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Chinese Students Speak Out, Part Two
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16722 |
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SPECIAL SECTION
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10 / 1989 |
2,972 Words |
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Forum
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Even as China reaches the 40th anniversary of its communist revolution, another struggle is under way: the fight for liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as Chinese youth understand them. The World & I continues its examination of this movement in the second of a two-part roundtable discussion with doctoral candidates Hao Jia of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; Wen Xie of Columbia University in New York; and Sheng Ping Feng of Princeton University in New Jersey. Laurie Burras, a Current Issues editor at The World & I, moderated the forum. What follows are insights that only Chinese students themselves can provide.
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THE WORLD & I: It has been estimated that 500,000 Taiwanese have gone to China since 1987. What impact to they have there?
XIE: I don't think they played significant roles in this movement. They have kind of indirect influence that opens Chinese eyes to show the Chinese people what they can do if they have a different system; however, I think the Chinese here [in the United States] did a lot of things for this movement, both directly and indirectly. In the long run, I think the dynamics of the Chinese democratic movement will come from China, not from here.
JIA: I would say that economic reform and open policy in general and students and scholars studying abroad played a particularly significant role, although not a decisive role in China's latest democratic movement. On one side, friends and colleagues who studied and researched in the West were very active in this event. Not simply in terms of their physical involvement but also in terms of their ideas and in what direction they think China should go.
It seems to me that development, even among those socialist nations, including the Soviet Union and other East European nations such as Hungary and Poland, and reform--not simply economic, but also political--is the global trend. It would be very difficult for the Chinese regime to resist the trend both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, I would like to say, I do think, if the Chinese students and scholars studying outside couldn't provide the brain, judging by the situation there right now, China's future wouldn't be very bright because people there can do little for this movement now.
FENG: If some day Chinese peasants, 80 percent of the population, follow or support the democracy movement in the future, that can be attributed to their [Taiwanese] visit to China. Some people have said one of them could liberate or free a whole village by opening people's eyes. Eventually this influence will be tremendous.
W & I: China has had reforms for the last 10 years, but they have been economic reforms, and while they have been comparatively better than the economic reforms of the Soviet Union, China's political reforms have been nil. In my view, China has not been a trend follower in the past. China's government made it clear long before the massacre that they do not intend to have political reforms such as the Soviet Union has had. I am wondering where this endless optimism that the Chinese students hold--the belief that somehow the system can change--evolves.
FENG: I don't know whether or not it is
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