Tsai Ing-wen Urges Beijing To Face Up To June 4

Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen on Monday called on Beijing to acknowledge the bloody crackdown it orchestrated against pro-democracy protesters in 1989, saying the authorities could turn the stain on history into the cornerstone of freedom and democracy.

Writing on social media in simplified Chinese, Tsai noted that there is no online censorship in Taiwan and the island's authorities do not ban any sensitive words. Unlike the mainland, netizens do not need to scale any firewall to get access to information, she said.

Tsai also wrote that since 1989, the mainland has never emerged from the shadow of the June 4 tragedy. That contrasts with the way Taiwan has come to terms with the February 28 massacre in 1947, with the island using the deadly incident to mobile society and leading to the island's democratisation, she said.

The president said she hopes people on both sides of the strait will one day be able to share the universal values of freedom and democracy and that they will have more room to understand each other.