The Vancouver Sun from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada • 15

BackgroundCommentary A15 The Vancouver Sun, Thursday, May 25, 1989 A THE TRUTH OF CHINA I if i The rebellion that is strictly madhocdSdk 1 la .1 JJ 2 I m-rsp K' organized leadership, weapons, supplies, outside help. So eventually the authorities should be able to drive them out or wear them out. Beijing will say it never ever lost its grip on power. The nations of the world will nervously agree. It is in their interests to pretend the government of a billion people had not ceased to rule, for however brief a period.

Washington fears that loss of authority in China would bring chaos to big-power relations and to the lives of the Chinese people. President George Bush does not want to do anything that would cause danger; right. But does he really have to be all that prissy and pallid in endorsing the revolution's democratic goals? Mikhail Gorbachev has a bigger problem with the Chinese revolution. For all his adventurousness, he still is head of a ruling communist party, wants no other in his country, and struggles to save some version of communism in the Soviet Union. The new Chinese revolution is not encouraging about what remains of the prospect for any kind of communism in any country.

The people in the streets and squares of China do not seem to be thinking a lot about either Bush or Gorbachev, but about what lies ahead of them. Most likely what lies ahead is long struggle. But as for what they already have done to the Chinese government and' for China, nobody will be able to take that away from them, ever. It is already written down in Chinese history. They overthrew a government.

It will rise, but without a shot they did throw it over, at least for some days in May 1989. New York Times The voices through which the government made its will known, print and electronic journalists, join the rebellion. The government is frozen with surprise because it is so out of touch with its own people. It refuses to meet the simple initial demands for respect and discussion. The rebellion spreads to cities all over the country, without guns or violence; normal national life ceases.

The government sends one ultimatum after another to the rebels to disperse. They are rejected everywhere. The rebels increase their price: real freedoms. Orders go from the government to the army to put down the rebellion. This is not an ordinary army.

After decades of indoctrination it is supposed to be the political extension of the government and ruling party, indistinguishable from them. The soldiers are surrounded by the people and for days refuse to move against them. The government sends for more troops. But never again will it be able to count on the loyalty of the army it tried to make in its own image. All this adds up to civilian and military rejection of authority.

Without that, a government becomes just a bunch of people sitting around frightened in their offices. Outside China and inside, diplomats say they do not know who is in charge, if anybody. Even the whereabouts of Deng Xiaoping, who is supposed to be the ruler of the country but who suddenly is its villain, is a mystery. The revolutionaries swept China without any of the things other rebellions count on plans, By A.M. ROSENTHAL NEW YORK THE TRUTH of what has happened in China is so startling that even now the world hardly takes it in.

For a time the government of the world's most populous country has lost its power to govern and control the nation. When that happens, a government is in effect overthrown until it shows it can resume control. Since no other authority is available to step in, the Chinese government will probably be able to pull together what remains of its influence and summon the power to direct the nation once more. But the fact that there was a time in May 1989 when the government of China was overthrown as the real controlling authority will become part of China's history and is certain to affect China's future. One reason the Chinese reality is difficult to see clearly is that the nations of the world, particularly the great powers, are terrified of the very idea and cannot acknowledge it out loud.

Another is that it all took place so rapidly that it can be missed in a blink of the historic eye. To be counted a government, the authority of a bureaucracy must be recognized by civilian and soldier. If the following six things happened in any country over a period of a month or two instead of a week or two, the meaning would be plain: The central square of the capital is totally occupied by students, angrily but peacefully. First their parents, then residents of the city by the hundreds of thousands join them until the upheaval not only dominates the city but becomes the city. Victory signs were everywhere as students demonstrated in Beijing's Tiananmen Square yesterday.

GUNS FOR SALE LAMB ARE familiar with the idea of people entering politics, just as we are familiar with the idea of people leaving politics. But we are less familiar with the idea of people trapped in the limbo land between politics. One man who can very defin itely be said to be between politics is Gerry St. Germain, the former federal cabinet min ister who was given the push by Mission-Coquitlam voters last November. St.

Germain has much to occupy his time these days, but it safe to say he has not relin quished the idea of a comeback. "Never say never," he replied when asked if he was thinking of a return to federal politics. "The opportunity would have to be right. I made a career change in 1983 to enter politics and intended to continue in 1988, but as of Nov. 21, 1988, that changed.

I defini tely want to consider it again, however." (It is the mark of the politic ally smitten that while they may not remember birthdays or other dates, they can rattle off the full date of their ascen sion into electoral political life, or their expulsion from it.) St. GERMAIN would "Trot comment on party rumors that he will seek the Tory nomination in Vancouver Qua dra, a seat expected to to be vacated by retiring Liberal leader John Turner. Outsiders might feel that a Gerry St. Germain would feel just fine about being out of electoral politics and back to the real world. He has, after all, landed on his He is chairman of the Progressive Group, a public affairs consulting group whose president and chief executive officer is Patrick Kinsella.

The Progressive Group recently bought Marktrend Marketing Research an acquisition that St. Germain says drew him to the Progressive Group. "Marktrend is in the market survey business and the infor mation business is of increasing importance these days. You have to have proper informa tion to manage issues properly, whether its the acquisition of land, with all its environmental and business aspects, or poultry farming, or anything else." Land and poultry have both figured prominently in St. Germain's business interests.

Asked to define his current such interests, he said he is in the "land acquisition and land development business," with himself at the head of a num ber of small firms, including Pebble Beach Investments. He also owns a cattle ranch in the Pemberton Valley. He has been by turns an RCAF pilot, a policeman in St. Boniface, an undercover cop working Vancouver's skid road, a 3M salesman, the operator of a fried chicken franchise, and a poultry farmer. In 1983 he entered the realm of politics and was elected in a Mission-Port Moody byelection.

