China's liberals keep the flame
alive By Willy Lam
China seems to have entered deep winter as
far as political reform and human rights are
concerned. While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
leadership seems to have pulled out all the stops
to stifle dissent, intellectuals both inside and
outside the party still are pushing the ideal of
liberalization.
In a recent article in the
party theoretical journal Seeking Truth, CCP
General Secretary Hu Jintao reiterated the
imperative to "unshakably going down the road of
socialism with Chinese characteristics" - and
staying away from the deviant path of
Western-style political norms. "Enemy forces in
the international arena are stepping up
conspiracies to Westernize and divide us," he
wrote, adding that the party must "forever ring
the alarm bell" against "infiltration from the
West". In the past two months, three
dissidents known for
their Internet articles about non-violent
political liberalization - Chen Wei, Chen Xi and
Li Tie - were given sentences of nine or 10 years
for "inciting subversion of state power".
Last month, Yu Jie, an internationally
known writer and moderate reformist renowned for
his advocacy of universal values such as civil and
democratic rights, was forced to leave the country
after having been subjected to torture in jail. In
an article released upon his arrival in the United
States, Yu quoted one of his jailers as saying "As
far as we, the state security [department], can
tell, there are no more than 200 intellectuals in
the country who oppose the Communist Party and are
influential."
"If the central authorities
think that their rule is facing a crisis, they can
capture them all in one night and bury them
alive," the security agent warned.
Is it
true that just a few hundred from China's academic
and intellectual circles are challenging the CCP
with their advocacy of ideas deemed dangerous and
subversive by President Hu?
It is a
well-accepted fact that after the Tiananmen Square
crackdown - and the demise of icons such as former
CCP general secretaries Hu Yaobang (1915-1989) and
Zhao Ziyang (1919-2005) - the influence of
reformist intellectuals has been on the wane. Yet
it is significant that remnant liberals both in
and out of the party have in the past several
months staged a vigorous campaign to hold aloft
the flickering flame of reform. A handful of
organizations somehow tolerated by the
authorities, such as the Hu Yaobang Historical
Data Web, and two semi-official journals, the
China Economic Structure Reform Monthly and the
Economic Observer, have organized several "salons"
to discuss new directions for political reform.
Nationally known figures who serve as
patrons of these brainstorming sessions have
included Hu Deping, the eldest son of Hu Yaobang,
and Jiang Ping, the renowned jurist and former
president of the Chinese University of Politics
and Law. Hu Deping, a former vice director of the
CCP United Front Department, is a member of the
Standing Committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference. Perhaps due to
the status of these public figures, these
conferences seemed free from palpable interference
from police or state security officers.
Take, for example, the salon held just
before last month's Chinese New Year to mark the
20th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping's nanxun,
or tour to southern China. In early 1992, the late
patriarch tried his best to revive economic and
ideological liberalization, saying famously that
"without reform, there is only the road to
perdition". More than 200 old and middle-aged
intellectuals, including many CCP members, took
part in the Beijing event. In his opening remarks,
Hu Deping called upon the nation's intellectuals
to "develop further the nanxun spirit". Referring
to the Guangdong authorities' placatory treatment
of protests by peasants in Wukan Village, Hu said
"Only when the rights of peasants are upheld will
political stability in rural areas be upheld.''
Other participants went on to demand the
full-scale introduction of international political
ideals into China. For example, economist Han
Zhiguo, who is in his early 50s, advocated a
multi-party system with universal suffrage,
freedom of the media and even the
"nationalization" of the military forces.
"Without a one-person, one-vote [electoral
system], Chinese people have no sense of dignity,"
he said. "The US government doesn't fear anybody
except its own people. The Chinese authorities are
afraid of everybody - except their own citizens."
Veteran foreign-policy scholar Zi Zhongjun
added "Taiwan has pulled ahead of China" in
democratic politics. "Mainland China has yet to
make this transition," she said. "There have even
been signs of retrogression.''
In yet
another much-noted salon held last autumn, these
feisty intellectuals heaped aspersions on efforts
by leftist cadres, such as Chongqing Party
Secretary Bo Xilai, to revive Maoism. The seminar
was held to mark the 20th anniversary of the CCP's
passage of the "Resolution on Certain Questions in
the History of Our Party" (henceforward
"Resolution"), which was Deng's assessment of the
Cultural Revolution as well as Chairman Mao's role
in Chinese politics. Hu Deping made a thinly
veiled attack on the ultraconservatives' efforts
to reinstate Maoist precepts.
"Some people
are doing things to commemorate the Cultural
Revolution, and this is a step backward," Hu said.
"We didn't criticize ourselves enough in the
'Resolution' 30 years ago. Yet the bottom line of
the 'Resolution' - the negation of the Cultural
Revolution - must not be breached. Recently, there
are people who want to wage another Cultural
Revolution."
