Translation of a June 4, 2016 Facebook post by Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) (link).



The shelves of many Taiwanese bookstores are filled with dazzling arrays of books about mainland China. Many friends who come here from across the strait pause before these bookshelves. They often believe that inside China they cannot see the true China. Hence they take this opportunity to satisfy their eagerness to know how the world sees China.

During the televised presidential election debates, Chinese students overseas used the Internet to see the candidates debate each other. They thought that this method of deciding public affairs was fresh and new. During many campaign events, I even saw friends from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau hidden inside the crowds, full of curiosity about Taiwanese democracy. After living through it themselves many friends realize that democracy isn’t that scary—that democracy is something beautiful and loveable.

If I have the chance, I want to tell these friends that the beauty of the democracy Taiwan has today was in fact reached by walking a very difficult path. Different countries have different routes of democratization. Nevertheless, democracy won’t fall from the sky. What’s more, the universal values of democracy and human rights were won by the efforts of citizens. These two points are the shared conclusions of all democratic countries.

I believe mainland China is no exception. Today is June 4, and 27 years ago on this day, the Tiananmen Square incident occurred in Beijing. Because of it, many people lost their families; many people lost their hope for reform; and many people were forced to leave their hometowns and become exiles overseas. These were all things Taiwan too had experienced. That is why every Taiwanese person who saw those images on television 27 years ago felt empathy: Because we, too, had walked that path. We felt more clearly than anyone the thirst the students at Tiananmen Square had for democracy and freedom.

As president, I won’t criticize the political system on the other side of the strait point by point. Instead I will express my willingness to sincerely and with my whole heart share with the other side of the strait the experiences of Taiwan’s democratization. The achievements of economic growth of today’s mainland China are apparent to everyone. With the effort of the ruling party on the other side of the strait, China’s citizens absolutely have a better quality of life than they did before. No one can deny this. Nor can anyone deny, however, that mainland China’s internal politics and society are currently under pressure to transform. If the other side of the strait can give the citizens of mainland China more rights, the people of the world will give mainland China more respect.

This is the moment to look at the past squarely. This is also the moment to head toward the future. Mainland China is changing. This change is testing the wisdom of the ruling party authorities. Cherish those citizens searching for other perspectives in bookstores. Cherish those overseas students who are experiencing democratic life. They are people who can move China forward further.

Don’t make 6/4 a secret that is eternally hard to talk about on both sides of the strait. Only the ruling party on the other side of the strait is capable of resolving the past pain of Chinese citizens. My responsibility is to preserve Taiwanese’s status as democratic and free people, and to establish a peaceful, stable, uniform, predictable cross-strait relationship. I hope one day the views on both sides of the strait about democracy and human rights will converge.

