A Message from Yang Jianli, President of the Foundation for China in the 21st Century

September 30, 2007

We, the veterans of Tiananmen and all freedom loving people must speak out against the brutal repression of the Burmese people by an illegitimate and self indulgent military junta. We, who in 1989 experienced the horror of hundreds being killed in Beijing, and along with the millions witnessing that massacre around the world, must arouse anew our powerful love for democracy. We must speak to the brave people of Rangoon, and to their devoted monks. They must know they are not alone. All of us in the Chinese pro-democracy movement stand in solidarity with the Burmese people who are engaged in a life or death struggle to free their country from years of oppression and decay. While everything is at stake for the Burmese people, the outcome of this struggle will also have a major impact on our struggle in China too.

One of two outcomes is certain. Either the light of freedom will be snuffed out and the long dark night will return again, or wisdom will lead the military rulers to call a truce and begin a dialogue. At this moment, the latter seems a futile fantasy. But if soldiers should be sickened and demoralized by their senseless killing, if international pressure could force restraint, if the pleadings of Aung San Suu Kyi could be heard, a just peace could then be negotiated. A serene and prosperous Burma would be, in time, the happy result.

More likely, the uneven struggle will go to the violent and mightier foe. But our task must not be abandoned. Nor our voices stilled. Our opposition to this regime will become better organized. We will network as never before, using all the means of modern technology. The methods of non-violence will be adopted and honed by the thousands. International pressure and skilled diplomacy will be applied. The now disparate elements of a democratic movement, from China, to Burma, and on to the entire free world, will join together in a moral union against oppression wherever it rules. We who remember Tiananmen rejoice in the solidarity which freedom inspires.

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---Distributed by Chinaeweekly.com