Published by: World Tibet Network News, 96/06/04 23:00 GMT
MONTREAL, June 4, 1996 (The Gazette) - Editorial
Seven years after Chinese troops crushed pro-reform demonstrators in and around Tiananmen Square, it seems depressingly clear that the forces of repression have triumphed. China's communist dictators paid only a fleeting international price for their murderous violence against a peaceful reform movement. It has long-since been business as usual, on the diplomatic and commercial fronts, as well as for Chinese rulers who remain quick to react to any sign of dissent.
Some Chinese, showing remarkable courage, continue to stand up to their government. But these days, most activists are in jail, under house arrest, in exile or have been intimidated into inaction. And as usual, repression has been stepped up in the lead-up to today's Tiananmen anniversary, lest someone succeed in making a defiant gesture.
All of which is further evidence, if any were needed, that China's abusive tactics have not changed:
- Personal freedoms are restricted in many ways; torture remains common in Chinese prisons; courtroom procedures make a mockery of due process.
- China continues to run roughshod over Tibetans' religious freedoms and efforts to maintain their cultural identity, in an obvious effort to forestall Tibetan efforts to regain their freedom from Chinese control. Recently, China banned pictures of the Dalai Lama, the exiled religious leader revered by Tibetan Buddhists. And Chinese authorities have just admitted what had long been suspected: they are holding the 7-year-old boy the Dalai Lama chose as the new Panchen Lama, an important religious leader (the boy and his family disappeared a year ago). Meanwhile, China named another boy Panchen Lama.
n As well, Beijing is cracking down on the Muslim minority in the northwest, but reliable information is sketchy.
The lesson China's leaders evidently learned from the fall of the Soviet bloc was that political reform is the road to ruin. So they allow no such thing in the "people's republic," where each June 4 brings a reminder - if any were needed - that the republic is contemptuous of the people.
