MAC Press Release No. 006
On June 3, 2022, the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) issued the following statement regarding the violent crackdown ordered by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1989 on the students and protesters demanding political reforms. The MAC expressed its deep regret over the CCP’s failure to reflect on its mistakes and its unrepentant enforcement of mass surveillance, suppression of free speech, and infringement on human rights. The MAC called on the Beijing authorities once again to address the historical facts of the Tiananmen Square Incident with sincerity, embark on political reforms, implement democratic governance, and promote civic participation in its society. Only then will mainland China be able to enhance the well-being of those at home and improve its international image in the eyes of those abroad.
The MAC emphasized that the CCP has been tightening its grip on free speech and imposing restrictions on people’s freedom to consolidate its long-standing one-party dictatorship. The window of opportunities for this situation to change has been shrinking rapidly, and the CCP authorities have repeatedly ignored the voices of concerns from Taiwan and the global community. The CCP has been subjecting the ethnic minorities to arbitrary detention and forced labor in their so-called "re-education camps"; it has scrapped its commitment to rule Hong Kong under the "one country, two systems" framework; moreover, it has been clamping down on the democracy and freedom of Hong Kongers with the National Security Law. These atrocities have amounted to a complete disregard of human rights, universal values, and commitments to the international community; totally betrayed the ”people-centered” philosophy of development that the CCP claims to uphold; and constituted the main culprits of the rigid governance of and inherent conflicts in the mainland Chinese society.
The MAC indicated that democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law are not only the ways of life and universal values cherished and shared by countries around the world but the principles that underpin the benign development of cross-Strait relations and the peace and prosperity of our region. The historical lessons of the Tiananmen Square Incident represent the very issues that the current CCP regime should face up to squarely. The CCP must truly learn from the spirit of democracy and fully implement the protection of human rights; it must also renounce the use of aggressive "political suppression and military intimidation" to resolve differences; most importantly, it must respect and understand the determination of the 23 million people in Taiwan to safeguard national sovereignty and cross-Strait peace. These changes are the only pragmatic solutions to the internal and external challenges faced by the CCP at the moment.