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"Pay close attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Friday, April 09, 2004

Wu'er Kaixi blinded by "too much" freedom?

Cao Changching, one of the editors of the compilation Tibet Through Dissident Eyes: Essays on Self-Determination (and the author of a couple of the essays contained within), has written an op-ed article in today's Taipei Times reflecting some of my recent thoughts on the "rumored-to-have-been-lobotomized" Chinese "democracy activist" Wu'er Kaixi:
I cannot help but pity Wu'er. The Tiananmen massacre happened 15 years ago, and he is now almost 40 years old. It seems that with the passage of time he has lost the ability to differentiate between dictatorship and democracy. He seems to think Taipei is Beijing, and muddles the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with the Chinese Communist Party. His values are utterly confused. After more than a decade living in the free world, Wu'er doesn't seem to have learned anything.

The students who gathered in Tiananmen on that day in June were protesting against a dictatorial government that had deprived more than a billion Chinese of the freedom of choice. Taiwan, on the other hand, has already had three elections in which its president was directly elected, in addition to countless democratic local and legislative elections. How is it possible to equate democratic Taiwan, in which the government is elected by the people, with China?

The students taking part in the Tiananmen protests resorted to hunger strikes because this was the only way to make themselves heard. The media and legal processes were completely controlled by the Communist Party. Taiwan, by contrast, is already well along the road toward a healthy democracy and enjoys freedom of the press. Sure, the government has its problems, but it owes its existence to democratic elections. Sure, there is room for improvement in the media and the legal system, but at least they are free and independent.

How can Wu'er justify saying that these mechanisms are being controlled by the DPP? It is common knowledge that a large part of the media is actually biased in favor of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party.

[Emphasis added] [READ MORE]
Thank you, Cao Changching, for reiterating these points.
Posted at 3:19 PM by: [Permalink]
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