was not Chinese who caused the violence.
One young woman who would not give her name called the Tibetan rioters "terrorists."
Beijing says 22 people died in protests that spread earlier this month to dozens of Tibetan communities across western China, in the broadest challenges to Chinese rule in decades.
Tibetan exiles say almost 140 died.
At Saturday's rally in Toronto, a smaller group of Tibet freedom demonstrators yelled counter chants as a phalanx of police kept both sides separated by busy Yonge Street.
