The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized the government for not planning any events to commemorate the 20th anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre in what they said was a bid to avoid offending Beijing.
In contrast to his time as Taipei mayor, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been silent on the human rights situation in China since assuming office last May, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said.
“Democratic countries pay attention to China’s human rights situation while they engage with China, but Ma gives up the value of human rights,” Cheng said, calling on Ma to condemn the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown next month.
Presidential Office spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) last week said Ma would not make a public statement but would release an article to mark the anniversary.
Earlier last week, the Presidential Office, citing a busy schedule, stonewalled a meeting with one of the then-student leaders of the Tiananmen Square protestors, Wang Dan (王丹), who was in Taiwan trying to rally bipartisan support for greater attention for the massacre in which hundreds of pro-democracy students were killed in a military crackdown.
The Presidential Office has also denied democratic activist Yang Jianli (楊建利) a meeting with Ma.
Yang’s participation in the democratic movement while in the US has landed him a spot on Beijing’s blacklist. Yang was deported and sent to Taiwan the last time he tried to visit Hong Kong. Sources said that during his time in Taiwan, a ranking party official phoned him and told him to “keep a low profile.”
Some Chinese dissidents with links to Taiwan have recently been informed that “Taiwan does not wish to commemorate or seek retribution over the massacre,” anonymous sources have said, speculating that this was a product of interactions between the KMT and the CCP.
However, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) officials rejected the claims and said that just because Ma could not meet the dissidents did not mean he was apathetic toward social causes.
The former KMT regime and the former DPP administration had secretly funded overseas democratic movements, but following the accession of the Ma government there have been rumors that government-backed financial support was cut off.
Rebutting the claim, MAC officials said the Ma administration maintained close contact with such groups and continues to fund them.
The MAC has not updated the section on human rights violations by China on its Web site. Asked for comment, MAC Spokesman Liu Te-hsun (劉德勳) said he would look into it.
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