You all know about the shocking events that took place in mainland China in early June this year: the Chinese Communists mobilized tanks, armored personnel carriers, and other weapons to massacre unarmed students and others who were demonstrating peacefully in Tienanmen Square in Peking, resulting in massive casualties. This was a rare tragedy in the history of mankind, in which a government massacred its own people. As news of the incident spread, the world responded with rage and condemnation, and the international news media launched an unbridled attack against the Chinese Communists' brutal actions. Over the past two months, Chinese people all over the globe have arisen to voice their rejection of the Chinese Communist regime. Chinese both at home and abroad have through this incident not only reached a consensus to do away with the Chinese Communist regime, but have also achieved a high degree of solidarity based on shared nationalistic feeling. This has profound and far-reaching historical significance.

I would like to offer you the following thoughts on this tragedy, for your reference.

Regarding the reasons behind this democracy movement on the mainland, there is no doubt that the political corruption, cultural isolation, and economic backwardness accumulated over 40 years of Communist rule, particularly in the present situation of inflation and wide gaps between rich and poor, has resulted in a high level of popular dissatisfaction. This has caused a feeling of disillusionment and hopelessness in mainland youth, students, and intellectuals, those most sensitive and attuned to events, those with the sharpest sense of justice and mission; to the point where they were ready to risk their own lives for what they believed in. But there was also another important reason: they were influenced by Taiwan's success story, and by the Republic of China's open policy toward the Chinese mainland. Since Novem ber 1987, over 500,000 people from Taiwan have been to the mainland for family visits, international conferences, sports competitions, newsgathering, and filmmaking, and have exercised a far-reaching influence on the people of the mainland. Taiwan's success story has been disseminated across the mainland through these channels, and was one of the motivating factors behind the mainland democracy movement.

The mainland democracy movement was launched by youths and students. To avoid giving the Communist authorities an excuse for suppression, they staged sit-ins and hunger strikes to win the support and sympathy of the general population and people of other countries. Throughout the whole process, they did not use slogans voicing opposition to communism or socialism. They had good reason to stage such a mature and restrained demonstration. In 1956, Mao Tse-tung launched the so-called "Hundred Flowers" campaign, whose slogan was "Let the hundred flowers bloom, and the hundred schools of thought contend." Mao used this campaign to get those with anti-communist sentiments to spill out their true feelings so that they could be readily identified and dealt with in one blow. They believed the "promises" of the Chinese Communists that those who spoke out would not be incriminated, and that what they said would be received as constructive criticism. Soon after, however, these intellectuals went from being "fresh flowers" to "poisonous weeds," and were subsequently purged. And the intense and violent political struggle that occurred during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, in which today's hero could well be tomorrow's felon, was an unprecedented phenomenon in human history. These are all reflections of the fickleness, unpredictability, and ruthlessness of the Chinese Communist regime. This is why students in this democracy movement attempted to use the most peaceful methods possible, and avoid the possibility of trumped-up charges against them. Ultimately, however, they did not escape the Chinese Communists' purging of dissidents through brutal suppression. For 40 years, the greatest tragedy of mainland China's intellectuals has been how they have repeatedly been the offerings sacrificed on mainland China's political altar, and how they have been unable to realize their ambitions and goals.

I personally believe that this student democratic movement can be considered a revolution to overthrow the communist system, and that it is not an effort at reform within the communist system. Although those demonstrating in mainland China did not, as already mentioned, call for the overthrow of the Chinese Communists, in no case did they voice support for the Chinese Communists. Their use of the slogan, "Give me democracy or give me death," harks back to the American revolutionary Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death." The "goddess of liberty" they erected in Tienanmen Square is further proof that what they were asking for was Western or American-style democracy. Accordingly, mainland Chinese students and scholars residing abroad, who were not subject to restrictions on their actions, called out slogans demanding the overthrow of the Chinese Communist dictatorship. It is reasonable to assume that the true demands of the students and others in mainland China are in fact the same as the mainland Chinese living abroad, namely, to overthrow the Chinese Communist dictatorship. Thus this is a revolutionary movement outside of the communist system, and this is the reason why the Chinese Communists had to suppress it with heavy weapons, something the Chinese Communists, including Teng Hsiao-p'ing, openly admit.

