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New York Sun, United States
Tour This Olympic City
By ELLEN BORK | August 11, 2008
The long awaited Beijing Olympic Games began Friday with an imposing
display of choreographed performances, music, and fireworks. However,
the sight of the American athletes marching into the stadium led by
teammate Lopez Lomong, a refugee from the genocidal Sudanese regime
that is supported by China, provided a reminder of the environment in
which these games are taking place.
For all of President Bush's insistence that he is attending the Games
solely as a sports fan, Mr. Bush cannot escape their political
significance. Nor can the rest of America. The Olympics invariably
take on the character of their host country and the Games in Beijing
are no exception. Take for example, the arrest of Hu Jia and other
dissidents critical of the Games, repression of "petitioners" seeking
redress from the government, and tougher restrictions on the Internet.
The spectacle of the opening ceremonies cannot obscure the
uncomfortable truth that travelers to the Games are visiting a
one-party communist dictatorship. Nor can the physical transformation
of Beijing, a city that less than 20 years ago was the site of an
appalling atrocity. In the spring of 1989, democracy protests began in
Beijing and spread throughout China. Students were soon joined by
Chinese citizens from all walks of life, including workers,
journalists, civil servants, and members of the Communist Party. When
the regime decided the threat was too great, it sent in the army on
June 4, 1989. The number of dead is unknown; estimates range from
several hundred to several thousand. The crackdown afterward swept up
tens of thousands of innocent citizens.
Afterward, the regime denied its culpability, calling the
demonstrators counterrevolutionary criminals. To speak about Tiananmen
publicly inside China is to risk everything. Dr. Jiang Qisheng knew
this, but he spoke out anyway, calling on his fellow citizens to honor
the victims on the 15th anniversary of the massacre. He served four
years in prison as a result. A journalist, Shi Tao, received a 10-year
sentence for forwarding abroad a directive from the propaganda
department instructing reporters not to write about the June 4
anniversary.
The most unrelenting critic of the regime over Tiananmen may be the
mother of a 17-year-old killed on the night of June 3, 1989, Ding
Zilin. A few years after the massacre, Ms. Ding and other relatives
formed the Tiananmen Mothers. They provided the information about 188
victims that was used to create the map that accompanies this article.
I met Professor Ding on a visit to Beijing last summer. I hadn't
expected to be able to see her. The apartment where she lives with her
husband, Jiang Peikun, is usually manned by security personnel who
keep away foreign visitors and journalists. I asked her to show me
where her son died on my tourist map. She drew a small circle around
the Muxidi subway stop in western Beijing. Her son, Jiang Jielian, and
others killed at Muxidi are listed on the map at location no. 10.
The regime denies the truth of what happened at
Tiananmen. Fortunately, human beings are equipped with memory. Being
remembered is a particularly human need. "I should like someone to
remember that there once lived a person named David Berger,"
Mr. Berger, a Jew, wrote to a friend from Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania,
where he had fled from German invaders of Poland. He was shot in Vilna
in July 1941.
To remember is also a human instinct, hence the Yad Vashem memorial
for the victims of the Holocaust, the Omid database of victims of the
Islamic Revolution of Iran, the organization, Memorial, for victims of
Soviet communism, and efforts to honor the victims and the events of
the Cambodian, Rwandan, and Armenian genocides.
Partly inspired by the example of Gunter Demnig, an artist in Germany
who installs plaques bearing the names of Holocaust victims outside
the homes from which they were deported to concentration camps, this
map is a small gesture to remember them and the many millions of
victims of Chinese communism. Some day, Chinese citizens will not face
imprisonment to remember and honor the victims of the Tiananmen
massacre. Until then, it is a small thing for the rest of us to do
what they cannot.
Ms. Bork works on China and human rights at Freedom House. The map was
designed by Philip Chalk, design director at the Weekly Standard
magazine. Tian Jian, who participated in the democracy protests of
1989, translated the information provided by the Tiananmen Mothers.
