Our editorial, “Ghosts,“ discussed the 20th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square. We lamented a declining interest in human rights, and noted that while in China, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi preferred to talk about climate change. Wei Jingshen is a hero of China’s Democracy Wall Movement and spent many years in Communist prisons. His Courage to Act Alone records his struggles. After The Wall Street Journal criticized Pelosi for not pressing human rights in China, Wei wrote in defense of the speaker. We believe our readers should see his letter, which appears here:

Twenty years ago the world watched transfixed. The People’s Liberation Army descended upon Tiananmen Square to crush pro-democracy demonstrators gathered there. Tension had been building for weeks, as Chinese from all classes and regions called not only for the capitalism as practiced by the Communist Party but for political freedom. They erected a Statue of Liberty to identify their cause. The tanks came.