More than twenty years ago a Chinese scientist visiting the U.S. was asked," Will China ever have free elections?" He replied that there are six parties in China, with candidates on the ballots. When asked what would happen if one of the non-Communist parties won he replied, "Nothing would happen because only the Communist Party has an army." June 4, 1989, a few years after the visiting scientist's edifying answer, Chinese government tanks and troops with rifles killed an estimated 2600 men and women assembled in Beijing's Tiananmen Square asking for a democratic government. Protests in China and around the world over the Chinese government's oppression of religious, ethnic and political minorities have intensified in recent months. Government promises that news censorship would not occur during the 2008 Olympics have been forgotten.
Censorship has continued. But, just as pollution has not been controlled, reports of pollution and protests have slipped out. Global news is truly global. Economic reform has swept China since the Tiananmen Square massacre. But the Chinese government, in preparation for and execution of the Olympics, has shown the heavy hand of dictatorship. We in Cedar Key, so far from China, might try to ignore China. However, events in China should remind us of our freedoms to assemble without fear of tanks, to criticize officials without fear of prison and to vote for an array of candidates. We must not acquiesce to limits of our freedoms of speech and assembly. Finally, we must remember that events like the Tiananmen Square massacre can happen when there is too much political power at the top. | 