The events that unfolded in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, have become a historical footnote. China would rather obliterate the blossoming of democracy, never willing to walk along the path to democracy.
In 2021, continuing from my poems Blue China (藍中國) and Red China (紅中國), I put to paper my impressions of China’s transition from the Republic of China to the People’s Republic of China in China Dream (中國夢), one of the poems in my anthology of poems titled Yong Tan Tiao (詠嘆調).
I have also discussed Tiananmen Massacre-related poems by other poets, such as Pai Chiu’s (白萩) Engraved in Beijing (北京銘) and Tribute to an Unsung Hero (無名勇者歌讚), and Yang Mu’s (楊牧) In Front of the Tank Column (在一列坦克車前). Taiwan and the rest of the world had their eyes glued to the TV as the protests unfolded, hoping that they would lead to the democratization of China. However, due to China’s embrace of Marxism-Leninism, the hostage-holding via a dictatorship of the proletariat espoused in that ideology turned into a dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party.
After the tanks and soldiers withdrew and mowed down democracy, protesters were swept away, liberalized capitalist powers the world over held fast to provide China with a helping hand to develop its economy. These Western nations were under the misguided impression that aiding China’s economic development could help it progress toward social and political liberalization. The reality is that this help grew out of cheap self-serving interest in China’s rock-bottom prices, mass labor, factories and markets.
The Tiananmen Massacre did not spur China toward democracy. The introduction of capitalist elements did not nudge it toward democracy — instead, China used its revitalized economy to patch up its wounds and shortcomings. The liberal democracies of Europe and the US are facing a 20th-century China that is holding economic fruits from the 21st century hostage, and using malicious national power to undermine and destroy a civilized world order.
In the waning years of the 20th century, some Taiwanese businesspeople neglected or ignored then-president Lee Tung-hui’s (李登輝) admonitions to avoid acting hastily, and his insistence that China’s appearance of so-called economic opening up was merely an illusory trap. Investment in China helped its economic development, yet Beijing never showed any gratitude in return.
Under China’s deteriorating labor conditions and the malignancy of its political forces, these business investors tasted sharp bitterness, later shifting manufacturing bases to Southeast Asia or reinvesting in Taiwan.
The ill-named “Yellow Peril” theory gave a preview of what would happen: China’s introduction of capitalism at the end of the 20th century would lead to the world’s derailment. China’s proclaiming itself to be a “land of righteousness and justice” has little truth to it when compared with how history truly played out, with China ruled by emperors who expanded imperial holdings when strong, and who flaunted power; China’s supposed humiliation in near-modern history is a matter of the late Qing Dynasty. It is a country with such a long-winded history, advanced theory of language, skilled in sophistry, possessing a record that does not conform to truth.
Tiananmen was China’s opportunity to democratize, yet the protests are little more than a footnote in history. The free world was already facing a dilemma when it stirred from its dream of allying with China to contain the then-Soviet Union. The Tiananmen Massacre is a stain on history China can never erase.
Lee Min-yung is a poet.
Translated by Tim Smith
President Jimmy Carter, who turned 100 years old this month, has not been highly thought of in Taiwan since his 1978 decision to derecognize Taipei as the seat of the “Republic of China.” But with a half-century’s hindsight, President Carter’s derecognition of the ROC, viewed together with his straightforward diplomacy to preserve the full substance of America’s relations with Taiwan, can now be seen in a far more positive light, especially when compared to his predecessors, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In considering Carter’s decisions to recognize the People’s Republic of China as the “sole legal government of China” and break
Public health is one of Taiwan’s greatest strengths. Its National Health Insurance was already one of the best single-payer systems in the world, ensuring that everyone has coverage while staying nimble in the face of financial challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic was a chance for the world to see Taiwan’s full public health apparatus at work. Officials caught wind of a strange virus circulating in China and jumped to screen and then stem the flow of travelers before the word “coronavirus” even made headlines. It was one of the only countries in the world to escape widespread transmission before vaccines were distributed,
Four days after Double Ten National Day, China announced a new round of military exercises around Taiwan titled “Joint Sword-2024B.” As the name implies, Monday’s exercises are a follow-up to its “Joint Sword-2024A” exercises in May, which were ostensibly a response to the content of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration speech, but, as the title suggests, were intended to routinize large-scale military exercises around Taiwan. International observers in general viewed Lai’s National Day speech as restrained and measured. “Lai’s speech demonstrated restraint, refraining from breaking new ground, repeating well-known positions,” Council on Foreign Relations research fellow David Sacks said. These exercises
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Oct. 12 announced that it would consider adopting further measures in response to Taiwan’s trade barriers on certain goods from China, based on the findings of an investigation it launched late last year. The measures could include tariffs or other forms of economic pressure. The announcement is yet another political move by Beijing that is more declarative than substantive. The timing was not coincidental, as it came shortly after President William Lai (賴清德) delivered his first Double Ten National Day speech after taking office on May 20, which was moderate on the cross-strait relationship,