A former aide to the late Chinese Communist Party (CPC) general secretary Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽) has praised Taiwan’s democracy.
Bao Tong (鮑彤), who was expelled by the CCP after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989 and was sentenced to seven years in jail for “leaking national secrets,” praised Taiwan’s system in an essay to mark the Republic of China’s (ROC) National Day celebration today.
In Taiwan, where there is no socialism, it is possible to ferret out corruption openly, Bao said in an essay posted on Free Radio Asia’s Web site.
Bao said that while Taiwan had long since reversed the official verdict on a massacre of demonstrators by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) troops in 1947, no one dares mention “June 4, 1989” to this day in China.
“Courts in Taiwan have the power to pass judgment on high-ranking officials,” Bao wrote.
In contrast, “on the mainland, where we enjoy the benefits of the dictatorship of the proletariat, masses of people who turn out to protest at corruption are suppressed as troublemakers,” he wrote, referring to the 1989 military crackdown on student-led protests in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in the country.
While Beijing held its largest National Day parade on Thursday last week to mark the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, Bao said the last 60 years of communist rule contained “a big lie.”
“In the first 30 years, tens of millions either died of starvation or were ‘harassed’ to death under the banner of revolution,” Bao wrote.
“In the second 30 years, anyone standing up for civil and constitutional rights, for religious freedom, or for ethnic autonomy has been declared an enemy of the people en masse, all in the name of stability,” he wrote.
In an interview with Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, Bao said the power struggle within the CCP continues to this day.
He said former Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民), who retired as CCP general secretary in late 2002, continues to play a major role and still exerts influence in the party.
He also said Jiang was “bullying” Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Bao said this was evidenced by the appearance of Jiang alongside Hu atop the Tiananmen Squre rostrum to review the Oct. 1 parade.
He said Jiang got much more attention from China’s state-run media during the parade and the official anniversary party that evening than any other Chinese leader except for Hu.
Bao has been kept under house arrest in Beijing since his release from jail on May 1996.
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