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- <text>
- <title>
- 'Closing The Book' On Tiananmen: Hong Kong
- </title>
- <article>
- <hdr>
- World Press Review, March 1991
- China: 'Closing the Book' on Tiananmen--Hong Kong
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Hong Kong Standard (independent)
- </p>
- <p> The campaign waged on behalf of China's pro-democracy
- demonstrators at times has not been spectacular. But it has been
- dedicated and persistent, and, above all, it is extremely
- important. And some observers believe that the years of effort
- have finally paid off...Beijing, they feel, was bowing to its
- own moderates and to international pressure when it refrained
- from harsher sentences than [the four-year sentence] imposed on
- student leader Wang Dan.
- </p>
- <p> ...Outside interest in Wang Dan's trial was not just
- embarrassing for Beijing, it was deeply worrying. Wang Dan has
- become a potent symbol of the dissident movement. His "not
- guilty" plea was yet another sign that the Communist Party
- cannot totally bury the aspirations of the people in a sea of
- rhetoric...It has been suggested that such clemency indicates
- that the Chinese government is prepared to close the chapter on
- the crackdown on students. China, however, must continue to be
- firmly reminded that brutality has its costs.
- </p>
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-