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Chinese Students Speak Out, Part One
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16811 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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9 / 1989 |
3,916 Words |
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Forum
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The whole world is holding its breath with all eyes on China. China has been implementing economic reforms for a decade, and the free world has encouraged those reforms. Everyone has an interest in China's future. And no one better represents that future than China's students, at home and abroad. The brutal June 4 massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing has rallied China's intellectuals as no cause has ever before. THE WORLD & I presents a forum of Chinese students responding to questions on a range of issues. Participants included doctoral candidates Sheng Ping Feng of Priceton University in New Jersey; Jia Hao of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; and Wen Xie of Colombia University in New York. Current Issues editor Laurie Burras of The World & I moderated the forum. The following is Part One; Part Two will appear next month, together with a Special Section titled China: Forty years of Revolution.
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THE WORLD & I: Many people in the West have criticized the demonstrations in China, saying that the students there don't really know what they want. What do you think the students mean by "democracy," and what is their vision of democracy in China?
JIA: I would like to refer to the movement as the Chinese people's democratic movement, although the participants of the movement were quite different--you know, from very different groups in the society. And in terms of democracy, I judge the movement by its historical direction instead of its specific slogans. And in my knowledge, quite a few students advanced their requirement in terms of personal freedom and political democracy. And I also know quite a few of them do not really realize what democracy means, because quite a few students [were] just studying natural sciences. But that is unimportant in my judgment.
I would like to say in terms of the students and the intellectuals involved, some of them have a more sophisticated understanding of political democracy, because China has been open for at least ten years, and also we've learned quite a lot from the entire history--not simply modern history before the establishment of [the] PRC, but also after that. And during the ten years' openness we've learned quite a lot--I mean intellectuals and some students--from the outside world, including social sciences, social theories.
Still, I would like to say in my judgment their knowledge and understanding of the advanced level of the outside world, might be not so mature. It needs to be developed. That is one aspect.
W&I: Do you think that the demonstrating body was of one accord? Or were there factions within the protesting group?
JIA: I was in Beijing and Shanghai when the demonstration began. In April, I made an academic visit there. I contacted quite a lot of scholars, intellectuals, and also students. And the association of Chinese students of political science has a group of students who just returned from China. To my knowledge, there were three leading groups in the student demonstration. One is led by the Autonomous Student Organization. And secondly, there was an organization named Tiananmen Square Headquarters. The commander was a young lady. Because of the high profile of the Tiananmen Square at the later stage, that group was
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