Don’t fear democracy, Taiwan tells China

Tsai Ing-wen said in a Facebook post on the 27th anniversary that Taiwan could serve as an example to China.

Tsai said in the run-up to Taiwan’s elections earlier this year she had seen people from China, as well as the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, mixing with crowds in Taiwan. 

“These many friends, after experiencing things for themselves can see that in fact there’s nothing scary about democracy.,” wrote Tsai.

China sent in tanks to break up demonstrations on June 4, 1989. The subject remains all but taboo in China, where President Xi Jinping is overseeing a broad crackdown on rights groups and activists. 

Tsai also said in her Facebook post about the Tiananmen crackdown’s anniversary that nobody could deny the material advances China had made under the Communist Party. However, China would win even more respect internationally if it gave its people even more rights, wrote Tsai, who is from Taiwan’s pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Taiwan is the only part of the Chinese-speaking world which holds free elections, and Tsai risks upsetting Beijing with her frank remarks on Tiananmen.