THE ISSUE:
A growing dissident movement, although largely uncoordinated and leaderless, seems to have entered a new level of national intensity due to the “Shanwei Massacre” of protesting farmers by heavily armed Chinese paramilitary police in Dongzhou village, near Shanwei city in southeastern Guangdong Province. [See Associated Press, Reuters and Washington Post reports, December 10-16, 2005.]

 

The anti-corruption/government abuse movement, has drawn urban intellectuals and legal experts in support of struggling rural peasants. The activism is a product of Communist Party corruption, religious persecution, environmental degradation and the vast social and economic disparity between China’s 300 million coastal residents and the 900 million languishing in the nation’s vast interior. Indicative of ferment within the all-powerful Party, publication in the November 2004 of an anonymous history and record of the abuses of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP], known as the “Nine Commentaries” has been widely circulated – despite censorship – throughout China. According to the Epoch Times.com, the underground text has sparked the resignation of some 6 million Party members.

Incidents of protest resulting in violence, such as in Dongzhou, have occurred across China, largely sparked by the confiscation of farm or small town lands by government officials and their cronies reinforced by violent security forces. In 2004, China’s Public Security Ministry issued reports citing 74,000 such public protest incidents. Throughout Chinese history, almost every major political movement of consequence has begun in the rural areas and succeeded with the support of intellectuals and powerful urban-based families or clans. Just as the collapse of the Soviet Union caught many “experts” and government officials in the West by surprise, can a popular historic change in China occur in the coming years? 

Solidarity between Urban and Rural Reformers:
During the first ten days following the killings in Dongzhou, the Chinese government attempted to blackout all print or broadcast news of the incident and ordered major internet sites to censor any mention, reported the December 16, 2005 Washington Post. However, many educated Chinese learned about the violence. The Post adds, many people found ways to spread the news and express their anguish via telephone text messages and internet instant messages, blogs and bulletin boards.

An “Open Letter” related to the Shanwei Incident was posted December 10 via the Internet, signed by a group of prominent dissidents, associated with the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. They included literary critic Liu Xiabao, historian Bao Zunxin and historian Ding Zilin, leader of a group of mothers whose children were murdered at Tiananmen. In addition to calling for media access and an official investigation of the Shanwei Incident, they called for overall democratic reforms. Within 72 hours of international posting, the letter gained the signature of some 300 prominent Chinese writers, lawyers and social reformers. A Chinese government spokesman, unable to ignore the growing concern over the killings, publicly denied any comparison with Tiananmen.

Harbin and Hong Kong:
During November and December, 2005, social activism focused on corruption, environmental degradation and democratic reform in communities as diverse as Harbin in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and ultra-developed Hong Kong in the south. In Harbin, a ten-day government coverup of a 50 mile-long toxic chemical slick, caused by an explosion at a government petrochemical factory, spread panic among the city’s 3.8 million residents as the toxic slick was suddenly upon them. Almost immediately after the spill, government officials threatened reporters not to cover the environmental disaster. But the scope and human consequence of the incident emboldened reporters at newspapers under government control, such as the China Youth Daily, to print stories exposing details of the coverup.

In Hong Kong, on December 4, tens of thousands of citizens marched through the financial district, in support of free and open democratic elections. However, Beijing’s anointed “Chief Executive” of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang told reporters there is no need for such reform any time soon. Among the marchers was Ms. Anson Chan, who was head of the Hong Kong Civil Service for four years after the 1997 merger with the PRC. She stated, “There are moments in one’s life when you have to stand up and be counted.”

Prominent Attorney Defends Religious Believers:
Attorney Gao Zhiseng was rated by China’s Ministry of Justice as one of the country’s “Top Ten” lawyers in 2001. He was praised by legal organizations around the world as the “Conscience of Chinese lawyers.” However, in October 2005, Gao broke with the Communist Party in an Open Letter to strong man Hu Jintao published via Internet condemning widespread religious persecution. He risked arrest by emphasizing the brutal torture of thousands of Falun Gong believers in prisons across China. Almost immediately, Gao received threatening phone calls and he and his family were subjected to constant secret police surveillance. His law office was shut down. At present Atty. Gao, although in hiding, continues to communicate via internet for an end to human rights abuses and political reform. Attorney Gao’s claims were underscored by a December 3 statement in Beijing by United Nations human rights special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, criticizing widespread torture by Chinese authorities.

Conclusion: What Can be Done?

• The growing reform movement in China is decentralized and is stemming from widespread sentiment in the countryside and urban areas against widespread corruption and government abuses.

• The reformers, including religious believers, are labeled “agents of destabilization for outside powers,” by communist officials. The movement will be stronger and move forward more effectively if it remains a fully indigenous democratic empowerment effort.

• The West can best help by not further strengthening China’s brutal authorities through providing the tools of repression, especially telecommunications and Internet monitoring, as well as suppressive software and training.

• To reclaim international respect and leadership in human rights, Western democracies should never condone or excuse torture. Especially in the United States, the government should abide by all civil liberties laws related to surveillance of its citizens.

• The Chinese military remains the nation’s strongest institution. It could remain a dominating force, with its own power base and operational prerogative under any form of government.

• Singapore’s former-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, one of Asia’s most astute analysts, recently expressed in Time magazine his concern about China’s growing nationalism and assertiveness as a regional and international power, “that is not averse to making its power felt.”

• In this light, international political and business leaders should not believe that supporting China’s present repressive leaders will enhance “stability” or “international partnership.” It would be more productive for the West to stand for the human and political rights of the Chinese people, proving sincere friendship and support for justice. In the short term, some commercial contracts could be lost. In the long run, however, this could lead to greater partnership based on trust with a future democratic Chinese government. More significantly, that trust could lead to deterrence of international conflict and ultimately far less costly on all levels for all nations.

Photo Caption: In Dongzhou village, protesters were shot by paramilitary forces. Their relatives burnt incense and knelt down to beg police to allow them to claim the bodies.
Courtesy -- (The Epoch Times)