Tiananmen Censorship Prevents Healing

Tiananmen Censorship Prevents Healing
United Daily News editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
June 3, 2014

Summary: The Beijing authorities must recognize that the June 4th Incident was a national tragedy for China and the Chinese people. Like maggots on a bone, it has affected China's development. It is a heavy burden that the public must be permitted to remember and discuss. Only that will gradually relieve the pressure and put the events behind us. Otherwise Mainland China will never be able to raise its head before the rest of the world. The leaders of this generation champion the "Chinese Dream." To realize that dream, they must first exorcise the phantoms of June 4th.

Full Text below:

Tomorrow is the 25th Anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen Incident, a deep scar in the collective memory of the Chinese people. A scab has already formed over the wound. But the wound remains inflamed and painful. It also remains a black mark on the Chinese Communist Party. The CCP pretends not to see it. It attempts to force people to forget it. But one cannot erase bloodstained historical memories that way. The best way for those in power to deal with such matters is to join with public, to face them and commemorate them. Only then can this heavy burden be gradually lightened.

Twenty-five years is a long time for an individual or a nation. The celebrated student leaders in Tiananmen Square are now all middle-aged. The exiled academics have gray hair and whiskers. Some even passed away overseas. Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang, the government heads and student movement supporters have all since passed away.

Great changes have taken place, inside and outside Mainland China. The CCP endured many years of harsh economic sanctions by the Western nations. By continuing to reform and open up, it transformed Mainland China into the world's factory and the world's second largest economy. A string of General Secretaries succeeded each other. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao have been succeeded by new generation leader Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, Hong Kong and Macau have been retroceded. Cross-Strait relations have become more stable and peaceful. The people have changed and so have the circumstances. Today's CCP has greater latitude in dealing with the June 4th Incident. The current leaders' hands are not stained with the blood of June 4th. They have greater latitude in how to heal the wounds.

June 4th is a huge wound. Complete healing is no easy task. But increased public discussion of Tiananmen and commemoration of its victims may allow the government and civil society to do so. Allowing relatives of the June 4th Incident to return home and visit, and accelerating the release of imprisoned dissidents may help internal healing and relieve pain. They may also defuse years of international criticism.

Consider the atmospher during the last month or so. Around June 4th every year, Mainland China is subject to a nationwide panic. Any celebration is prohibited. The phrase "June 4th" is subject to Internet censorship. Liberal scholars, families of the victims, and even dissidents have been subject to varying degrees of surveillance, harassment, or detention. Leave aside the matter of democracy. Such practices are hardly consistent with Mainland China's "Rise of a Great Power" image.

Recently a 7000 member direct marketing group from Guangdong visited the United States. It set a new 70 million USD record in purchases. Was this impressive? Recently Beijing has explored the South and East China Seas. It has deployed vessels, leading to tensions and confrontations with the United States and neighboring countries. Was this impressive? Mainland Chinese economic and military expansion is indeed impressive. But one must demonstrate soft power in one's internal politics instead of lashing out and imposing censorship. If Mainland China can do that, it could create a friendlier atmosphere.

Many nations owe blood debts. America owes black people. Europeans owe colonial subjects. The Japanese owe the Chinese people. Germans owe the Jews. Australians owe the Aborigines. Each nation handles these blood debts differently. Is a nation undergoing a moral awakening? Is it politically mature? Does it have the ability and wisdom to resolve its blood debts? This is a tough job.

Consider the U.S. It paid its blood debt in civil war casualties, a century of struggle, the civil rights movement, and constant reflection by the government and society. This gradually resolved peoples' grievances and ethnic hatred. This process has yet to end. On Taiwan, the 228 Incident and White Terror of the 1950s were also nightmarish experiences for Taiwan society. They require the restoration of historical truth, compensation, and apologies. Only then can society gradually be freed from the historical burden.

The current leaders of Mainland China were still young during the June 4th Incident. They probably understood public sentiment and how the events unfolded. In all fairness, China was experienced only in rule. It lacked experience in politics. The result of this lack of experience in politics, meant that rulers perceived any opposition as enemy action and assumed that the only possible response was repression. They had no conception of tolerating dissent or self-examination. By the same token, the students on Tiananment Square also lacked experience with politics. They had abundant enthusiasm and made unilateral demands. They did not understand the neeed for gradualism and concessions. The result was a disservice to the reformers, and set back the the process of Mainland China's opening.

The Beijing authorities must recognize that the June 4th Incident was a national tragedy for China and the Chinese people. Like maggots on a bone, it has affected China's development. It is a heavy burden that the public must be permitted to remember and discuss. Only that will gradually relieve the pressure and put the events behind us. Otherwise Mainland China will never be able to raise its head before the rest of the world. The leaders of this generation champion the "Chinese Dream." To realize that dream, they must first exorcise the phantoms of June 4th.

禁止紀念和討論的六四，傷痕難以平復
【聯合報╱社論】
2014.06.03 01:57 am

明 天是六四事件廿五周年。這是中國人集體記憶深處的一道傷痕，雖然傷口已經結痂，但仍然在發炎作痛；它也是中國共產黨額頭上的一道汙痕，自己假裝看不見，卻 強迫人們遺忘。但是，如果明白染血的歷史記憶無法強制抹除，當權者最好的處理方式，也許就是和人民一起好好面對它、紀念它，然後，才能共同逐步卸下這個沉 重的包袱。

從個人或國家的角度看，廿五年都不算一段短時光。就個人而言，當年天安門廣場前叱吒風雲的學運領袖，如今皆已步入中年；當年流亡海外的學者，多半已經髮鬚斑白，甚至有人客死異鄉。而當年反對及支持學運的國家領導人鄧小平、趙紫陽，則俱已作古。

從 國家的角度看，中國大陸的內外形勢也已發生莫大的變化。中共渡過了當年西方國家對它的嚴厲經濟制裁，藉著持續推動改革開放，蛻變成了世界工廠及全球第二大 經濟體。而中共總書記的接班，歷經江澤民、胡錦濤，已來到了新一代的習近平；與此同時，香港和澳門陸續「回歸」，兩岸關係也走向穩定和平發展。這些時間、 人事和形勢的遞變，都意味今天的中共當局有更大的餘裕處理六四的餘緒；也正因為當前的領導人手上並未沾染六四血跡，而可以用更大器的態度清理創痛。

六 四的巨大傷口要全然療癒，當然不是容易的事。但是，如果能從漸次開放民間對六四受難者的紀念與討論，從而加入政府與民間的對話或修補作為，乃至逐步放寬六 四流亡者返鄉探親、加速釋放獄中的異議者等，不僅有助於中國內部的療傷止痛，也能透過這些人道作為化解國際輿論的長年批評。

事實上，觀察 最近一個多月來的氣氛，每年六四前後，中國大陸便舉國草木皆兵，任何紀念活動皆遭禁止，「六四」成為網路絕對管制的用詞，各地自由派學者、受害者家屬、乃 至異議人士則遭到不同程度的看管、騷擾或拘禁。這樣的作法，即使撇開民主不談，又如何合乎中國「大國崛起」的形象？

日前廣東一個七千人的 直銷業旅遊團大陣仗赴美，在美國創下消費七千萬美元的紀錄，這顯示的是什麼威風？而最近中共在南海與東海的探勘、部署，引起美國及周邊國家的共同緊張與對 峙，這又顯現的是什麼威風？中國經濟與軍事力量的擴張，確已到了令人「可畏」的地步；但與此同時，如果內部政治能展現一些柔軟的力量，不是動輒「嚴打」、 「嚴禁」，中國大陸也許會產生一些令人「可親」的氣息。

許多國家都曾背負過血債，如美國人對黑人、歐洲人對殖民地住民、日本人對中國人、德國人對猶太人，澳洲人對原住民，各國的處理方式也不盡相同。一個國家是不是在道德上覺醒、是不是在政治上成熟，要看它是不是有能力明智地化解血債；這是一項艱難的工作。

就 美國而論，它付出的代價是一場死傷慘重的內戰，上百年的抗爭與民權運動，加上政府與社會的不斷反省折衝，才能逐步化解族群的冤屈與仇恨，這個過程至今尚未 結束。在台灣，二二八事件與五十年代的白色恐怖，也曾夢魘般折磨了台灣社會幾十年之久，須經由恢復歷史真相、補償、道歉，整個社會背負的包袱才能逐漸解 脫。

今天中國的領導階層，在六四事件時都還年輕，對當年的民心與事件的來龍去脈應有真切的了解。平心而論，當年的中國只有「統治經驗」而 沒有「政治經驗」，缺乏政治經驗的結果，就是統治者心目中的政治只有「敵我」與「鎮壓」，而不懂包容異議，檢討自己。同樣的，廣場學生缺乏政治經驗，熱情 有餘，一味強求，卻不了解「漸進」與「讓步」之必要；結果，最後反而幫了「改革派」的倒忙，也讓中國開放的進程中挫。

北京當局必須認清， 六四事件乃是整個中國、整個民族的悲劇，它會如蛆附骨、如影隨形地騷擾著中國的發展。這個沉重的包袱，如果不設法讓人民透過紀念和討論的方式逐漸使它減 壓、放下，將使整個黨國在世界面前無法抬頭挺胸。這一代的領導人提倡「中國夢」，就不能讓六四的魅影在夢中揮之不去。