Wei Jingsheng Reflects on Working Toward Peace

Differences between cultures are easy enough to see. But I think the similarities are far greater and more important. No matter which culture they belong to, mothers everywhere love their children. Around the world, you, me, our families-we all feel love in the same way. If we are in a fight and get hurt, we all cry. We all feel pain in the same way. We all feel sorrow, anger, and disillusionment in the same way. We all hunger in the same way. And we all dream of freedom in the same way.
We need to pay attention to the true differences to make sure that those differences are not in actuality discrepancies: everyone around the world must be given the same rights and privileges.
Opening China to the world has dramatically affected the movement for democracy. The process of opening up is a process whereby the government loosens its control of the people. On the other hand, simply opening the economy is not enough. Very few people are actually able to enjoy the economic reforms. The privileged classes, or those who have connections with the privileged classes, enjoy more benefits from an open policy.
There are a billion people in China, and the majority of them do not enjoy the prosperity proclaimed by the media. Even according to official statistics from China, only one or two million people have personal wealth over one million yuan. Those few people, of course, are very comfortable. But China is a much bigger country than that. The majority of people in China are not content.
People ask me if I am discouraged that the Chinese democracy movement seems to have fallen off the media's radar screen. Believe it or not, I am not. China's democracy movement has matured since 1989, when it was mostly students. Today there are more workers and farmers involved in the movement; there are more ordinary people. But the government is also putting much more pressure on people involved in the democracy movement because more are involved. The kind of demonstration that happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989 is nearly impossible today.
In 1979 I was one of a number of people ready to voice their hope for a democratic China. The day after I issued my essay on the fifth modernization in China, thirteen people knocked on my door and asked me to organize a small group. This meant a great risk at the time. You had to risk your life. You faced a death sentence. So I asked those thirteen people if they were ready to make that decision. Only four of them were. Together we published the magazine Exploration.
I was first imprisoned in China for fifteen years. I later received another long sentence but served only three years before being released in 1997 thanks to diplomatic efforts on my behalf. During those first fifteen years, I knew nothing of the outside world. But I always believed that there were people who would struggle for me-that they would struggle for justice, and that justice would win over evil. And what happened to me tells me that my faith in people was right. I have a great belief in a better world.
Today, the first thing we must do is, of course, keep pressure on the Communist government. We need to call on the people who support democracy within the government. We need to call upon the strength of the poorest people in China. And we need to use the influence of foreign countries. We need to pressure the Communist Party the same way you try to get a child who doesn't want to study to study. You have to press him to do the right thing.
In a society where reason has no place-but force does-the army always has great influence over government. The Chinese army influences many aspects of Chinese society. Ordinary officers and soldiers, like ordinary Chinese people, also want more equal rights. They have had their voice heard. But of course there are also many corrupt officers in the army who favor a corrupt government.
I began expressing my hope for a democratic China in 1978. In the past twenty-two years, more and more Chinese people have come to agree with me. Tiananmen Square demonstrated that our people are willing to make enormous sacrifices for their country's democracy. The minority of people who do not know, or do not want to know, about democracy will not negate the desire of the people.
We must never forget that the dictatorship of Mao Zedong itself made it possible for the people to realize that no authoritarian government is good. Only democracy is good for the people.

 

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