Ted Cruz: Learning the Lesson of Tiananmen Square — and Reminding China

Source: National Review | June 3, 2016 | Ted Cruz

You do not change authoritarian regimes by enriching them while leaving their crimes against their own people unmentioned.

Twenty-seven years ago, thousands of brave protesters gathered in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to demand political liberalization in the People’s Republic of China. The PRC’s brutal response was clear evidence that interaction with capitalist economies would not automatically result in political reform. The Communist Party, all too happy to reap the financial benefits the West offered, nonetheless refused to relinquish its authoritarian power.

The situation came to a head in the spring of 1989 when, mourning the death of reformer Hu Yaobang, the Chinese people tried to take matters into their own hands. Their demands were simple: a commitment to democracy, freedom of the press, accountability for government officials — the sorts of liberties we take for granted all too often in America.

At first the PRC reacted with caution, no doubt mindful of the simultaneous breakdown of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its satellites in Eastern Europe and recalling the strong support that Soviet dissidents had received from the Reagan administration. But there was no similar outpouring in support for Tiananmen Square — no American leadership demanding that the walls oppressing the Chinese people be torn down. Emboldened, the PRC signaled that reprisals were coming, labeling the protesters dangerous subversives. The campaign against them culminated in the terrible massacre of June 3–4, 1989.

Over the intervening decades, the PRC has continued to profit from economic contact with the West while systematically blocking any internal attempts at liberalization. In one of its most egregious examples of political oppression, the PRC has subjected the poet, author, and political scientist Liu Xiaobo to years of harassment.

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We should follow the example of Ronald Reagan, who stood up to the Soviet Union’s oppression of dissidents. He understood that the upholding of human rights was not a disinterested good deed — it was a vital edge that the Americans had over the Soviets. In 1984, President Reagan worked with Congress to rename the street in front of the Soviet embassy “Andrei Sakharov Plaza,” to provide the Soviet government a constant reminder of this advantage.

In this tradition, and in solidarity with the Chinese people, I introduced legislation to name the portion of International Plaza in front of the PRC embassy in Washington, D.C., “Liu Xaiobo Plaza.” Earlier this year, the Senate passed this legislation unanimously. The House should do the same.

If it is passed into law, the Chinese ambassador would look at this street sign each day. This address would be on every piece of correspondence going into and out of the embassy.

….

Sadly, President Obama has threatened to veto the bill, bowing to objections by the PRC. I hope he will reconsider, to prevent the shameful spectacle of the 2009 Nobel Peace laureate rejecting an attempt to honor his unjustly imprisoned successor.

The lesson of Tiananmen Square is that you do not reform authoritarian regimes by enriching them while leaving their crimes against their own people unmentioned. You do it by raising these issues again and again, even if it causes occasional discomfort in diplomatic circles. It is well past time that we recognize this truth, and I hope and pray that next year we can honor this anniversary under a sign bearing Liu Xiaobo’s name.

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  • Consistent #6691

    Consistent #6742

    ConstitutionalConservative #6759

    The exact same things can be said of Iran as well; that savage beast could have been tamed without firing a shot; the opportunities were profound and abundant.
    Peace through strength was abandoned for liberal passive appeasement, it is all to evident how miserably that is working out.

    Lion Ted roaring in the wilderness standing in the gap and continually exercising reason, logic, common sense and as always well armed with the facts.

    We can assess the future by observing the past, especially the recent past and we willing to do so are but a few Our Republic is suffering by way of appeasement and passivity an invasion that is a growing cancer of the enemy within.
    We have all but forsaken are strategic position in the world leaving it oh so vulnerable to take over by the communists and or islam.
    When our once allied free nations are conquered they will be used against us as fodder for the fire while the imported invaders are being prepared, trained and practiced to take our nation down in a most vicious manner.

    I know it all sounds like so much hyperbole; but that is what I think, when we expect the best and prepare for the worst, then however it turns out; at the least we will not be suddenly surprised.

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