President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) maintained a low profile on the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre yesterday, issuing only a short statement that fell short of criticizing Beijing.
Ma has attended activities commemorating the 1989 incident almost every year since the massacre, but last year opted to write an editorial published in the Chinese-language United Daily News.
In the 366-character statement, Ma said he was concerned about the democratic freedoms of the Chinese people.
The statement said he had mentioned in his inaugural address that Taiwan cares sincerely for the welfare of the 1.3 billion people of China and that the Taiwanese hoped to see Beijing march down the road to freedom, democracy and equal distribution of wealth.
Ma said in the statement that he would like to see a friendly atmosphere in the Taiwan Strait conducive to the peaceful development of sustainable ties and a “win-win” situation.
Ma praised Beijing for making progress in several areas. Compared with Beijing’s actions in the wake of the 1975 Tangshan earthquake, China’s handling of the Sichuan quake revealed that its reforms and efforts to open up to the world had borne fruit. Beijing’s official response to the disaster, the freedom it granted to its press to report the tragedy, the Chinese people’s enthusiasm in donating to relief efforts, and China’s acceptance of aid from foreign countries — including Taiwan — all reflected progress, Ma said.
In response, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday attacked Ma, accusing him of retreating from his earlier stance on the Tiananmen Massacre and human rights in China.
Lin Chen-wei (林成蔚), director of the DPP’s Department of International Affairs, said Ma no longer had the guts to criticize China’s human rights record, including its brutal crackdown in Tibet.
“How do we expect President Ma to protect Taiwan’s democracy and freedom if he is afraid of addressing these issues?” Lin asked.
Lin said Ma had withdrawn his position on the 1989 massacre because he was anxious to see through his election promises and win goodwill gestures from Beijing.
Lin drew a parallel between the Tibet and Tiananmen crackdowns, and said that if Ma’s concern for human rights in China were sincere, why did he not mention Tibet in his statement?
That Ma declined to criticize Beijing in his statement indicated that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is not willing to take a stand for democracy and freedom.
During his election campaign, Ma said publicly that he had not ruled out a boycott of the Olympics in response to the Tibet crackdown, Lin said, but the president seems to have lost his interest in human rights since winning the election.
Lin said Ma’s praise of China for its response to the Sichuan quake was selective. Beijing blocked media access to the disaster area in the first stages after the earthquake. Ma should not be so quick to praise media freedoms in China, Lin said, when the press also had little access to information about the tens of thousands of protests that occur in China each year.
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