Reports: Beijing behind student leader's remarks on Tiananmen
Thursday, May 21, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
East-Asia-Intel.com
A U.S. government report last week cited media reports that China is manipulating students in Hong Kong as part of a strategic influence program to minimize the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.
Beijing was behind recent remarks by a Hong Kong university student leader that were critical of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy student protesters, a report by the DNI Open Source Center quoted press accounts as saying. The Open Source Center is a government-funded agency that makes available reports and translations from other publications, TV and radio stations and Internet sources around the world.
University of Hong Kong student union chairman Chan Yi-ngok triggered widespread controversy recently for his comments criticizing the 1989 Tiananmen student protest leaders and defending the military crackdown.
Chan was later removed from his position. A subsequent campus poll that found that 92 percent of the respondents favored the university continuing efforts to urge Beijing to reverse its stance on the June 4, 1989 massacre.
Chan was quoted in press reports on April 7 as saying the PRC crackdown was "only a little bit questionable," and implied that the authorities could not handle the student movement "in a rational manner" only because the student activists were possibly "under the influence of some foreign forces."
ChinaÕs propaganda organs have sought to justify the bloody massacre that killed hundreds or perhaps thousands by claiming that foreign forces were supporting the protests.
Chan also criticized Tiananmen student leader Chai Ling for "running away" from the movement she led. And he praised Mainland Chinese schoolmates for commenting on the June 4 incident "from the perspective of public responsibility."
Chan disagreed with the statement that the "PRC Central Government should take responsibility for slaughtering the Tiananmen participants"
Other pro-Beijing students in Hong Kong are believed to be supported by ChinaÕs Central Government Liaison Office (CGLO) in Hong Kong.
Willy Wo-lap Lam, a professor of political science at Japan's Akita University and a columnist for East-Asia-Intel.com, told one news outlet that he had noticed Mainland Chinese students at the eight Hong Kong universities participating in CPC-organized gatherings.
Lam surmised that most of these students would stay in Hong Kong following their graduation and might go into local politics, weakening Hong Kong's autonomy.