Page 2087 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 5 June 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Chen and who have been patiently waiting through our own little parliament with democracy in action.
One year ago some tragic events occurred in Beijing, as we are all so well aware. Yesterday a number of members of this Assembly, a number of Canberra citizens and Chinese exiles and Chinese students went to several demonstrations - one outside the new Chinese Embassy - and then marched to Parliament House. It is now a year since the pro-democracy demonstrations were organised in Tiananmen Square. For those who participated in that peaceful protest, the spring of 1989 was indeed a time of hope but, as we witnessed, those aspirations were devastated by a violent crackdown.
The slow democratic progress made in the late 1970s and for most of the 1980s in China was rudely stomped on that day. The aspirations of the Chinese people were stomped on by a group of power-loving, selfish octogenarians in the Chinese Government who did not want change. A lot of very progressive moves that had been made in China, raising the hopes of the Chinese people and people throughout the world, were set back when the ageing leadership of the Chinese Communist Party let loose Chinese army troops onto their own people. We witnessed the scenes of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and Chinese soldiers killing their own people in Tiananmen Square. It was a very moving, very tragic event which has etched an indelible impression on many people throughout the world.
The Chinese Communist Party has turned its back on reforms currently under way in other communist or ex-communist states. Unfortunately, as a result of the events in Tiananmen Square and also subsequent crackdowns and repression against freedom-loving people in China, the Chinese Communist Party has joined North Korea, Albania, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge and indeed perhaps North Vietnam as the only remaining vicious, repressive Stalinist regimes left in the world. I think that is a tragedy.
However, Mr Speaker, there is hope. China is one of the world's oldest civilizations. It has given so much to the world. Despite the setback that occurred to democracy and freedom in China last year, I am very confident that freedom and democracy will come to China. The Chinese people are heirs to one of the truly great civilisations of the world. They have shown their will and their desire for freedom and an end to communist repression, and that will triumph. The ageing Chinese leadership that denied them that right last year cannot go on forever.
Some of the events of a year ago were quite profound. One event that seized the imagination of the world was the lone Chinese protester standing in front of a column of tanks, a noble and brave act. Those who died in Tiananmen Square and elsewhere in China last year for their beliefs and freedom are in fact martyrs to the cause of freedom and democracy and they will be remembered by their own people
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .