Taiwan urges China to embrace democracy ahead of Tiananmen anniversary
ROC Central News Agency
06/03/2023 06:16 PM
Taipei, June 3 (CNA) Taiwan's top agency on China affairs on Saturday urged Beijing to learn lessons from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and implement democracy and protect human rights.
In a statement, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime was still unable to face the facts of its brutal crackdown on June 4, 1989 on protesters demanding political reform.
Given that Beijing is touting itself as embracing modern governance, it should courageously bring to light the history and embark on reform to protect freedom of expression, religion, association, and other human rights, the MAC said.
That would also help the CCP regime to dissolve social tensions and unrest brewing in the country, the MAC said.
The MAC issued the statement ahead of the 34th anniversary of the crushing of the Tiananmen Square protest movement on Saturday.
On June 4, 1989, Beijing ordered its military into Tiananmen Square to forcibly end weeks of student-led protests.
Estimated deaths from the crackdown vary from several hundred to several thousand, though China has never released an official death toll.
A lesson Beijing should learn from the June 4 incident is that resorting to the use of force to resolve differences will only lead to unbearable loss and lasting consequences, the MAC said.
With this in mind, China should renounce the use of coercive means against Taiwan.
The only option that Taiwan and China have to settle their disputes is through peaceful means and maintaining the status quo, the MAC said.
(By Lu Chia-jung and Shih Hsiu-chuan)
Enditem/ASG
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