Taiwan's new leader used the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown to praise rival China on Wednesday, breaking with his previous policy of marking the date with condemnations of Beijing's human rights record.
"China has made certain progress since it started to open up and reform 30 years ago," President Ma Ying-jeou said in a statement.
His comments came amid improving relations between the sides, including the expected signing later this month of an accord on increased Chinese tourist traffic to Taiwan, and the opening of daily charter flights across the 100-mile- (160-kilometer-) wide Taiwan Strait.
In the past, Ma has been scathing on the Tiananmen issue, saying China's failure to
offer a full accounting of why hundreds, if not thousands, of pro-democracy protesters were killed by Chinese troops on June 3-4, 1989, is a major impediment to improved relations between Taiwan and the mainland.
But that type of talk is all in the past. Thank goodness.
But wait, the Straits Times headlines this as "Taiwan president calls for freedom, democracy in China." And the article quotes Ma:
President Ma Ying-jeou on Wednesday called on rival China to give freedom and democracy to its people, on the 19th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
'Since the June 4, 1989 incident, I expressed my thoughts on the anniversary and attended events organised to memorise the victims. What I do care about is whether people in China can enjoy a life of freedom and democracy,' Mr Ma said in a statement.
Mr Ma said he hoped a free, democratic and wealthy China 'can be a foundation for peaceful development in the cross-strait ties and create a win-win situation for Taiwan and the mainland.'
Well now, that's a bit different from the happy talk of let's all just let by-gones be by-gones that the AP reports. Since this type of speaking is all in the past, I can only assume it took place prior to the AP reporter arriving at the event.
Thank goodness we have professional journalists trained in the art of telling us what we should know.
