Wang Dan (王丹), a former student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement, said he does not expect to see the rehabilitation of the dissidents involved in the Tiananmen Square crackdown, either before or after the national congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Wang was referring to the CCP’s 18th National Congress scheduled for Nov. 8, when a once-in-a-decade leadership transition is scheduled to take place.
Whether the administration of Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) remains in place or Xi Jinping (習近平) and Li Keqiang (李克強) take over, the signs are that there will be no urgency in dealing with the rehabilitation of the Tiananmen Square dissidents, Wang said.
Wang, currently a visiting assistant professor at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, said the CCP is pragmatic and it is not in its interests to rehabilitate the dissidents.
The CCP politburo would not dare deal with the issue, “unless it encountered a major social crisis or a strong voice from the private sector,” Wang said.
However, he also said that Chinese authorities will have to eventually address the issue because there are many problems in China.
Asking for the rehabilitation of the Tiananmen Square activists would be tantamount to seeking reform of China’s politics, Wang said.
It would depend on the voices of the people, which the Chinese regime cannot continue to suppress, he added.
He said the foreign media reports earlier this year that Wen had asked for a reassessment of the Tiananmen Square incident were “only rumors.”
Meanwhile, Ding Xueliang (丁學良) of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said there is a growing possibility of the rehabilitation of the Tiananmen activists.
He told the BBC that Wen’s proposal to reassess the Tiananmen incident would be a legitimate way for the Chinese government to free itself of that burden.
Ding said he believes that a new leadership of Xi and Li will take a neutral stance on the incident and could possibly find an objective and rational way to resolve it.
Wang played a key role in the Tiananmen Square democracy movement. After the bloody crackdown on June 4 that year, he was arrested by Chinese authorities and later went to the US.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS