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Forum pans Ma for
lauding Beijing
TIANANMEN REMEMBERED: Rights advocates said
China¡¦s rapid growth came from its oppression of workers, seizure of property
and destruction of the environment
By Rich Chang / Staff Reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) should not have applauded China¡¦s economic
performance in his statement on the 22nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square
Massacre, because its rapid growth was borne out of policies that violate human
rights, a former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official told a forum.
Ruan Ming (¨¿»Ê), a former special assistant to the late CPP secretary-general Hu
Yaobang (JÄ£¨¹) who was forced into exile in the late 1980s for advocating
political reform, made the remarks at a forum in Taipei to commemorate the
massacre.
Ma yesterday urged China to set free two prominent dissidents ¡X Nobel Peace
laureate Liu Xiaobo (¼B¾åªi) and artist Ai Weiwei (¦ã¥¼¥¼) ¡X while at the same time
lauding China¡¦s fast-growing economy, which last year surpassed Japan to become
the second-largest in the world.
¡§Ma has failed to see that China¡¦s fast economic growth goes hand in hand with
its oppression of the Chinese people,¡¨ Ruan told the forum co-sponsored by
groups such as the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights and the Mainland
Democratic Movement Support Group.
¡§This ¡¥bright¡¦ economic growth is the result of its oppression of huge numbers
of farmers and workers, its seizure or destruction of people¡¦s land or homes to
support its construction programs and sacrificing the environment,¡¨ he said.
¡§Big and small protests and suppression now take place every day in China,¡¨ he
added.
Ruan said although Ma has called on Beijing to release Ai, Beijing is afraid to
free him because of his investigations and revelations of social injustice in
China.
Ruan also cited allegations of inhumane working conditions at the Foxconn
factories in China owned by Taiwanese entrepreneur Terry Gou (³¢¥x»Ê), saying they
were contributing to Chinese authorities¡¦ oppression of workers.
Lai I-chung (¿à©É©¾), a researcher at Taiwan Thinktank, said rapid economic growth
had given rise to increasing social disorder, with more than 100,000 protests
taking place in China annually.
The democratization of a country does not happen by itself, Lai said, but needs
a group of people driving it and promoting it.
However, ¡§we still have not seen such a power exist in China,¡¨ he said.
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