Pressure Is A Good Thing – Bao Tong

From RFA Unplugged:

China’s army is under the leadership of the political Party. The chairman of the Central Military Commission ordered hundreds of thousands of troops to put down a peaceful petition by citizens, who were only asking for the implementation of democracy and for corruption to be punished. And the person holding the office of chairman was none other than Deng Xiaoping, who led the siege and annihilation of 550,000 rightists back in 1957. This chairman gave the order to the People’s Liberation Army to shoulder their assault weapons and drive tanks in a move that crushed and strafed the masters of the country. The numbers of injured went beyond the capacity of emergency rooms in the capital to handle. The dead were piled up in the morgues. The rest of the world witnessed the bloodbath in China’s capital via satellite television. This sort of event, whether it occurred in the slave society or during the time of the warlords, is the sort of crime which has the power to extinguish the human spirit. Nevertheless, there are always those who are prepared to sell their own souls, who in the past 18 years have praised the massacre perpetrated by that butcher as providing a firm basis for prosperity, because he broke the will of the people with his iron fist. Such people want the Chinese people to remember that great oppression also led to great prosperity, and therefore that continued prosperity will also naturally mean continued oppression. [Full Text]

See also Interview with Tao Jun, Student Leader of Tiananmen Square Democratic Movement by Feng Changle:

… Eighteen years ago, only students on Tiananmen Square shouted the slogan “End the Communist Ruling”, but today quit the Chinese Communist Party Campaign has spread to all over the country. “It is time for the end of the communist dictatorship,” Tao says.

At the end of the interview, Tao said, “In the past 18 years, the regime exhausted its efforts to cover up its crime with the state power, and it wants to continue to cover up, but its date is coming to an end; we can hear the steps. Tiananmen Square Massacre and all the other crimes committed by the regime must be settled. All innocent people will regain their freedom; the heroes of the Tiananmen Square Massacre will rest in peace.” [Full Text]

Read Tiananmen anniversary – looking forward means facing up to the past by Amnesty International:

… As the 18th anniversary of the crackdown approaches, Amnesty International urges the Chinese authorities to ensure greater respect for freedom of expression and information by lifting the official ban on reporting about the tragic events of 4 June 1989. They should also publicly account for and release all those who remain in prison as a result of the crackdown. While such measures fall short of delivering justice for the victims and their families, they would nevertheless constitute significant steps towards transparency and accountability. They would also be in line with promises made by Chinese officials to improve human rights and ensure ‘complete media freedom’ in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics next year.

Concerns over freedom of the press have also been raised recently by the Beijing-based Tiananmen Mothers group which sent an open letter to the National People’s Congress in March 2007, urging the authorities to lift a publishing ban on three books that discuss the events of 4 June 1989, including Searching for the Victims of 4 June, by Ding Zilin, retired university professor who founded the group after her son was killed in the crackdown. [Full Text]

Read Speech delivered at Tiananmen Anniversary, 6/2/2007 by John Kusumi, China Support Network:

Hello once again; it’s good to see the faces of those who care deeply about freedom, democracy, and human rights — and for Mainland China specifically. At this gathering, we remember the travesty and the atrocity of China’s June 4 massacre at Tiananmen Square. This is our annual candlelight vigil, where we remember the fallen — the innocent civilian victims, gunned down by China’s army on that ugly night in 1989.

This is where we remember, and we know that justice remains to be served in this atrocity that is without closure. We believe firmly that China’s best days are still ahead of it — that the light of freedom will come to that land which has been darkened and victimized by 58 years under the iron-fisted, totalitarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party. [Full Text]

Read Message on the Eighteenth Anniversary of Tiananmen Square by Tom Casey, State Department’s Deputy Spokesman:

… As the 2008 Olympic Games approach, the international community will place China under greater scrutiny. We urge the Chinese Government to move forward with a reexamination of Tiananmen, to release all Tiananmen era prisoners, and to cease harassment of the families of victims of Tiananmen. These actions, together with steps to protect Chinese citizens’ internationally-recognized fundamental freedoms, will help China achieve its goal of projecting a positive image. [Full Text]

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