My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and I am now a writer who has published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                          I also published another book entitled The Day China Cried: A Witness to the June 4th Massacre. This book is my witness account of the massacre of Chinese students and residents committed by the Chinese Army in Beijing the night of June 3-4, 1989. To this day, the Chinese government will NOT allow any discussion of it, and will imprison any Chinese citizen who brings it up. Likewise, the Chinese government makes sure that no South Korean official even talks about this massacre. The Chinese government, in fact, tells the South Korean government what it cannot do. The Chinese government tells South Korea it cannot invite the Dalai Lama to South Korea, it tells South Korea it cannot host any arts group that the Chinese government "thinks" is critical of China (in this case, I am referring to the Shen Yun Dance Group), and the Chinese government will use economic retaliation against South Korea over anything South Koreans may find objectionable from the Chinese government repressive rule. Therein lies the problem---the Chinese government does not believe in freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right for peaceful assembly (note: the candlelight vigils will never happen in China), and the freedom of knowing history. These are the things that South Koreans take for granted. The quality of our lives is the right to live our lives. Ordinary Chinese citizens can make money and set up business, but they cannot challenge the political structure. Because of this, many Chinese, especially well-to-do individuals, are trying to leave the country. Yes, they go to South Korea for the freedom denied to them in China. But the political left in South Korea does not wish for ordinary Koreans to understand this, and to understand that South Korea's independence should never be up for negotiation. If the United States treated South Korea the way China does, there would be 2 million people in the streets screaming bloody murder. So I ask again; where are the protests against China for trying to infringe on the sovereignty of the Republic of Korea?!