Word: tien
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Given that he stood accused of "abusing democratic freedoms," the 10-month prison sentence handed down to Tran Dung Tien in Hanoi last Wednesday was light. Tien, 78, had openly criticized corruption in Vietnam's Communist Party, but he's no garden-variety dissident. Tien joined the revolt against the French in the 1940s, was a longtime Party member?and for a few years served as the personal bodyguard of Ho Chi Minh...
...considered dangerous," says a Western diplomat in Hanoi, because "they're saying the government has become the kind of institution they fought against." In 1999, war hero Lieut. General Tran Do was expelled from the Party for airing his disenchantment, and several veterans quit the Party in protest. Tien, who left the Party a year before, issued a stream of public protests. Hoang Minh Chinh, 81, a war veteran who's been imprisoned several times, was at the courthouse last week to support Tien. "If I am afraid to speak out," he said, "I am no better than a slave...
...biggest transformation has come from current Liberal Party leader James Tien. A well-heeled son of a textile tycoon, he had been appointed a member of Tung's Cabinet. It was Tien who raced to Beijing after the huge rally on July 1 and, on his return, made the stunning announcement that Beijing wasn't fully aboard Tung's Article 23 plan. Specifically, he said that the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, Liao Hui, felt it wasn't necessary to push the bill through last week, as Tung was demanding. Tien then said...
...Those events suggested that Tien hadn't merely glimpsed some wider goalposts but had ripped off his jersey, with Beijing's encouragement no less. But last week, Tien told a slightly different story. He says he went to Beijing to warn of a "big crisis" if the Article 23 bill was pushed through: in other words, another huge public protest. Tien says Liao reminded him that the Article 23 legislation was required of Hong Kong but that the details were up to Legco?that was the whole point of the "one country, two systems" philosophy. On timing, according to Tien...
...fact, Time has learned that Liao did indeed want the bill passed last week and was saying so after Tien's visit. Tien cheerfully admits he may have misinterpreted Liao's advice. If anyone was winking and nodding to him two weeks ago, they have apparently stopped. "Beijing is so mad at me," he laughs. "I wouldn't dare to go to Beijing right now." Tien has become an unexpected hero of democracy among the Hong Kong masses, although he's clearly unused to the role. He doesn't want a change in government, although he admits that the protesters...