Is China
really
stable?
The 10th Anniversary of the 1989 democracy movement finds China in political and economic crisis, according to October Review magazine. * 18 International Viewpoint #313 July 1999 vation of social conflicts under the rule of the CCP bureaucracy, with all its cor-
In ruption and abuse of power, workers and sh peasants have come out in struggle.
sh
According to official reports, orgabu nised workers' struggles in 1998 incan reased by over 30% over the preceding an year. Peasant discontent has also found th expression in riots and demonstrations.
Despite the government's prohibition, in recent years, numerous sit-ins and dis have occurred outside of protests
Zhongnanhai, the Party-Government in centre in the capital.
an
On April 25, over 10,000 people of the Falun Gong cult launched a 13-hour
St action to surround the Zhongnanhai, protesting official criticism of their br martial arts cult and demanding formal
*re recognition of their right to practice. The cult has tens of millions of supporters, lal many of whom are high-ranking party and military cadres.
The tide of mass protest that erupted
Ch on May 8 in reaction to the NATO
Ch bombing of the Chinese embassy in
Belgrade was the biggest mobilisation in d the past decade. Over 250,000 people took to the street in Beijing, over 100,000 in Guangzhou, and tens of thousands in other major cities.
Some protests were orchestrated and carefully controlled by the authorities.
But this massive outburst should be seen in the light of the tensions in Chinese society, in the people's discontent about domestic social contradictions, and about the government's impotence in foreign g policy, in particular in relation to China's application to join the World Trade
Organization.
During the protests, a teacher from
Beijing said, "Our leaders are too feeble, they dare not be like in the times of the di
Korean war [of the early 1950s]." Some students chanted the slogan "Down with
Japan!", and some chanted "Zhu Rongji
[the Premier] should step down!" In
Shenzhen, some people shouted "Down reh with traitors!" After orchestrating the der protests for two days, the authorities
WO quickly turned to their containment
Inc policy. Party leaders appealed to the
In people to abide by law and order, and to
Sou be vigilant of elements who might seize the the opportunity to cause havoc.
the
Though the wave of protest has
220 subsided, the repercussions are still spreading. The opportunity has been taken to expand public space for open political discussions. In the Peking
University, the democracy wall has been reactivated, and big and small character posters have appeared. One of them said,
*the bombing of the Chinese embassy in
Yugoslavia should bring us science and democracy." Another one said, "is it not
Over the last ten years, dissidents fighting for democracy have been contihigh time to put forth a plan for political reform and against corruption?"
nuously subject to arrest, detention and
Faced with increasing discontent harassment. But new fighters have come out to continue in the struggle. In the from workers, peasants, students and eighties, students and intellectuals took citizens, Zhu Rongji proposed, in his the lead. In the nineties, with the aggra-
Government Work Report of March this
Four thousand voices year, that "prompt resolution" of the internal contradictions among the people should be conducted. "The problems should be resolved when they start burgeoning, one should not simplistically and brutally aggravate the contradictions, and should not deal with the people and the masses by autocratic means.
If he truly meant such words, the first move should be to release all political dissidents. In fact arrests and surveillance of political dissidents across China increased in the months before the 10th anniversary of the Tienanmen massacre.
When Zhu recently visited the United States, he said that in 1989, students were fighting for democracy, but they breached the rule of law. This is not a "rehabilitation' of the 1989 movement. But it goes beyond the usual official labelling of the 1989 movement as a "counter-revolutionary riot"
We call on people in and outside China to work together to compel the Chinese government to:
• Rehabilitate the 1989 movement for democracy, and bring to justice those responsible for the bloody repression on June Fourth;
• Release all detained dissidents and political prisoners, bring to a halt the surveillance and detention of dissidents, and restore their reputation and
• Abide by the United Nations Human
Rights Covenances and the provisions of the Chinese Constitution, to safeguard the democratic freedoms and rights of the people, in particular the freedoms of speech, publication, rally, association (and formation of political parties), and demonstration; • Mobilise the entire population to discuss and decide on plans for democratic political reform, and to end one- party dictatorship.
Popular pressure can force an official rehabilitation of the 1989 movement for democracy. Rehabilitation was finally won after the 5 April 1976 Tiananmen Incident, the 28 February 1947 Incident in Taiwan, and the Kwungju Riot in South Korea. Victory can be won when the movement for democracy is linked to the struggle of the workers and peasants for better livelihood and against the bureaucracy. * Source: This article formed the editorial in the latest issue of the Hong Kong magazine October Review. For more information write to G.P.O.Box 10144, Hong Kong, or <or@earthling.net>
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Hong Kong
Hong Kong spearheaded the worldwide commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre. More than 4,000 demonstrators participated in the march organized by the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement in China on May 30, 1999.
The signals of Hong Kong TV stations were blocked in Southern mainland cities such as Guangzhou in order to censure news of this commemoration.
According to Szeto Wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance, "Hong Kong is the only place in China where people can commemorate the Tiananmen Massacre. It is important we fight on. We are a spark in China democratic movement," he said
For the last 10 years, the Hong Kong Alliance has been holding a march on the Sunday before the anniversary and a candle-lit vigil on the anniversary of the massacre. About 3,000 citizens participated in the 1998 march, the first after Hong Kong returned to China.
Over one million Hong Kong people took to the street in June 1989 to protest against the massacre in Beijing. The number of the participants in the march has dwindled to a few thousand as time goes by, but "although it has been 10 years since it happened, I don't think people's feelings about it have changed that much, " said Albert Ho Chun-yan, committee member of the Hong Kong Alliance.
The march ended peacefully after Szeto Wah handed a statement to a