President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday marked the Tiananmen Square Massacre’s 30th anniversary by urging people not to forget the value of freedom, while the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) highlighted Taiwan’s democratic power in contrast with China’s authoritarian leadership.
The death of then-Chinese Community Party secretary-general Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦) on April 15, 1989, triggered weeks of student-led protests calling for press freedom and political reforms at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China, protests that were crushed by Chinese troops on June 3 and 4, sending many pro-democracy advocates into exile.
“Whether a country is civilized depends on how its government treats people and its past mistakes,” Tsai wrote on Facebook yesterday. “On the incident’s 30th anniversary, the entire world is paying attention to the truth about what killed thousands of young people during the incident and to Chinese erosion of Hong Kong people’s freedom.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Instead of reflecting on past mistakes, Beijing continues to conceal information about the incident, she wrote, citing that China on Sunday blocked Feng Tsung-te (封從德), a student leader during the 1989 protests, from entering Hong Kong and that Chinese Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe (魏鳳和) in Singapore on Sunday defended the Chinese government’s crackdown.
Taiwan would absolutely safeguard its democracy and freedom whatever threats and penetration tactics it faces, she added.
Tsai posted an image with the caption: “Freedom is like air. You can only feel it when you suffocate. Don’t forget about liusi [June 4].”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs used the date in large red digits — “6489” — as the banner on its official Twitter account.
“Confess, apologize and never do harm again. Set the people of #China free,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) wrote on the account.
At a US-Taiwan cohosted forum on digital dialogue in Taipei yesterday, AIT Director Brent Christensen called on free societies to celebrate “the strength they derive from participatory democracy,” as the world commemorates this anniversary.
“Thirty years ago today in Tiananmen Square, the authoritarian leadership in Beijing decided that its system could not accommodate the feedback of its citizens. The PRC [People’s Republic of China] made a series of fateful choices that day that led to the death and injury of thousands,” he said.
“In contrast, Taiwan’s democratic society understands that the power of its institutions is derived from the people, not the other way around,” he added.
At a news conference at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said that so long as the DPP exists, it would not allow Taiwan to suffer the rule of a dictator.
The plaza in front of the memorial hall is hosting a balloon-art installation by Taiwanese artist Shake (雪克) commemorating the Tiananmen “Tank Man.”
While the installation is somewhat “cute,” Luo said that the crackdown in Tiananmen Square 30 years ago was nothing of the kind.
“As the ruling party, we must tell our citizens that no matter which political party they support, or where they’re from, we should all cherish our freedom,” he said.
“As Taiwan borders China, we are more aware than any other nation of the threat posed by Chinese hegemony,” he said, adding that Taiwan would only become safe if China became more democratic.
Later in the evening, a commemorative event cohosted by a group of civic organizations was held at the plaza, featuring short speeches by several eyewitnesses to the massacre, including Chinese academic Wu Renhua (吳仁華).
Additional reporting by Huang Hsin-po and CNA
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