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US mayor lectures
Chinese official on freedom of speech
By William Lowther / Staff reporter in Washington
Beijing is fighting to have an artist’s mural promoting independence for Taiwan
and Tibet removed from a brick wall in the small town of Corvallis, Oregon.
Two officials from the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco have written
to the mayor of Corvallis about the mural and last week visited the town to
lodge a formal complaint.
“As you are aware, the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees freedom
of speech in this country and this includes freedom of artistic expression,”
Corvallis Mayor Julie Manning has told them.
She has refused to do anything about the 3m by 30m mural, which was painted last
month on the wall of an old building by Taiwanese-born artist Chao Tsung-song
(趙宗宋).
The vividly colored mural was commissioned by the building’s owner,
Taiwanese-born David Lin (林銘新), who is determined to leave it there.
It depicts “images of Taiwan as a bulwark of freedom,” Chinese riot police
beating Tibetan demonstrators and Buddhist monks setting themselves on fire to
protest Chinese rule.
The wall on which the mural has been painted is part of a building being
redeveloped by Lin as a restaurant.
“There is only one China in the world and both Tibet and Taiwan are parts of
China,” the letter to Manning from the Chinese Consulate General said. “To avoid
our precious friendship from being tainted by so-called ‘Tibet independence’ and
‘Taiwan independence’ we sincerely hope you can understand our concerns and
adopt effective measures to stop the activities advocating ‘Tibet independence’
and ‘Taiwan independence’ in Corvallis.”
After Manning replied saying that she had no authority to regulate art and could
do nothing about the mural, Vice Consul Zhang Hao (張浩) and Deputy Consul General
Song Ruan (宋如安) visited the town last week.
The two officials met with Manning and City Manager Jim Patterson.
Patterson later told the Corvallis Gazette-Times: “They expressed their concern
and the concern of the Chinese government about the mural on Mr Lin’s building.
They viewed the message as political propaganda.”
After making it clear that the city could not — and would not — order the
mural’s removal, Manning and Patterson agreed to pass on Beijing’s concern to
Lin.
“We also had a conversation with them about the US Constitution,” Patterson
said.
The Taipei Times was unable to reach officials for comment at the Chinese
embassy in Washington or the consulate in San Francisco.
Lin told the Corvallis Gazette-Times that no representatives of the Chinese
government had contacted him directly.
However, he said that friends and family were concerned they might face some
form of retaliation if they visited China.
“I am under a lot of pressure to take down the mural, but have no plans to do
anything of the sort,” he said. “I’ll just keep it the same, I’ve got to live my
life, that’s all.”
Lin was born and raised in Taiwan and went to the US in the 1970s.
He said that he was a strong supporter of a free Tibet and an independent
Taiwan.
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