The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should face the Tiananmen Square Massacre pragmatically and disclose the truth about the brutal crackdown in what would be a first step toward democratization, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leaders said yesterday.
More than two decades after the repression of pro-democracy demonstrators in Beijing on June 4 and June 5, 1989, the CCP is still keeping the truth and all information related to the incident from the public and the victims’ families, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told a forum on human rights held in China to commemorate the 24th anniversary of the massacre.
“Democracy, a constitution and political reforms are still taboo subjects in China despite its economic rise to the world’s second-largest economy,” Su said. “Though economically successful, the so-called ‘China model’ that sacrifices the rights of the Chinese people in exchange for economic growth has brought about social anxiety and pressure.”
The “Chinese Dream” that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has boldly envisioned cannot be achieved before the CCP heals the country’s historical wounds by dealing with the massacre honestly, and ensuring the human rights and freedom of its people with the establishment of social justice, Su said.
Su reiterated that human rights should be the basis of cross-strait engagement and said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) lukewarm response toward the commemoration of the event since he assumed office was regrettable.
Ma had participated in commemoration ceremonies of the massacre and was a vocal supporter of Chinese dissidents until he took office in 2008.
Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹), an exiled leader of the 1989 protest who is currently a visiting assistant professor at National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu County, echoed Su’s frustration with Ma on the sidelines of the forum, saying that the president has adopted a “surprisingly low standard” toward Chinese human rights.
“Time has obviously changed a lot of people, including President Ma. It’s a pity,” Wang said.
Former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in a press release that the increasingly powerful Chinese civil society’s pursuit of freedom of speech and democracy is now an “irreversible trend,” so Beijing should initiate the democratization process as soon as possible.
“The Chinese government has to realize that the sooner it begins democratizing, the less the people will suffer. It must have confidence in the Chinese people’s ability to withstand the trials of the democratic process,” Tsai said.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) of the DPP said in his weekly radio talk show yesterday that it was a pity that the truth of the Tiananmen Square Massacre remained buried.
Beijing must publicize all information pertaining to the incident and say if there are dissidents imprisoned for the protest more than two decades later, Hsieh said.
In related news, a group of DPP lawmakers, including Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬), Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), yesterday proposed establishing a Tiananmen Massacre memorial museum in Taiwan.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS