Conn Carroll remembers, as we all should, Communist China's massacre of some 2,600 people following the Tiananmen Square demonstrations.In the spring of 1989, millions of Chinese peacefully seized control of their own capital and demanded democracy. After then-Premier Li Peng declared martial law on May 19th, the people of Beijing, not just students, responded by setting up bus and truck barricades to protect the demonstrators’ command post in Tiananmen Square. But on the morning of June 4th, 20 years ago today, China’s rulers sent in tanks and soldiers to regain control. The Chinese government claims only 241 people died that day, but the Chinese Red Cross puts the number at 2,600.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a statement yesterday calling on Chinese authorities to “provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal.” As noble as Secretary Clinton’s sentiment is, America’s authority to lead on human rights in China was significantly undermined earlier this year when Clinton tabled human rights issues during her February trip to the country in favor of the Obama administration’s global warming concerns.
Clinton is not the only U.S. politician that has abandoned her past concern for human rights in China. Just this past month, Speaker Nancy Pelosi avoided any talk of human rights during her China trip, also prioritizing global warming over all other concerns. And Pelosi used to be a leader for human rights in China. In 1991 she helped unveil a banner in Tiananmen Square honoring “those who died for democracy in China.” But last week this was all she could muster: “In every country, not just China and the U.S., the global climate crisis is best surmounted with transparency and openness, respect for the rule of law and accountability to the people.”
Those who saw their friends die 20 years ago today, and still face persecution from the current Chinese regime, feel betrayed by the current leadership’s shift in focus...
Other notable reports:
* Heritage Foundation on Wang Dan
* From AFP -- Wang Dan, the leader of the Tiananmen democracy revolt crushed 20 years ago, appealed Tuesday for a firmer US line on human rights, deploring Western hesitation at upsetting Beijing.
Wang, who was expelled to the United States in 1998, said that ordinary Chinese looked approvingly on foreign, particularly US, criticism of the country's human rights record, even if it infuriates Beijing's government.
"I'm really disappointed ... that the whole international community has just turned their back to the human rights issue," Wang said at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think-tank.
"I think that's sad because the people inside China really had some hope from the concern from the international community because they have no other means to try to pursue democracy," he said.
* From Reuters in Hong Kong comes a report on the anniversary vigil there -- Clad in black or white, and cradling candles, Hong Kong residents transformed a park into a sea of flickering lights on Thursday, in memory of pro-democracy demonstrators crushed by tanks in Beijing's Tiananmen Square two decades ago.
While China has tried to whitewash the incident over the past two decades and has tightened security around Tiananmen Square in recent days, Hong Kong has long made the most of its unique freedoms to openly challenge Beijing to reverse its verdict on June 4 and fully account for the killings.
The turnout was estimated at 150,000 people, organisers said, as crowds overspilled from six football pitches in a downtown Hong Kong park. The figure was even higher than in 1990 when the annual vigil first began, underscoring the anniversary's poignancy.
