One catalyst for the scale of this year’s protest: Ma Lik, the chairman of a pro-Beijing political party called Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong and a prominent legislative councilor, who last month denied that a massacre took place and called on teachers in the city to present Tiananmen history from a “patriotic” perspective. Another catalyst is flamboyant Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai. In the wake of the Tiananmen crackdown, the self-made millionaire divested of his trendy clothing retailer Giordano and built Next Media, Hong Kong’s largest listed media company. The editorial line at Lai’s flagship, the Chinese-language Apple Daily, is unabashedly pro-democratic, and his China coverage pulls no punches. In recent weeks, his publications have urged readers to join this year’s remembrance. Lai spoke with NEWSWEEK’s George Wehrfritz just hours before the vigil. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: Why does Tiananmen still resonate in greater China? Jimmy Lai: This year, thanks to Ma Lik, the whole controversy has been stirred up again. Until China reverses its verdict on the massacre, a lot of people will always demonstrate. It’s difficult for us to forget that our government came out and killed peaceful demonstrators. China will have to face up to what it did first. In Taiwan, the anniversary serves to remind people what kind of government mainland China has.
How do you interpret what Ma Lik said? I think he was testing the water. Someone in Beijing must have asked him to see how people would react so that they could begin rewriting textbooks and set about trying to erase people’s memories of June 4th. Ma Lik is a very cautious person, and he wouldn’t have done such a thing on his own.
If it was a test, what did it show? That we haven’t changed. Actually, I think Ma Lik succeeded in attracting a lot more people to tonight’s candlelight vigil.
In China, many people argue that dwelling on the events of 1989 merely diverts attention from the real task at hand today, namely building a prosperous nation. Does that argument make any sense to you? People have moved forward. China has moved forward. But [Tiananmen] gets to the core of the moral standard we Chinese must relate to. If China were a democracy today we’d say forgive and forget. But China is still a totalitarian state led by the same government that committed the massacre. We’re not just remembering June 4th because it was such a disaster, but also reminding ourselves what it symbolized and the dictatorship we have to confront.
Could something like June 4th happen again? No.
Why not? China is a lot more transparent than it was in 1989, and I’m sure China is also a lot more civilized. Today Beijing needs to command the respect of the world to become a global power. But the government is not being treated as it wants to be treated because it’s a dictatorship, and because it is not perceived to be embracing world values. However strong it is economically and militarily, China is not fully accepted by other countries, and there are people who want to marginalize it on the world stage. Beijing has to address this bad perception [outsiders have of China].
You think China’s senior leaders believe that? I’m sure they do. That’s why I’m quite optimistic about Hong Kong’s democratization. Without accepting the dominant values in the world, China will not be welcomed as a legitimate world power. They’re becoming stronger and stronger, and yet they’re not getting more respect. This is something [Beijing] can’t stand. But all they have to do to shed their pariah image is to be seen embracing democracy in Hong Kong, which is totally under their control. If they know they can control the political evolution, they will do it. It’s a very cheap price for Beijing to pay to appease world sentiment against it. And that would give China more time to face its own political restructuring on the mainland.
What can senior leaders in Beijing do to “fix” Tiananmen? Come out and say they’re sorry.
