Over a dozen human rights organizations in Taiwan, led by Amnesty International Taiwan and Reporters without Borders, held a vigil at Liberty Square in Taipei yesterday to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Prominent scholars and representatives from several rights groups were invited to the stage and reflect on the Chinese government’s crimes against citizens in the last 29 years. From firsthand accounts of June 4 to recent cases of human rights violation, the event focused on Beijing’s growing suppression of the Chinese civil society.
June 4 participant and prominent Chinese scholar Wu Renhua emphasizes during the pre-event interview that June 4 is not a history but a reality. As the Chinese government keeps escalating the degree of suppression of civil disobedience since the massacre, Wu thinks that Beijing’s strategies reflect their belief in achieving social stability by eliminating all unstable factors. To him, the situation of human rights violation has gotten worse in the past 29 years.
“After 29 years, China’s political situation hasn’t changed,” said Wu. “Censorship and political control have deteriorated, and the degree of political repression is worse than in the 80s.”
A focus on Democratic and Human Rights Achievements
With China’s growing attempts to squeeze its international space through diplomatic and commercial channels since last year, Taiwan has been feeling the impact of the increasing pressure from the other side of the Taiwan Strait. To counterbalance Beijing’s aggression, Wu suggests that Taiwan should focus on leveraging its democratic and human rights achievements, showing the international community and Chinese citizens that Taiwan is not just about unification and independence. He believes the overemphasis on the unification issue and the power struggle among nationalist and pro-independence parties is overshadowing Taiwan’s progress in democracy and human rights.
“If Taiwan is locked in the vicious cycle of arguing about unification and independence, it would face tough challenges when Beijing increases the pressure on Taipei,” said Wu. “Leveraging its advantages in the field of democracy and human rights to conduct civic level exchanges can help Taiwan win more support internationally.”
In addition to focusing on democratic and human rights achievements, Wu argues that Taiwan should also start recognizing the threats posed by China’s united front tactics. As Taiwan begins to witness a growing trend of self-censorship on college campuses, he emphasizes that it is necessary for research institutes in Taiwan to start focusing on topics related to the communist party’s development, instead of concentrating on low risk topics that are related to Taiwanese businesses in China.
“Conducting researches on major political topics can help provide the Taiwanese government enough information about the communist party,” said Wu. “Taiwan’s government and society both need to start become aware of the impact of China’s cultural and ideological infiltration. This is one of the biggest threats to Taiwan’s future.”
While many in Taiwan consider China’s democratic movement irrelevant to them, Wu points out that it is closely connected to Taiwan’s democratic future. By paying attention to China’s democratic movement, Wu thinks that Taiwanese people are actually devoting to Taiwan’s current and future prospects.
“If you have a nice neighbor, you could peacefully negotiate the future of Taiwan,” explained Wu. “Because when two democratic countries are negotiating, it is unlikely to trigger any conflict, because the unification problem could be solved through democratic mechanisms.”
In a separate move to promote democracy in China, prominent Chinese scholar and student leader during June 4th, Wang Dan, announced his plan to launch a think tank in Washington D.C on June 4. The advisory team of Dialogue China, the new think tank in D.C., would include prominent activists Joshua Wong, Lin Fei-fan and Wu’er Kaixi.
