International Herald Tribune

Editorials and Opinion

Paris, Tuesday, December 22, 1998

China: Help to Make Human Rights a Priority Project

By Xu Wenli The Washington Post

BEIJING - The aspiration for democracy never ceased to exist in China even

after 1949 when the Communists took power. The Advice and Petition movement

in 1957, the April 5th movement in 1976 and the Democracy Wall movement

that began in 1978 were all crucial stages.

We, the democracy activists who experienced our formative years during the

Democracy Wall movement, can work closely with the younger generation of

activists and with the Chinese people to ensure that the

democratic torch is passed to the future.

In today's China, after two decades of economic reform, the ruling party

has generated some impressive results in material facilities for the

people. Except in some remote and poor areas, the living standard of most

people has improved. However, the polarization within society is becoming

increasingly evident - there are billionaires living alongside the destitute.

There is also growing public resentment against the regime for instituting

massive layoffs. And China's appalling human rights record has been

censured by the international community.

Economic and political problems do not occur as separate entities but

influence one another. For instance, the layoff problem is not only

economic but also political, because it has resulted from the overstaffed

working units of the past and from the ''iron rice bowl'' system in

socialism. This cannot be resolved by mere economic means, but must be

solved within political areas.

Therefore, political reform must be instituted. Besides, if the layoff

problems cannot be solved, they will have political consequences as well.

Thus, even the Chinese Communist Party cannot deny the necessity of

political reform, although the party's political reform measures are either

ill-conceived or getting nowhere.

I think that China's political reform should be a gradual process. In

modern Chinese history there have been many radical, revolutionary storms

inflicting much pain on people but achieving little in terms of people's

democratic rights.

Now, people hope that political activism will not revisit those chaotic

times by inciting any unnecessary social movements. In fact, the Chinese

people do not want to see any disorder; instead they want a stable and

gradual reform process. The democratic activism should conform to this

demand for development within a stable environment.

Actions should not be covert but open and in conformity with the Chinese

constitution. The tactics of so-called street politics or demonstrations

should be minimized or be used with great caution.

This is not to say that the demonstrations that took place in Tiananmen

Square in 1989 were wrong. The Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement was

the greatest people's democracy movement in Chinese history. In this sense, it was necessary and right.

We can see that there are often demonstrations and protests in the Western

democratic countries. We can even see that the truck drivers in France

place roadblocks on the highway and conduct strikes right there. Thus,

''street politics'' and parliamentarianism are not necessarily in conflict.

The form of action depends on the situation.

But in order to form a democratic society, we must gradually shift from a

''street politics'' approach to parliamentarianism. We must begin to enter

the process of instituting an electoral process and to strive for the

participation of democracy activists in that process.

At this moment, the most important platform for China's democracy movement

is the human rights issue. Under the Communist Party, China has a terrible

record on human rights. Therefore, this issue must be stressed in the

overall move to bring democracy to China.

We should fight for the early release of prisoners of conscience such as

Sun Weibang, Liu Xiaobo, Hu Shigen, Gao Yu, Chen Lantao and all other

political prisoners, including those in the Tibet and Xinjiang regions.

Sun Weibang had been jailed after participating in the Democracy Wall

movement; after the Tiananmen movement, he was sentenced to 12 years as a

result of an unfair trial, and he still is serving his terms.

Religious prisoners often are neglected by the people. This problem is

serious. These prisoners were sentenced for ''counterrevolutionary

offenses'' for their ordinary religious activities. Now the

''counterrevolutionary'' offenses have been abolished, but this has not

resulted in any review of these cases.

All these political prisoners should be released. The Chinese government

should promise not to hand out such sentences in the future.

China is no different from any other country in terms of human rights. All

nations are made up of human beings, and China's leadership should follow

the same standards in protecting the rights of its citizens.

The writer, a prominent democracy activist, was sentenced in Beijing this Monday to 13 years in prison for his role in organizing and trying to register an opposition party. This comment was excerpted by The Washington Post from an article he wrote for the China Strategic Institute in Washington.