Tour This Olympic City
By ELLEN BORK | August 11, 2008
The long awaited Beijing Olympic Games began Friday with an imposing
display of choreographed performances, music, and fireworks. However,
the sight of the American athletes marching into the stadium led by
teammate Lopez Lomong, a refugee from the genocidal Sudanese regime
that is supported by China, provided a reminder of the environment in
which these games are taking place.
For all of President Bush's insistence that he is attending the Games
solely as a sports fan, Mr. Bush cannot escape their political
significance. Nor can the rest of America. The Olympics invariably
take on the character of their host country and the Games in Beijing
are no exception. Take for example, the arrest of Hu Jia and other
dissidents critical of the Games, repression of "petitioners" seeking
redress from the government, and tougher restrictions on the Internet.
The spectacle of the opening ceremonies cannot obscure the
uncomfortable truth that travelers to the Games are visiting a
one-party communist dictatorship. Nor can the physical transformation
of Beijing, a city that less than 20 years ago was the site of an
appalling atrocity. In the spring of 1989, democracy protests began in
Beijing and spread throughout China. Students were soon joined by
Chinese citizens from all walks of life, including workers,
journalists, civil servants, and members of the Communist Party. When
the regime decided the threat was too great, it sent in the army on
June 4, 1989. The number of dead is unknown; estimates range from
several hundred to several thousand. The crackdown afterward swept up
tens of thousands of innocent citizens.
Afterward, the regime denied its culpability, calling the
demonstrators counterrevolutionary criminals. To speak about Tiananmen
publicly inside China is to risk everything. Dr. Jiang Qisheng knew
this, but he spoke out anyway, calling on his fellow citizens to honor
the victims on the 15th anniversary of the massacre. He served four
years in prison as a result. A journalist, Shi Tao, received a 10-year
sentence for forwarding abroad a directive from the propaganda
department instructing reporters not to write about the June 4
anniversary.
The most unrelenting critic of the regime over Tiananmen may be the
mother of a 17-year-old killed on the night of June 3, 1989, Ding
Zilin. A few years after the massacre, Ms. Ding and other relatives
formed the Tiananmen Mothers. They provided the information about 188
victims that was used to create the map that accompanies this article.
I met Professor Ding on a visit to Beijing last summer. I hadn't
expected to be able to see her. The apartment where she lives with her
husband, Jiang Peikun, is usually manned by security personnel who
keep away foreign visitors and journalists. I asked her to show me
where her son died on my tourist map. She drew a small circle around
the Muxidi subway stop in western Beijing. Her son, Jiang Jielian, and
others killed at Muxidi are listed on the map at location no. 10.
The regime denies the truth of what happened at
Tiananmen. Fortunately, human beings are equipped with memory. Being
remembered is a particularly human need. "I should like someone to
remember that there once lived a person named David Berger,"
Mr. Berger, a Jew, wrote to a friend from Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania,
where he had fled from German invaders of Poland. He was shot in Vilna
in July 1941.
To remember is also a human instinct, hence the Yad Vashem memorial
for the victims of the Holocaust, the Omid database of victims of the
Islamic Revolution of Iran, the organization, Memorial, for victims of
Soviet communism, and efforts to honor the victims and the events of
the Cambodian, Rwandan, and Armenian genocides.
Partly inspired by the example of Gunter Demnig, an artist in Germany
who installs plaques bearing the names of Holocaust victims outside
the homes from which they were deported to concentration camps, this
map is a small gesture to remember them and the many millions of
victims of Chinese communism. Some day, Chinese citizens will not face
imprisonment to remember and honor the victims of the Tiananmen
massacre. Until then, it is a small thing for the rest of us to do
what they cannot.
Ms. Bork works on China and human rights at Freedom House. The map was
designed by Philip Chalk, design director at the Weekly Standard
magazine. Tian Jian, who participated in the democracy protests of
1989, translated the information provided by the Tiananmen Mothers.