Ma calls on China to heal June 4 wounds

Ma, marking the anniversary of the June 4 crackdown, said China should look at the protest from a new angle and treat dissidents with more tolerance.

China's Taiwan affairs office declined to comment on Ma's call.

In a message posted on the presidential website, Ma said a government must take the major blame for any bloody clashes with its people, whose trust on which its power hinges.

It is not just the innocent public that will be hurt in such cases, but also the trust between the rulers and the people, he added.

When the people lose their trust in their government, smashed, it will take a long time for the government to rebuild the trust, he said.

On June 4, 1989 Beijing sent in tanks and troops to crush the massive student-led pro democracy demonstration that had occupied the Tiananmen Square for weeks.

The 1989 crackdown remains a taboo in China.

But Ma urged China to earnestly face the major human rights incident that has inflicted wounds on its history.

Beijing needs to look at the incident from a new perspective, trying to restore its people trust by showing them more patience and tolerance, he said.

“China must not only learn the painful lesson, but also prevent a repeat of the tragedy,” Ma said. “It must also take necessary measures to placate the victims and their families for the pains and injustice they have suffered.”

He said that for Taiwan to mark the Tiananmen crackdown, it is like remembering its own 2-28 Incident in 1947 and the era of “white terror” that followed.

Ma said he hopes Beijing will borrow from Taiwan's experience.

By addressing the issue Beijing could restore its people's trust and narrow the human rights gap between Taiwan and China, the president said.

The Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council declined to comment on Ma's call, but political observers said Beijing is unlikely to change its official stance on the incident in the near future.

A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry said on Thursday said Beijing has already given a “clear conclusion” on that “political turmoil.”

The crackdown ended a series of demonstrations in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square that had started April 14, 1989, a year when many communist regimes around the world collapsed.

Many protesters are believed to have been killed, and many protest leaders fled the country or ended up in jail.

China has never given an official figure of the deaths in the crackdown.

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