Cauldron Still Boils Under Chinese Surface

Very little has changed in China with regard to free speech and political dissent since the 1989 Tienanmen Square Massacre. Last week a political dissident by the name of Chen Shuqing was sentenced to four years in jail after being convicted in a Chinese court for 'inciting subversion.'

Chen had written extensively on many foreign websites about the need for freedom and constitutional rule in China.

China has a constitution that supposedly grants the freedom of expressing political opinion, though it rarely, if ever, upholds such liberty.

For example, in order for Google, Inc. to do business in the Communist nation, it had to agree to censor its search engine results within the country, deleting all references to the Tienanmen Square Massacre and to Taiwan's independence.

Google's highly unethical, un-American, and anti-Constitutional practices in China remains a thorn in the flesh to those of us who use the corporation's services. We happen to question whether such policies should be legal for an American corporation.

Although China had agreed to ease some of its restrictions on freedom of the press and freedom of speech in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics, human and media watch groups say that the country is cracking down on political dissent and the growing social unrest within its borders.

A Paris-based liberty watchdog group called 'Reporters Without Borders' says that 30 journalists and 50 Internet users have been arrested and detained in China, some remaining behind bars for nearly 20 years.

The group also ranks China a dismal 163rd out of 167 countries on its press freedom index.

Reporters Without Borders condemned the harsh sentence of Chen, referring to the actions of the Chinese government as 'appalling.' Even the lawyer representing Chen, Li Jianqiang, had his license to practice law suspended for a year due to his defense of cases involving freedom of the press.

The U.S. squandered a golden opportunity to use the 'bully pulpit' of the Presidency to defend the student dissidents who were summarily slaughtered, imprisoned, and oppressed by their own government during the 1989 Tienanmen Square incident.

Chinese university students by the tens of thousands took to the streets in 1989 to demand liberty. One cannot forget the one male student facing down a Chinese military tank with its huge guns pointed at him.

The standoff did not last long.

After attempting in vain to silence the protesters with fear tactics, the Chinese government lowered the boom on its own citizens, most of whom were the brightest young intellects in the country. Using its mighty military arsenal against unarmed dissidents, China crushed the pro-liberty demonstrations with massive bloodshed.

President George H.W. Bush maintained a low profile in the wake of such a tragedy.

Many believe that Bush the First placed expediency above principle when he refused to come to the defense of the student dissidents. After all, Bush had established close friends within the Chinese government early in his career as a foreign diplomat.

One cannot even begin to fathom Ronald Reagan doing such a thing had he been President. In fact, it is a near certainty that had Reagan still been in office a very different scenario would have developed, possibly leading to a human rights showdown with the Communist country, much as he had done with the Soviet Union.

With Bush the First's capitulation to the Chinese government, the student dissidents were essentially left hanging out to dry all on their own.

Bill Clinton was no better than Bush the First. In fact, one of the driving forces of the Tienanmen Square uprising, Chai Ling, was appalled that President Bill Clinton went to China in 1999 and saluted some of the very same soldiers who killed many of her friends during the 1989 protest.

The thing that oppressive governments never learn is that the thirst for liberty never dissipates but only grows the more a society is oppressed. And since 1989 the student movement that burst forth demanding liberty has been publicly silenced but not destroyed.

In fact, the cauldron of unrest still boils just under the Chinese surface, and the Chinese government knows it.

This is the reason that despite their reassurances, the government still cracks down harshly on all political dissent.

And for this reason, American corporations such as Google are complicit in the Chinese oppression of its people. It almost goes without saying that Google and others like it deserve to be harshly condemned.

For a complete annotated pictorial of the Tienanmen Square Massacre, click here:
http://cryptome.cn/tk/tiananmen-kill.htm