TAIPEI/HONG KONG -- Leading Taiwanese politicians have commemorated China's bloody 1989 Tiananmen student crackdown, in sharp contrast to the clampdown in Hong Kong on the once-traditional vigils there.
Taiwan's presidential candidates showed up in force for an anniversary event in Taipei on Sunday and expressed their support for democracy in China. "We sympathize with the Chinese people's pursuit of democracy," Lai Ching-te, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party leader and presidential nominee, said in a statement, noting Taiwan's democratic reforms came as the Chinese government was ordering troops to quash weeks of student-led protests that culminated in the crackdown on June 4, 1989.
