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Grim message for the future

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JIANG Zemin has made it clear. The ''resolute measures'' used to quell the Beijing protests of 1989 were necessary to maintain social stability and economic development and the Government will do the same again if the need arises.

The President's comments, made when meeting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad just three weeks before the fifth anniversary of the June 4 massacre, were the strongest indication yet that despite China's remarkable economic progress, the Government was still unwilling to accept any form of political liberalisation or opposition to Communist Party rule.

It could be argued that the Government is even less tolerant of dissent now than it was in 1989.

Now it seems inconceivable the authorities will allow groups of disaffected workers, intellectuals and students to even get started, let alone develop into the kind of mass movement which virtually brought the capital to a standstill in May 1989.

For example, they will never allow liberal academics such as astrophysicist Fang Lizhi and his wife Liu Shuxian to stage ''democracy salons'' on the lawns of China's most prestigious campus, Beijing University, where students were once encouraged to air their views on political, social and economic issues.

Today, any open discussion of politics is tightly controlled by the school authorities and is limited to formal meetings on topics set by the university's party committee. Any unauthorised activity, no matter how innocuous, is rapidly broken up.

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