RFA article: The Poison of June 4

It's an interesting article; though I am found certain parts somewhat dubious, it is still an extremely illuminating read.

Radio Free Asia (May 31), "The Tiananmen incident and the threat that China's Rise poses to the World", by Liang Jing (via New Century Net), translated from the Chinese:

Deng Xiaopoing was lucky. Even though he will never be able to wash away the great stain on his life left by the Tiananmen tragedy, history gave him a chance to get the forgiveness of many people. Indeed, the then political opponents of Deng, whether the hardliners within the Party opposed to market reforms, or the various political forces in society wanting to settle accounts with the Communist Party, were all making use of the difficulties caused by the reforms, especially the failure of Deng's hope for speedy price reforms leading to inflation instead, to pose problems for Deng and Zhao Zhiyang. Nevertheless, on reflection, the leadership of the Communist Party and especially the position of Deng were never under a real challenge. It was precisely because of this that Deng was able to act so arbitrarily, rashly and brutally against the student movement, not only making the gross error of [having] the "4/26" editorial [published], but one error upon another up till the totally unnecessary move of deploying tanks in Beijing city and massacring the citizens and students, thus causing the Chinese people to suffer a great shame before the whole world.

[Note: the "4/26" editorial refers to an article published in Renminribao on Apr 26, 1989 entitled "It is necessary to be clear about our opposition to the disturbances" (必须旗帜鲜明反对动乱). The publication angered the protesting students and others, escalating the situation in the Tiananmen Square. See this (in Chinese).]

But what the "leftist" could never have imagined was that their dream of derailing reform was also shattered by Deng's gross error. Television images of the Tiananmen massacre thoroughly destroyed what little basis in popular support enjoyed by Communist rule in the Soviet Union and the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe. The Berlin Wall was about the fall while the red flags over the Kremlin will be lowered soon enough. In an instance, that the day of Communist has come to an end became the common opinion of the world, while the loyal old Bolsheviks can only look on helplessly.

Even more unexpected by everyone was the fact that what gave Deng his last historic change, were the Taiwanese merchants, among whom even included not a small number of past Nationalist Party enemies and their descendants. They not only believed in Deng's determination to go on the path of capitalism, but trusting to a shared cultural intuition saw the god sent of an opportunity following the Tiananmen massacre. And so, just as the Westerners retreated from this land without a soul, the export manufacturing industries of the mainland coastal areas grew rapidly driven by the investment of overseas Chinese capital, especially Taiwanese capital. This turn of events rescued the mainland fellow Chinese from the economic downturn following the Tiananmen incident. Deng saw the opportunity immediately. In 1992, he toured the south and with his one call, numberless Chinese who do not wish to return to poverty responded. From then on, the Chinese economy grew by leaps and bounds, lead by the expansion of export. In ten over years, the Chinese economy in its total value, and especially in its contribution to world economic growth, came into it's own against the powers of the world that once humiliated China; China became a new economic power.

If there had not be Gorbachev's historic choice, if the overseas Chinese—especially the Taiwanese merchants—had not invested massively on the mainland, it is entirely possible that the Chinese Communist Party would not have survived the Tiananmen massacre and Deng might have been forever nailed to a cross of humiliation. But history is history; the economic growth miracle following Tiananmen gave the path of Deng valuable support: this is an undeniable truth. At least Deng could have defended himself by saying that the path he chose is a possible path.

The question is this: what exactly is implication of the China that rose from this path to China's future and the future of the world? This is a question that the Chinese elites who benefited from Deng's path are unwilling to ask. But for the outside world, this is a question that they must ask: because the rise of a China with over one billion people will pose inevitable and great consequences to their life and fate.

In face of the developed countries, especially considering the increasing conflicts over interests with the US, the PRC governing and intellectual elites firmly believe that they fear the rise of China and will do everything in their power to obstruct China's rise. Consequently, one of the focuses of PRC diplomatic activity is to proclaim to the world that China's rise is a peaceful one, and that China does not desire to harm others. But many people remain unable to erase the suspicion they have, because they do not know if the Chinese are really identify with widely shared basic values, especially the acknowledgement that every person, no matter talent or background, possess equal political rights.

In fact, the rise of China's economy following Tiananmen may be one long term obstacle to China's governing and intellectual elite's coming to share these widely acknowledged values. Because China's economic might solidified China's elite's identification with the authoritarian tradition. How long will the poison thorn of Tiananmen remain in the psyche of the (mainland) Chinese people will depend to a large degree upon how long can the export growth driven by low labor costs be sustained. As long as the Chinese people do not remove this torn on their own, the international society will find it difficult to rest easy with China's rise. Because any notion defending the Tiananmen massacre just is the notion that the country can sacrifice the citizen's rights at will, and such a notion has already transformed into the atrocious wage policies of the Chinese workers, massive social injustice, and will pose a threat to the rights of workers in other countries.

When will the Chinese people have the courage to face up to Tiananmen? No one can predict that. But one thing is clear: because of the high degree of internationalization of the Chinese economy after Tiananmen, this poison thorn will not only exact a great price form the Chinese people, but also the people of the world.