Published by: World Tibet Network News, Tuesday, Apr 30, 1996

by Kevin O'Connor

Source: Regina Leader-Post, Saturday, April 27, 1996, page A3

A University of Regina graduate has returned his President's Medal in disgust to protest the recent award of an honorary degree to high-ranking Chinese office Qiao Shi.

Dan Walker, a Vancouver resident who received the medal in 1982 for having the highest undergraduate academic average, gave it back to U of R president Don Wells earlier this week.

"It's no longer an honor," Walker said Friday. "I hope this will cause the university to look more closely at the people they give honorary degrees to in the future."

Other President's Medal winners might want to follow his example, he said.

"It's a personal choice, but yes, it's an appropriate response," said Walker, who is currently working on a PhD in geological sciences at the University of British Columbia. "It's an emotional issue for me. I still remember that image from Tiananmen where the guy in the white shirt stood up to that line of tanks."

Qiao, chairman of the National People's Congress of China, received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the U of R April 18 while on a nine-day tour of Canada.

The university's decision to honor Qiao generated controversy both in the city and around Canada.

Much of the concern has centered around China's record of human rights abuses, the 1989 killing of hundreds of students at Tiananmen Square and its repression of Tibetan dissidents.

Those opposed to the award pointed to Qiao's past as a longtime head of China's dreaded secret police.

On the day the degree was awarded, a dozen faculty members, students and their supporters turned up at the the convocation ceremony to protest.

U of R president Wells wasn't available for comment Friday.

University secretary Reid Robinson was philosophical when asked about Walker returning his medal.

"Individuals obviously have very strong feelings about this whole issue and they express it in different ways," he said.

Concerns about Qiao had been raised long before the degree was awarded, Robinson noted.

It was ultimately decided that it was important to recognize the U of R's and Canada's links to China.

Robinson added that Qiao has a reputation of being a moderate among Chinese leaders.

However, Walker disputed that.

"I don't know what evidence they have for that," he said.

"Being a moderate and being the head of the secret police don't go together."

Walker said a half-hour's research in the UBC library showed Qiao has been linked to a bloody crackdown on dissidents in Tibet.

One book, Mary Craig's _Tears of Blood_, said Qiao once called for a "merciless repression of anti-Chinese acitivities during a 1988 appearance in that country and that local officials took a hard line on protesters afterward.