Zhao Ziyang (
In the light of its repressive tactics, the regime is obviously still fearful of democracy and freedom. Many old friends of Zhao's were unable to pay their final respects to him and offer condolences to his family members. Only a handful of the powerful in government could communicate with Zhao's family, while members of the public eager to pay their respects were savagely beaten by police.
Although Jia Qinglin (賈慶林), chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference, attended the funeral and represented the Chinese government in expressing condolences, Zhao is still defined by the government as a comrade who made a grave mistake amid the political upheavals of the summer of 1989.
Beijing's reluctance to rehabilitate Zhao's reputation shows that although China is adopting a liberal approach in economic development, it remains an authoritarian regime and is ignorant of the concepts of democracy and human rights. China's leadership will not ignore any force that could possibly challenge the rule of the Communist Party. Beijing's animosity toward the Falun Gong -- the so-called "evil cult" -- is the result of its own instability, and in the face of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. But democratic change, embodied by Zhao, is certainly a threat.
This side of the Taiwan Strait is quite familiar with China's psychological responses to moves toward reform. Taiwan has seen the 228 Incident, the Sun Li-jen (孫立人) and Lei Chen (雷震) cases, and the Kaohsiung Incident -- all examples of injustice that have taken place here. These injustices were covered up by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
It may be that the governments responsible for these types of injustices feel uneasy, but under an authoritarian regime, the truth rarely emerges. But when a dictator loses power or dies, these injustices spring up like seeds after spring rain, and the heavier the force that presses down on them, the stronger they will push upward. The revelation of past injustices here has left indelible scars on the record of the Chiang family's rule.
China's head-in-the-sand approach towards Zhao's political record is an indication of its willingness to deny reality, and of the gulf that separates it from the values that characterize civilized nations. Because of what Zhao represents, his passing could serve as a platform on which the Chinese government could show to its people and the international community that it is capable of facing up to historical errors, and that it is willing to correct past mistakes. Beijing has missed this opportunity.
Zhao was not treated fairly. This was a matter of regret for him personally, and also a matter of regret for the Chinese people and for their current leaders.
"A grave mistake," will not be the final judgement on the Tiananmen Square Massacre and Zhao's trying to prevent it. Zhao's death is akin to an insect hibernating beneath the earth, waiting for spring. When democracy eventually takes hold in China, history will remember how its present rulers conducted themselves.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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