Feelers towards Taiwan in Peking wall poster

Press, 7 December 1978, Page 9

Feelers towards Taiwan in Peking wall poster

I NZPA-Re.uter Peking I A poster on Peking’s i “Democracy Wail’ ’has called for arrangements to be worked out for the exchange of mail and visits between mainland China and Taiwan. A poster writer, Li Tsemin, noted that Taiwan had been separated from China for 30 years and many families had been split up as a result of this. He called for iconsultations through an unnamed third country to make arrangements • for an exchange of mail, to be followed by tourist traffic between Taiwan and the mainland. The Taiwan issue remains the main problem preventing the normalisation of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. Chinese leaders have said there could be no normalisation until Washington broke off all military and diplomatic ties with Taipei. The eight-page appeal for mail-and-tourist exchanges

was handwritten on white paper and pasted to a wooden door in the wall on Peking’s main Chang An boulevard, which has become the focus of the present open political debate in the capital.

The implication of the poster was that such exchanges should be undertaken as a first step towards the reunification of Taiwan with China.

A new controversial poster that in essence labelled the late communist leader, Mao Tse-tung, as a dictator also went up yesterday on “Democracy Wall,” and attracted a large crowd in the freezing weather. The poster—headed “The Fifth Modernisation— Democracy”—has been put up despite calls by Chinese leaders to cool the public debate, and despite criticism by the Senior Vice-Premier (Mr Teng Hsiao-ping) of poster attacks on Mao.

“Some people strike out

against democracy, saying it will lead to confusion,” the poster said. “We want to unite under the banner of democracy.”

It said people did not want to believe in dictatorial slogans. and specifically criticised Mao’s 1949 essay, “On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship.” In a highly-controversial statement, the writer also said: “Some people say we must unite for the four modernisations (agriculture, industry', defence, and science and technology.) They want us to obey, but we don’t want to believe in another group of political swindlers again.” Diplomatic analysts, however, said the over-all reaction of the authorities to the debate, in which large crowds also gathered last week in central Tien An Men Square to discuss freedom and democracy, indicated the more liberal feeling in China today would continue.