Last year, the struggle of students and ordinary citizens on mainland China for political freedom and democratic reforms blazed up from a few sparks into a raging fire. Although their peaceful protest on Tienanmen Square was suppressed by the Chinese Communists in a bloody massacre on June 4, the embers of their longing for freedom and democracy are not yet extinguished.
Many pro-democracy activists managed to escape from the massacre and flee overseas, where they set up the Federation for a Democratic China, which is headquartered in Paris and currently has branches in five countries and liaison offices in six, to continue the struggle for democracy on the mainland.
A number of these pro-democracy figures were invited to a conference on Taiwan at the end of last year, where they were able to contact and communicate with their supporters on Taiwan for the first time.
As the first stop in a series of overseas reports on the movement, we chose Japan, which is close to Taiwan but where promoting the pro-democracy movement encounters a number of difficulties.
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Taking a stroll in the Taiwan countryside was a wish of many of the pro-democracy activists.