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COMPASS MAGAZINE, MAY 1999. VOL. 6 ISSUE 5

Wu'er Kaixi Speaks at AmCham

Anyone who remembers the student protests at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the subsequent massacre probably also recalls a young student leader named Wu'er Kaixi. During its monthly dinner meeting on March 30, the Taichung American Chamber of Commerce was honored to host Wu'er as its guest speaker and hear his views on a wide range of topics.
Wu'er, who escaped China after the massacre, has continued in his role as Chinese democracy advocate. After living in the United States for a period, he moved to Taichung several years ago with his wife, a native of this city. He not only hosts a daily radio talk show but also serves as a well-known political consultant.
Reviewing the state of democracy in China following Tiananmen, Wu'er asserted that the massacre forever changed the relationship between the Chinese people and their government.
"The Chinese people realized that the Chinese government is not trustworthy and that their authority was not based on trust. If the government is not trusted by the people, then its only legitimacy is through force. After Tiananmen, it became a police force state," he said.
This, in turn, has resulted in the creation of a "deal" between the people and government, with the government freeing up the Chinese economy in exchange for the public's cooperation. Although this initially worked very well and resulted in a public euphoria of sorts, that was short-lived, said Wu'er. This is due to the fact that people were becoming "greedier" for freedom, including political freedom, as they became more prosperous. People were also beginning to speak more freely, due to the fact that the government no longer controlled the "iron rice bowl" of state-run employment.
"This is irreversible. China is on a one-way railroad to modern, democratic society. The only obstacle is the Communist Party," he said adding that, in the years since Tiananmen, the Chinese people's expectations had grown considerably.
In addition to successfully, but falsely, propagating the idea that Chinese people value stability over democracy, communist leaders were attempting to prove to its people that rule of law could come via the party, he said.
Wu'er expressed confidence in the ability of grassroots-level Chinese people to embrace and exercise democracy, even more effectively than the intelligentsia, pointing to the recent successful example of Changchun village elections in China.
In regard to US interaction with China, the democracy advocate said that he did not believe that the United States had a coherent China policy to date, due in large part to the lack of trust between the two countries and the Clinton administration's lack of knowledge about how to properly engage China. However, the use of World Trade Organization admission for China as a bargaining chip was an effective tool to prod change in the mainland, said Wu'er, adding that America's greatest contribution to democracy in China was simply the example of its way of life which drew the attention and admiration of the Chinese people.
In terms of the cross-Straits relationship between Taiwan and China, he said he was confident in future stability. "The craziness is decreasing. If you ask me which side I'd bet on, I'd bet on peace. 'Chung kuo' [China] can refer to the 'middle' or 'less extreme', which always swings back to the center," he said.
With the marking of Tiananmen massacre's 10th anniversary just around the corner, there seems little doubt that Wu'er will continue to press for positive change and freedom on his homeland, which he has not seen since 1989.
"'Freedom' is a most sensitive term to us, the most beautiful word," said Wu'er, who also cautioned against seeing freedom as a cure-all for all problems in Taiwan or China. "It is frequently abused but it is like oxygen. You don't think about it until you don't have it."