The day he walked up the aisle in the House of Commons to claim his Commons seat he was accompanied by another rookie Tory MP who had also won a byelection: Brian Mulroney. ULRONEY named St. Germain national caucus chairman, then elevated him to junior transport minister in April 1988. Hours before Mulroney called last year's federal election, St. Germain was named forestry minister.

Because he was something of a Mulroney favorite, the prime minister called upon the newly defeated cabinet minister to chair the government commission reviewing MPs' salaries, a job that presumably will keep him in the good graces of his former peers. To hear St. Germain talk about politics is to understand that he has not taken last year's defeat by New Democrat Joy Langan as a signal to quit politics. His political circuits still hum, still murmur to the challenges and opportunities to come. He can be said, then, to be between politics, a state he will try to leave at the first appropriate electoral opportunity.

Pacific Press Ltd. STUART NOBLE President, Chief Operating Officer GERALD P. HASLAM Vice-President Marketing NORMAN R. WEITZEL Advertising Director Merchants of death making their pitch AP representatives of any other nations with missions in Ottawa To rub shoulders with our own armed forces the majority of those attending and arms industry mucky-mucks, ARMX welcomes officials from Chile, Guatemala, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Sal vador, Indonesia, and you guessed it South Africa. That anachronistic memento of the Cold War, the government's delence white paper, was released, appropriately enough, to coincide with ARMX '87.

And at the '87 gala dinner, General Manson, the associate minister of defence, arms industry executives, and senior bureaucrats from the three participating government departments cozily shared the head table. There is an intriguing correlation between Amnesty International's list of the world's most sys tematic and gross abusers of human rights and the merchants who are patronizing ARMX '89. So not only does Canada put itself smack in the middle of the ever-escalating international arms race, but our protestations of concern for human rights look somewhat unconvincing, you'd have to say. Especially since many of those weapons will be used to create new hordes of wretched refugees whom we will then bar from our hallowed land. The prime minister has formally committed his government to a policy of sustainable development, a pledge that economic growth not take place at the expense of human and environmental well-being.

The report of the Bruntland world commission on environment and development, which popularized the concept, states that "every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired represents, in the final analysis, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, who are cold and are not clothed." A coalition of peace groups has launched a major protest against ARMX '89. 1 salute their patriotism. Gerald Caplan is a former national secretary of the New Democratic Party and is now a public affairs commentator and consultant. van ns jgs By GERALD CAPLAN TORONTO SSST, Buddy, wanna buy a tank? Have I got a deal for you! How about a 3-D artil lery and missile alignment system? Or Hughes Aircraft Company's TPQ-36A air defence surveillance radar to give your missiles greater accuracy against invading.air-craft? Or Northern Ireland's Star-streak, a close-range guided missile, "much faster arid more lethal than anything that's gone before." Or maybe a high-performance launch tube for your M72 rocket launcher and Stinger missile system? And do we have surplus nuclear sub parts! For you, a special price. These splendid killing machines and more are available this very week right in our nation's capital at ARMX '89, a bazaar, a flea market for the arms trade, the largest weapons sales fair ever held in Canada.

But this is not heaven forfend! merely a crass commercial enterprise, not just amoral profiteering capitalism. Just look at the ads in the preview catalogue. CHT Steel of Ventnor, N.J., and Richmond Hill, "In Defence of Freedom and Peace." Isn't that nice? Or Diehl Industries of West Germany, which makes projectiles "for the engagement of aircraft and missiles" and says "the right to live in freedom includes the responsibility to defend freedom against attack." Gee. And the MIL group of Montreal, which is in the arms manufacturing business "because for us this country, and everything it stands for, is worth it." Right on, guys. Yes, freedom, that's what it's all about.

That's why 420 exhibitors from 15 countries are swooping down on Ottawa to woo some potential customers. In fact (he sponsors ARMX was originally created by our own defence department but has now been taken over by private interests refuse to invite members of the Warsaw Pact. Who needs their filthy commie dough? But they do invite, naturally, I fMICTMR I CJITUCD I I I CUSTOM LEATHER CARRYING CASE IDEAL CUSTOM FIT FOR YOUR N0VATEL PORTABLE PHONE PROVIDES PROTECTION WITH QUICK AND EASY ACCESS TO BATTERY PACK CHARGE STAND SPARE BATTERY Never be without power! 1 HOUR RECHARGEABLE NICAD BATTERY PROVIDES ADDITIONAL BATTERY POWER AND INCREASED FLEXIBILITY FAST CHARGER 120V CHARGER ADAPTOR STAND CHARGE BOTH BATTERY PHONE AT THE SAME TIME! FAST CHARGE! UP TO 90 BATTERY ELIMINATOR CONNECTS YOUR N0VATEL PTR-800 TO A POWER SUPPLY THROUGH YOUR CAR'S 1 1 if CIGARETTE LIGHTER! 'fa'BATTERY SAVER FEATURE BATTERY LIFE IN ONLY 1.5 HOURS MIIILL. IH VLIIIVL.1. ITTTI8 AUTHORIZED MOHFRI 10 9'SAT9-6SUN 11-5 m0irUM'3O2iUWGHEE0HW1U2-2SOS 8ICHM0HO mi UBER8RWGE WA r'2784S8S sumti 'maum GEOHCEHwr'Sxssso me VANCOUVER 1672 MAKH DRIVE 324-1132 VANCOUVER -22S TERMMU Vt '6S34522 HVAmxuva'moooiMtamon'9st-36S4 tUHt nmuuatma.mm Mrs VAHCOUvIR CDMOKTOH CALGARY WINNIPEG LONDON KITCHENER HAMILTON BRAMPTON TORONTO OSHAWA OTTAWA MONTREAL HALIFAX.