Jiang Ping, who also spoke at
this conference, then laid into the Hu Jintao
leadership's attempt to use "fostering stability"
as an excuse to impose authoritarian rule. The
famous jurist decried two fallacies in Chinese
politics: the idea that "stability overrides
everything" and the claim that "China is a special
case".
"Yet who should determine what
constitutes stability?" Jiang asked. "This concept
[of enforcing stability] is against the principle
of the rule of law. ... Excessive stress on
[China's] uniqueness means ignoring the common
beliefs and values of mankind," he added.
"Universal ideas about constitutional government,
the legal system and human rights are most
important."
The fact that the activities
and speeches of intellectuals such as Hu Deping
and Han Zhiguo are not reported in the official
media does not mean they remain voices in the
wilderness. Thanks to the exponential growth of
the Internet, the curious among China's 450
million netizens have access to transcripts of
these avant-garde salons.
While the
security departments have slapped heavy sentences
on the likes of Chen Wei and Chen Xi to warn
dissidents not to spread "destabilizing" or
"anti-socialist" ideas on the Internet, the
information superhighway is replete with
politically incorrect materials. For example,
during the seminar held last month to commemorate
Deng's nanxun, hundreds of netizens sent
text messages to the organizers to mark the
seventh anniversary of the death of general
secretary Zhao. "We should hold high the torch of
reform first raised by Zhao," wrote one user.
The fact that news about Taiwan's recent
presidential elections was widely circulated in
China shows that China's estimated 50,000 Internet
police officers only can slow the spread of
liberal ideas through Internet-based communication
platforms, such as the Chinese equivalents of
Facebook and Twitter.
The Taiwan
elections, including videos of the fair and
efficient vote-counting exercise, were given
extensive coverage by a number of semi-official
websites. One popular portal even held a poll on
mainland readers' views of the presidential
candidates. While the incumbent, President Ma
Ying-jeou, secured the majority of the virtual
ballots, Tsai Ing-wen, who represented the
pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party,
garnered a surprising 20%. Moreover, the video of
Tsai's concession speech, which cited the
"importance of a viable opposition party", was
widely read by at least well-educated netizens in
the cities.
The big question is whether
calls for a faster pace of democratization made by
well-known intellectuals as well as anonymous
netizens have a significant impact on the CCP's
policies, especially at a time when the party
elite seems to be lurching toward
ultra-conservatism. It is notable that two
Politburo members, Premier Wen Jiabao and
Guangdong Party Secretary Wang Yang, seem to have
responded to public sentiments about reforms.
Much has been written about the fact that
Wen has persevered as the sole Politburo Standing
Committee member who has repeatedly talked about
the importance of political reform. During his
swing through the Middle East last month, the
premier discussed with his hosts the spate of
democracy movements that had erupted in North
Africa and the Middle East.
"It is the
responsibility of every government to seek
benefits for its people," Wen said. Turning to
China, the premier reiterated that "we don't just
need reform of the economic structure; we also
need [commensurate] reform of the political
structure."
Guangdong Party boss Wang
Yang, who won praise in the national media for his
conciliatory handling of the Wukan demonstrations,
also has committed himself to expanding reformist
initiatives begun in his province by late
patriarch Deng.
"Reform is the root and
soul of Guangdong," Wang likes to say. Using
language that seems reminiscent of Deng's
instructions, Wang said recently that "the worst
thing that could happen to reform is stagnation".
He asked, "Rather than getting stuck in debates,
why not give [new-fangled] things a try?".
While it is true that Wang has talked more
often about economic rather than political reform,
he recently passed regulations to make it easier
for Guangdong-based NGOs to be registered
properly. Moreover, Guangdong newspapers and
websites have remained the most daring and
thought-provoking media in the whole country.
For former deputy chief editor of People's
Daily Zhou Ruijin, China's reform has "encountered
layers upon layers of contradictions and
obstacles". In a piece on Deng's nanxun
that is extensively circulated on the Internet,
Zhou wrote "China's reform has once again reached
the most crucial moment."
"Only reform can
relieve our anxieties," Zhou indicated, adding
that such efforts must now be centered on
"political reform, without which economic and
social reforms cannot go deeper".
Even
though China has attained quasi-superpower status,
the CCP leadership seems disturbed by the
possibility of deep-seated social contradictions -
as well as "peaceful evolution" coming from the
West - tearing asunder the party's mandate of
heaven. While the noises made by liberals in and
out of the CCP do not seem powerful enough to
affect the decisions of its mainstream factions,
the party leadership is ignoring their views at
its own peril.
Dr Willy Wo-Lap
Lam is a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown
Foundation. He has worked in senior editorial
positions in international media including
Asiaweek newsmagazine, South China Morning Post,
and the Asia-Pacific Headquarters of CNN. He is
the author of five books on China, including the
recently published Chinese Politics in the Hu
Jintao Era: New Leaders, New Challenges. Lam is an
Adjunct Professor of China studies at Akita
International University, Japan, and at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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