Tibetans unfurl banner in G20 protest

About 25 years ago, Lothon was shot by police while sitting in his home.

The memory has compelled the Tibetan to protest ahead of the G20 summit against what he says are Chinese human rights abuses in his home country.

Lothon, who declined to give his last name, was one of about eight protesters from the Australia Tibet Council (ATC) who hung a huge banner from cliffs on the Brisbane River overlooking the CBD on Friday without official police permission.

The banner read: "China fails human rights. G20 unite for Tibet."

Lothon said the G20 event was an opportunity to highlight the plight of Tibetans like himself who weren't able to return to their home country and to put pressure on world leaders, in particular China president Xi Jinping.

"The Chinese armies shot at our homes and killed a lot of people - myself I was shot at," Lothon told AAP.

"I was in hospital for more than a year and when I got a bit better I was told I was going to be arrested, so I escaped from Tibet on my very bad legs."

ATC spokeswoman Kyinzom Dhongdue said the group displayed the banner from New Farm because it wasn't allowed to do so within the G20 declared zone in Brisbane's centre.

"China remains an authoritarian state that continues to oppress the Tibetans," she said.

The ATC will also hold a protest rally in Brisbane's CBD on Saturday, when this weekend's G20 summit begins.