A Letter From China: If My Young Son Can Fight for Freedom, Why Can’t I?

This letter from a senior official of a Chinese corporation on the mainland near Hong Kong was sent Tuesday to an American business contact in California.

I am weeping while writing you this letter. Right now in the capital of China, there have been more than 20,000 students and citizens fighting for China’s democracy and freedom. Among them are 70-year-olds and children as young as 9 years old.

Beijing, the city many foreigners long for, now has become the battlefield, site of the massacre. Channels of communication from Beijing have been blocked throughout China, and the government uses this ugly method to deceive all the people nationwide. However, people in southern China listen and watch reports from Hong Kong television and radio. We are well-informed.

My son and my brother, who just received his master’s degree, and my sister-in-law are all in Beijing and participated in this patriotic movement. They are all young and hoping to fight for a brighter future. They don’t even take the possibility of death into consideration.

I couldn’t do anything in terms of saying what they should or shouldn’t do. They have their own thoughts, own opinions. Anyhow, nothing is more precious than democracy and freedom.

Maybe during this turmoil in Beijing I will lose them. I love them so much and hope thatthey will be engineers, Ph.D.’s. However, I have no control over what will happen. They choose the road they want to walk along. I think that if I were a university student now, I would forsure participate in this patriotic movement.

Beijing’s use of force to suppress the students will cause more students and citizens nationwide to fight for democracy. Many people from different cities have resumed their demonstrations.

I think it won’t take long; you will hear gunfire start in Shanghai, Chengdu, etc. Maybe there will be thousands of students falling. But the movement fighting for democracy and freedom will never end. We can find the proof from the Beijing example: Despite the bloody suppression, 10,000-20,000 people still fight the army every day. If there is a silence now, the effect will be louder than thunder!

I don’t think countries worldwide would allow China’s bloody massacre to continue. There will be denunciations, political and economic moves and even the use of force to stop it. We live in this age, people all over the world will not allow such a massacre to occur. It is a black mark on the Earth.

China’s People’s Liberation Army became a Fascist army. The Chinese government now becomes a Fascist government. But I think people from all over the world will show more respect for the Chinese people. Long live the students! Long live the people!

If the current situation continues, I would participate in this movement. If my young son can do so, why can’t I?

Life is precious,

Love is even more precious,

Fight for freedom,

Both of them can be sacrificed!

If the day comes, I will leave you, please don’t forget me.