Dissident Magazine "Beijing Spring" Ceases Print Edition

Beijing Spring, self-claimed to be the only Chinese dissident magazine that has a print edition, announced that it will end that edition immediately. It will continue with digital edition only.

Based in New York City, Beijing Spring boasts a history of almost 30 years. In 1982, a Chinese student by the name of Wang Bingzhang (王炳章) decided to launch the first oversea dissident publication. He named it China Spring, derived from "Beijing Spring," a term generally used to describe the "Democracy Wall" movement a few years earlier in Beijing.

In 1989, Wang Bingzhang was entangled in an internal struggle with Hu Ping, his hand-picked leader to the movement he founded. Wang Bingzhang was eventually expelled and took the rights to China Spring with him. But most of the editors and writers stayed with Hu Ping and launched Beijing Spring instead.

Later, after finally escaping from China, 1989 student leader Wang Dan joined the magazine and became its publisher. Wang Dan was instrumental in securing financial support from Taiwan's semi-official foundations to keep it afloat. However, that lifeline was severed in 2008 after Ma Yingjeou became the new President of Taiwan, according to comments posted by Wang Dan in his Facebook page.

The exact extent of readership of Beijing Spring is unknown. Hu Ping and Wang Dan expressed sorrow for the occasion and vowed to carry on with its digital edition.

Taiwan Has a New President

Ma YingJeou (马英九) handily won the election and will become the new President of the Republic of China, aka Taiwan. His victory is viewed as Taiwan's willingness for a closer relationship, at least economically, with the mainland and a step back from confrontation and independence movements.

Although he is considered to be more moderate towards the government in mainland than his opponent, Ma YingJeou is also well-known for his steadfast stance regarding the Tiananmen Massacre.

Back in 1989, Ma was still a young and rising star in the then ruling Nationalist Party, affectionately known as the Little Ma Brother (小马哥). At the time of the massacre, he was in charge of the Mainland Affairs Council, through which he built and maintained personal relations with many Tiananmen leaders who managed to escape from China. He was known to be emotionally involved in the work.

During the summer of 2005, then leaders of the Nationalist Party broke the decades-long ice and visited mainland China for the first time. They created great media frenzy, fanned by the Chinese government. It was Ma YingJeou who publicly stated his belief that before the mainland government overturns its verdict on the Tiananmen Massacre, Taiwan could not start talking about any unification possibilities with mainland.

Now that Ma is in charge in Taiwan, it would be interesting to see if he could hold on to such a tough stance.