Paper Closes

The demise of the Centre Daily News, one of the largest Chinese-language newspapers in this country (Metro, Sept. 21) is a profound source of regret. So far as I am aware, the arguments brought up by the paper’s editorials are often described as pro-China and then categorically dismissed. They should have been met with reasoned and civilized counter-arguments rather than stentorian lungs and even trampling feet. It is obviously not in the interest of democracy to encourage (or instill) and tolerate one particular attitude or response to the whole sequence of events taking place in China from April to June.

Perhaps I should also say that it is misleading to call the student-led popular unrest in Beijing and some other Chinese cities “the pro-democracy movement” (hence, “pro-democracy supporters” and “counter-democracy supporters”). The temptation is understandably great to use such a blanket term to wrap up extremely complex cultural and economic as well as political realities in China into a neat and tidy piece. On the other hand, the Chinese peasants, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the “demo-” should China move towards one-person, one-vote democracy, might have interests essentially different from that of the students who occupied Tian An Men Square.

JIAN-DE LU

Studio City