Fri, Jun 05, 2009 page8

• EDITORIAL: Democracy in whose words?

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  Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) still shows no sign of readdressing the events of June 4, 1989.

  This year the CCP increased suppression of those calling for a reappraisal of the killings ahead of the anniversary. Police sealed off the square, forced dissidents out of Beijing, while the authorities blocked Web sites capable of hosting discussion of Tiananmen or even for mentioning the name.

  The apparent unwillingness of officials to even allow mention of 1989 is a sign that reassessment of the brutal crackdown — when Chinese troops opened fire on unarmed students protesting corruption and advocating democratic reform — is further away than ever.

  The US-based Freedom House released a study entitled Undermining Democracy yesterday to coincide with the anniversary. The chapter on China notes: “the ideological standing of the CCP was at an all-time low” following the crackdown, but in the 20 years since then the CCP’s standing has been revived by China’s “economic boom and revived Han chauvinism.”

  Nowadays, the report said, China is in such a strong position that fellow authoritarian states openly tout the Chinese system as a viable alternative to Western-style democracy, while Chinese officials have begun to consider the possibility that their development model may be exportable.

  The authors say that key to this seeming rise to respectability has been China’s co-opting of terms such as “democracy,” “human rights” and the “rule of law,” and redefining them to suit its own interests, while touting its relations with other countries as “win-win.”

  What is worrying for people in Taiwan, as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) continues its headlong dash to Beijing’s bosom, is the manner in which the KMT has begun to parrot the CCP’s favorite buzzwords.

  In its statement issued on Wednesday to mark the Tiananmen Massacre, the KMT said: “Freedom and human rights, democracy, and law and order are … the common goals pursued by both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”

  “Cross-strait development and a win-win situation in economic cooperation are what we are working toward,” it said.

  The KMT did not feel the need to condemn the CCP nor ask it to apologize. Instead it asked Chinese leaders to ensure there would be no repeat of the “unfortunate incident.”

  The KMT’s indifference to the killings 20 years ago and its insincerity in calling for human rights were compounded when the party blocked a resolution in the legislature on Wednesday that sought a Chinese apology and reassessment of the “miscarriage of justice” surrounding the Tiananmen Massacre.

  People must not let themselves be distracted by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) annual show of concern — however wan — because he does not represent wider opinion in a party whose leaders have never been willing to shake off autocratic tendencies.

  Taiwanese have already had a taste of how close the KMT’s interpretation of the “rule of law” resembles the CCP’s during last November’s protests against the visit of Chinese negotiator Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).

  As the 20th anniversary of these tragic events passes, Taiwanese may soon find themselves faced with a crucial decision on how close they want to get to China. But whatever they decide, they must ensure that any rapprochement respects the time-honored conceptions of “democracy” and “human rights,” and not the sophistry of the KMT or the CCP.
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