Two years have passed since the massacre of peacefully demonstrating students took place on the square close to the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Peking. The unprecedented brutality of the troops and the callousness of the Chinese leaders shocked the civilized world.
Since this tragic event the Chinese leaders have mobilized their propaganda apparatus in an attempt to prove to their own people, and to the outside world, that the brutal use of force was justified and that the internal situation in the People's Republic of China has been normalized. The relentless persecution of dissidents and the harsh prison sentences which have been handed out to several young intellectuals prove that this is not so.
As a result of the massacre a great many Chinese intellectuals were forced to flee their country. Many intellectuals who had left their country before the massacre took place have chosen not to return to China from fear of persecution. Some of the most promising writers,poets and scholars of China are presently living abroad, where theyenjoy a freedom which their own country refuses to allow them. Works of exiled writers which are no longer allowed to be published in the People's Republic are often made accessible to the world at large by Taiwan publishers.
As long as the Chinese leaders stubbornly adhere to their relentless and revengeful attitude toward the dissidents within and outside the country and refuse to honor the principles of Human Rights, they will fail in their attempts to persuade the world that the People’s Republic of China has a right to be counted among the civilized nations of the world. If, on the other hand, the Chinese leaders would prove magnanimous enough to offer amnesty to political prisoners and freedom from persecution to those who now live in exile, they would no doubt reap a bountiful harvest of good will. Such a move would in no way involve a loss of face on the part of the Chinese leaders. On the contrary, it would serve to pave the way for a normalization of the
relations between the People's Republic of China and the outside world.
N.G.D. MalmqvistMember of the Swedish Academy
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