For more than a week, Bao Tong (鮑彤), a former senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official now under strict surveillance, openly promoted an insider’s account of Chinese political infighting sure to be banned in China.
The book is the posthumous memoir by Bao’s boss, Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), the CCP chief fired in 1989 for opposing the use of troops to quash pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. Before his death in 2005, Zhao furtively recorded his insider account of that period.
When the memoir became public last week, Bao, the most senior CCP official imprisoned after the crackdown, quickly claimed responsibility. In a string of interviews with foreign news media that security officials did not initially seek to prevent, he said he had collaborated with other liberal party elders to slip the cassette recordings out of the country for publication.
“In the past, the minute these things appear, the party would say, ‘This is turmoil; we must crack down,’” he said in one telephone conversation early this week. “But if the party can maintain this current calm, then maybe it can eventually be saved.”
By Friday, though, the government’s restraint appeared to be wearing thin.
Highlights of Zhao’s memoir and audio clips of his original dictation, which were accessible for days within the mainland on the Web sites of American newspapers, including the New York Times, now appear to be blocked.
And Bao’s run of unfettered availability to the news media ended. Bao said by telephone late on Friday that he had just been informed he could no longer accept interviews “starting right now.”
Shortly beforehand, he said, security officials barred him from receiving a CBS TV crew.
Chuckling apologetically, he added: “If you want an interview with me, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until after June 4.”
The mix of approaches — seemingly relaxed oversight at times, an iron hand at others — is characteristic of government efforts to prevent major commemorations of the June 4, 1989, crackdown without calling too much attention to Beijing’s methods.
This year, facing a number of major political anniversaries and a stumbling economy, the party has put one of its most senior officials, Vice President Xi Jinping (習近平), the presumptive heir to President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), in charge of a special unit to “preserve stability” and to prevent unauthorized political activities.
The authorities have tended to respond to perceived threats more surgically and subtly than they might have five or 10 years ago, a number of activists said.
Top leaders now seem more sensitive to the outcry that tough tactics to suppress dissent can provoke online, overseas or within different wings of the party itself, and they often avoid immediate, draconian responses to issues like Zhao’s memoir or Bao’s interviews.
“The authorities have modified their strategy,” said a democracy advocate, Zhang Zuhua (張祖樺), a top official in the Communist Youth League in the 1980s, who was dismissed for backing the democracy protests. “They are not loosening up. But they also do not want to make trouble for themselves by creating an incident.”
He said small groups of mourners had gathered privately in Xian, Hangzhou, Shandong Province, Guangdong Province, Beijing and other places to mark June 4 early. He counted at least five or six cases of activists being interrogated, searched or stopped during activities.
But he said that to his knowledge “no one has been newly arrested because of these activities.”
On Sunday in Beijing, a contingent of more than 50 parents of young people killed in the crackdown, the Tiananmen Mothers, gathered to mourn. Zhang Xianling (張先玲), who hosted the event, said state security officials found out about their plans two or three days before but permitted the gathering, provided the parents did not stage demonstrations or invite foreign journalists or others outside their families.
The group’s gatherings this year have been larger and freer from harassment than five or 10 years ago, though security officials did stop its founder, retired professor Ding Zilin (丁子霖), from attending on Sunday.
“It’s a superficial improvement, not a fundamental one,” Zhang Xianling said.
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)? Ko and Huang have been appealing to that
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does