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Ma hopes Beijing will
improve rights
MEMORIES NEVER DIE: Ma said cross-strait
differences in human rights needed to be overcome before closer contact is made,
but stopped short of making demands
By Chen Hui-ping and Chris Wang / Staff reporters, with CNA
Taiwan Solidarity Union
Legislator Lin Shih-chia, former Chinese government adviser Ruan Ming, student
democracy activist Tsai Chia-hsun and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator
Tien Chiu-chin, first to fourth from right, hold a press conference in Taipei
yesterday to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) issued a
statement yesterday to mark the 23rd anniversary of China’s 1989 Tiananmen
Square Massacre in which he expressed hope that China would improve its human
rights record and initiate democratic development.
For more than two decades, China’s economy has grown rapidly and people’s lives
have greatly improved as the country has become increasingly competitive, Ma
said.
However, the emotional scars left by the massacre that took place in Beijing on
June 4, 1989, have yet to heal and the incident has given the international
community an impression of China’s human rights development that has stayed
virtually unchanged since then, he said.
“Most ethnic Chinese societies believe that China today is more mature and in a
better position to transform into a more diverse and open democratic society.
Dealing with the trauma of the June 4 Incident could be the first step toward
political reform,” he said.
Ma said Taiwanese and Chinese are all of Chinese origin and share the same
cultural heritage, including the concepts of freedom, democracy and human
rights.
“We once again reiterate that we cherish the peace created by the two sides over
the past four years and hope that the positive interaction will continue,” Ma
added.
However, Taiwan and China still differ in human rights development, and these
differences will need to be overcome before the two sides can enter a deeper
phase of interaction, Ma said.
Taiwan’s experience in becoming a democratic society has proven that democracy
can take root and grow in a Chinese culture, he said, adding that he has great
hopes for improvements in human rights and democracy in China and that the two
sides of the Taiwan Strait can begin dialogue in the fields of democratic rule
and human rights protection, with the shared culture between Taiwan and China as
a foundation.
Ma also said he would continue to express concern over democratic development in
China, which he described as the best way to help reduce the psychological
distance between the people of the two sides of the Strait.
The Mainland Affairs Council had issued a statement on Sunday, calling on
Beijing to adopt the idea of “people first” as the core principle of its
administration, and to promote political reforms based on self-reflection on the
1989 “incident” and its reform experiences over the past years.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) yesterday
called both Ma’s and the council’s statements ineffectual and superficial.
Pointing to the US Department of State’s statement on Sunday urging China “to
release all those still serving sentences for their participation in the
demonstrations; to provide a full public accounting of those killed, detained or
missing; and to end the continued harassment of demonstration participants and
their families,” Tuan asked why the council did not dare make any concrete
demands of China.
In comparison with the US Department of State’s statement, Ma’s and the
council’s statements are “shameful,” Tuan said.
Separately yesterday, former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) urged her party
and the Chinese people to keep fighting for democracy in China in a message to
commemorate the anniversary.
“June 4, 1989, marks an historic point in time of a bloody crackdown, as well as
an attempt at seeking democratic reform by the previous generation of Chinese.
What it means to the Chinese people will be determined by how the current
generation of Chinese do on the road to democratization,” Tsai wrote on her
Facebook page.
Since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has neither shouldered the
responsibility to promote democratization in a rapidly changing China, nor shown
any intention to do so, the DPP will have to embrace the challenge and
responsibility, she said, adding that the Chinese government has not changed
after 23 years, as Beijing still refuses to listen to the public’s voice and
engage in introspection on its use of state violence.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
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