I was shocked at reading the dissent to the Crimson staff editorial of Oct. 20 by Adam S. Hickey and Daniel M. Suleiman. Both claimed that they would stand for freedom, reason and truth. In fact the truth was not told.

All Chinese know that Jiang Zemin was in charge of Shanghai in 1989. It is Jiang who went to Shanghai Jiaotong University, spoke with the students and quoted President Lincoln's famous in English: "We the government, are of the people, for the people and by the people." No army went to Shanghai. It was also known by many Chinese that Jiang Zemin played no role in "ordering the tanks into Tiananmen Square."

We should not deny that most Chinese people are enjoying much more freedom of speech and human rights today than they were 20 years ago, although there is still a long way to go. If the authors want to seek the truth, they should go to China and talk with the ordinary citizens and students in China right now. The truth will come out if they listen to the ordinary Chinese people and view China's development, both economic and political, with unbiased eyes. --Jianming Yu, School of Public Health