China has been transporting supplies from Tibet, including Yak meat and drinking water to COVID-19 hit Shanghai while labelling the exercise a 'donation', media reports have said.
"Anti-epidemic supplies" including 100 tonnes of dried yak meat and 3,000 tonnes of drinking water were transported from Tibet to pandemic-hit Shanghai on April 10, Tibet Rights Collective reported citing Chinese media. Additionally, 5,000 tonnes of drinking water was transferred to China's Jilin province.
"To show its support for the eastern metropolis and the northeastern province battling a COVID-19 resurgence" Tibet was "donating" the supplies, the report quoted a Chinese state-owned media outlet as saying.
The decision to transport the supplies without seeking any reimbursement in cash or kind was taken by China's Tibet Autonomous Region's Party Committee and other Chinese authorities, the report said.
Sending such a donation in the name of an intensely Buddhist religious people who would refrain from such a large-scale killing of animals was meant to be a deliberate affront to them, given the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ongoing Sinicization drive, the report said.
Earlier, donations of Tibetan herbal medicine were sent to affected areas in China during the first wave of COVID19.
Authorities in Shanghai have imposed draconian lockdown measures since March 2022 under China's "zero-COVID policy) that significantly impeded people's access to health care, food, and other life necessities.
An unknown number of people have reportedly died after being denied medical treatment for their non-COVID related illnesses. In a video that went viral on social media, residents of Shanghai could be heard screaming from their balconies and windows, the report said.
( With inputs from ANI )
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