The World Needs a Different China

Wu’er Kaixi made his name as one of the prominent student leaders in the Tiananmen Square student protests of 1989. He fled to France, then studied at Harvard University and afterwards emigrated to Taiwan, where he was a talk show host for a local radio station from 1998 to 2001, also appearing frequently on television programs as a political commentator, defending the growing democracy in the island and promoting civil society. Wu’er Kaixi supports the idea of “One China Under Democracy” or reunification of mainland China and Taiwan. On a visit to Sydney, on Wednesday 9 February 2011, Wu’er Kaixi joined Chin Jin to address The Sydney Institute on the struggle for a democratic China.

THE WORLD NEEDS A DIFFERENT CHINA

WU’ER KAIXI

It is my great honor to be here again, after 22 years. I was here in December 1989, the year I started my exile, when I also spoke for The Sydney Institute with the help of a translator. I don’t remember exactly what I said then, but no doubt was quite confident China’s change toward democracy would happen quickly. That has not been the case, unfortunately. However, my over-optimism was shared by many then.  After all, it was the era that will be remembered as the time the Berlin wall fell in Eastern Europe.

If history of the twentieth century could be written in one page, it would record two main campaigns, anti-fascist aggression and anti-communist despotism, both under the flag of democracy. Perhaps, history will remember the twentieth century as the century of democracy. Unfortunately it has not been the case for China, although we are the pioneer starting the second campaign, we the Tiananmen Students first blow the horn of the victory.

1989 was a time when the world seems to become a better place, the falling of the Berlin wall, ending of the communist tyranny in the Eastern bloc, Emerge from prison of Nelson Mandela, independence of East Timor.  We, however, had a very mixed feeling, with a slice of bitterness. The days in Beijing, when we took the street, and a short while after the massacre, we had the world’s attention, sympathy and support. Your Prime Minister burst in tears in front of the world, and that was a moment to remember.

That didn’t last long; pretty soon, business interests took the driver’s seat. Human rights would be mentioned during meetings when government heads visited Beijing, after toasts for success on business talks. The Chinese regime ignored the messages,  and business went on. The democracy movement in China remains as an uphill battle.  In fact, it has become more and more difficult, inside China, dissidents and opposition movements are suppressed more and more severely when the pressure from the world is gone; and outside China, democracies are more and more hesitant about providing opportunities and venues for our presence, worried it may send the wrong message to China. Imagine what kind of message China gets from this change of attitude. The word “Tiananmen” did bring shame and embarrassment to Chinese leaders, but later, it became an inconvenience to the world leaders, and we became an inconvenience.

We felt betrayed.

But that didn’t stop us from keeping the dream we had some 20 years ago. Dissidents in China have never stopped their struggles, even when that meant publishing a few articles, or initiating a signature campaign to advocate citizen rights. One can be sentenced for 11 years, like my advisor in the Tiananmen movement and mentor in life, Liu Xiaobo. On 3 June 2009, the night before the 20th anniversary of the massacre, I took an plane and landed in Macau, territory of People’s Republic of China, the only place in China I can technically get to with my Taiwan passport. I wanted to turn myself in.

In the statement I made for this action, I announced, “For the atrocity conducted twenty years ago, Chinese government carries complete and unshakable moral, political and legal responsibility.” After I surrendered, I wanted to engage in polemics with the Chinese government. I wanted to use the Chinese courts to express my views.  My attempt was not successful; I was detained and forced back to Taiwan. Last year, I made a similar challenge in Tokyo, trying to force myself into the Chinese embassy. I was arrested.

Chinese dissidents who started the world-wide democracy campaign, have felt betrayed by the democracies of the world. We continued our endeavors for democracy alone. Last October, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee announced the 2010 Nobel peace prize would go to Liu Xiaobo. I made a statement, that this is a genuine salute from the world to our long time efforts, a recognition of our goal, and a reminder of unfinished business. We had started to feel completely alone on a very difficult journey, and then somebody came along and taped our shoulder.

The world didn’t become a better place as we expected, not for China at least. In 2008, Beijing hosted Olympic game and in 2010 Shanghai hosted world Expo. These events were seen as the “coming out party of China”. With the current economic situation, China didn’t just come out; it became the undeniable force to shape the world. It is no-longer just a world factory, but an economic engine; a billion people market to dump excessive products on industrialised countries, the country that is the solution for our economic crisis. And this country doesn’t speak the same language, doesn’t use the same sets of vocabularies, and doesn’t follow the rules of the game the rest of the world follows. It suppress its people, and applies these tactics when in conflict with the rest of the world. And China wants the world to endorse its behavior.

The democracy movement we started 20 some years ago didn’t stop paving the way. There was the opening up of the Eastern European bloc after Tiananmen, the fall of Berlin Wall, revolution in Romania and the democratisation of Czechoslovakia and Hungary. This wave didn’t stop. In fact, in the last couple of weeks, it has reached the Arabic bloc, the one place on earth where we would think totalitarianism is most tolerated.  This gives us hope, this gives us encouragement, and this tell the world that there is no place is special enough to be excused from democracy.

The time has come for the world to begin to engage China intelligently – something it has not done in the past 21 years I have been in exile. It is time to abandon the delusional notion that economic prosperity will lead to political reform – it hasn’t and it won’t. It is also time to abandon the specious argument that China’s “special conditions” justify authoritarian one-party rule. China is a big country but that does not automatically strip its people of rights we hold to be fundamental elsewhere. We don’t have to look far to find two examples of authoritarian command economies that once imprisoned dissents and stifled free speech and are now prosperous democracies: South Korea and Taiwan. The West played a role in their transition – encouraging free trade and applying pressure when it came to human rights. It is time to take the same approach to China.

Pressure will not transform China into a thriving democracy any time soon. But it would provide hope to brave Chinese who struggle for voices to be heard and are seeking redress for land grabs, forced relocations and illegal detainment of petitioners among a host of other injustices.

I urge the world, especially democracies, Australia included, to send China a clear message, as the Nobel Peace Prize has, that principle still matters, values still matter.  I urge the world to think about the policy toward China. It should not be focused on short term interest; long term interest is even more important!  I urge the world to understand, that appeasing China is not the only available methods and the world should come up with more intelligent method to deal with China.

We had your support 22 years ago when we took the street of Beijing, and we are still fighting the same fight. I ask for your support again.