Some people in other countries as well as some overseas Chinese have expressed that the statements issued and actions taken by the government of the Republic of China on Taiwan during the period of the democratic movement came too late and were not strong enough. I would like at this time to respond to this. The ROC government has from the beginning followed this movement closely and studied various counterstrategies. However, in order to avoid giving the Chinese Communists a pretext to suppress the movement (for example, on the false grounds that Taiwan instigated the movement from behind the scenes), and bringing harm to the mainland Chinese students and others, we had to take an extremely cautious attitude. For this reason, our government did not make its first formal statement until May 21, one day after the Chinese Communists declared martial law in Peking and sent in troops. Our president, Lee Teng-hui, issued a very strong statement on June 4, after the Chinese Communists launched their all-out bloody suppression of the movement. Our government initiated a series of concrete measures three days later. On June 7, the government passed "Measures to Support the Mainland Chinese Democracy Movement." These measures included using every means available to break through the Chinese Communists' blackout on news regarding the Tienanmen massacre, and providing aid in kind for mainland Chinese students and scholars presently in foreign countries who have been deprived of their passports or stipends due to their anticommunist activities, among other measures. This program fully demonstrates the ROC government's sincerity and resolution in supporting our mainland compatriots.

After the "Peking Massacre," our President Lee Teng-hui pointed out that the concrete response that both the government and people of the Republic of China should adopt toward developments in mainland China is to strengthen political democratization and maintain economic prosperity in Taiwan, so as to further consolidate Taiwan's role as a base for future action. He indicated that we must respond to any disturbances on the Chinese mainland by maintaining a spirit of fighting turmoil by remaining firm ourselves. This will form the heart of the ROC's future mainland policy.

The ROC government's mainland policy will proceed as in the past, continuing to disseminate the "Taiwan Experience," under the premise of protecting our national security. It is our hope to use Taiwan's model of development as a basis for our goal of eventually achieving China's reunification under a free and democratic system with an equitable distribution of wealth.

After graduating from the university in Taiwan, I went to the United States to continue my studies in the areas of international relations and history in 1965. Before I entered governmental service in 1987, I held posts in a number of universities in the U.S. and the ROC for over 20 years. So I would now like, in the capacity of a student of contemporary Chinese politics and history, to make the following points regarding the future of mainland China.

I believe that, in the wake of the Tienanmen massacre, the Chinese Communists' "four modernizations" program faces a very gloomy future. When the Chinese Communists declared over a decade ago that they could "realize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology within this century," the ROC government pointed out that the basic condition for the realization of the "four modernizations" was political democratization. Without it, the Chinese Communists would never be more than an oppressive, tyrannical regime. The outbreak of the Tienanmen massacre is attributable to the Chinese Communists' total lack of democratic concepts and a democratic system. At present, intellectuals and Chinese with a sharp sense of conscience on the Chinese mainland have totally abandoned the Chinese Communist regime. Without the cooperation and support of the intellectuals and other angry souls, along with the tightening of foreign investment and technology transfers, plus the nearly unanimous contempt and implementation of sanctions toward the Chinese Communist regime by foreign governments, we can safely predict that the future of the "four modernizations," like the overall outlook for the Chinese Communists, is a dismal one, and the victory the ruling stratum has now temporarily claimed for itself will in the end be reversed.

When at critical moments in history Chinese people come to a consensus and resolution in their thinking and actions, the common wishes of the people will be realized. In 1905, for example, when Dr. Sun Yat-sen founded the T'ung-meng Hui, or Revolutionary Alliance, a predecessor of the Kuomintang, in Tokyo, Chinese intellectuals in China and abroad resolved to overthrow the Manchu government. Seven years later, the Manchu government was overthrown and the Republic of China established. Again in 1919, Peking's students and intellectuals made up their minds to bring down the northern warlords. Nine years later, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek led a successful campaign against the warlords, and set up the National Government in Nanking. When the Japanese militarists invaded China in 1937, they incurred the hatred of all the people. Eight years later, China was victorious in the Sino-Japanese War. Chinese in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Asian-Pacific have all, in the wake of the Tienanmen massacre, come to a consensus, namely, to do away with the Communist Chinese tyranny. Based on historical experience, I personally believe that through the efforts of all the Chinese people, China will eventually be reunited under a free and democratic system.

Over the past 40 years, the government and people of the Republic of China on Taiwan have repeatedly stated that the Chinese Communists are a tyrannical regime that will ultimately be rejected by the people. Some foreign governments, scholars, and specialists have considered this view to be "propaganda motivated by an ulterior purpose." However, the "Peking Massacre" has fully proven our decades-old view to be correct. For this reason, I hope that the free world will in the future pay closer attention to the ROC's views on developments in mainland China, so that theycan have a better understanding of the true situation on the mainland, and adjust their responses accordingly.

Ladies and Gentlemen: as mentioned earlier, the democracy movement in mainland China traces its beginnings to the "Hundred Flowers" movement of 1956, after which the democracy movement continued an unbroken development, wave by wave. Another climax in this movement that occurred before the "Peking Massacre" was the "Tienanmen Incident" of April 5, 1976, when students and intellectuals from all over China expressed their resolution to fight the fascist Communist Chinese regime to the bitter end. They once wrote a famous poem that contained the following lines:

"Preparing to mourn, we hear the ghosts shriek;

The wolves laugh even as we weep. Sprinkling blood in memory of the heroes that went before us, We staunchly draw our swords."

This spirit of being ready to struggle and sacrifice for freedom and democracy brings to mind the words of an American poet who wrote for democracy, Walt Whitman:

"There is no week nor day nor hour, when tyranny may not enter upon this country;

if the people lose their roughness and spirit of defiance--

Tyranny may always enter--

there is no charm, nor ban against it-- the only bar against it is a large resolute breed of men."

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Chinese Com munist revolution has devoured its own children, but it has also produced countless fighters who have vowed to fight to their deaths to overthrow the Communist Chinese tyranny. The future history of China and of humanity will be written by these heroic fighters, and democracy will in the end conquer tyranny. I believe that because both the American and Chinese people possess countless fighters like these, democracy has a brilliant future ahead of it. Let us all salute our fighters for democracy!

I thank you.

[Picture Caption]

Mainland Chinese students fighting for human rights and press freedom co uld ultimately not escape bloody repression by the Communist Party. (photo courtesy of Reut ers)

This is a bird's-eye view of the old section of Tali. Most of the low buildings seen through the scaffolding belong to the Lin family, who are big local landowners.

The Kuang San Construction Co., which is building a sixteen-story luxury high-rise in Tali, looks favorably on the town's prospects for development. So does Wang Neng-ta, the local branch manager of the Pacific Rehouse Co., who explains that the Taichung train station is just ten minutes away.

The Kuang San Construction Co., which is building a sixteen-story luxury high-rise in Tali, looks favorably on the town's prospects for development. So does Wang Neng-ta, the local branch manager of the Pacific Rehouse Co., who explains that the Taichung train station is just ten minutes away.

The Kuang San Construction Co., which is building a sixteen-story luxury high-rise in Tali, looks favorably on the town's prospects for development. So does Wang Neng-ta, the local branch manager of the Pacific Rehouse Co., who explains that the Taichung train station is just ten minutes away.

The tomb of Lin Yun-ch'ing, an official during the Ching dynasty, is the only historic site to speak of at Tali. The grounds are also said to be the ancestral resting place of the Lin fami ly of Wufeng. The paddies behind the stele were originally a graveyard, but the only indications now are the steles, the stone candle sticks, and the overgrown gravesites.