Subject: Keep

From: Songlin Ren <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 14:37:37 GMT

>From [email-masked]  Tue Mar  8 06:21:26 1994
Resent-Date:         Mon, 7 Mar 1994 15:46:00 CDT
Resent-From: Qingsong  Zhang <[email-masked]>
Resent-Message-Id: <[email-masked]>
Resent-To: [email-masked]
Date:         Mon, 7 Mar 1994 15:46:00 CDT
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Sender: Newsletter on Chinese Community <[email-masked]>
From: [email-masked]
Subject:      "Keep pressure on China" -- a forwarded article
Comments: To: [email-masked]
To: Multiple recipients of list CCNL <[email-masked]>
Status: R

Hi, there:  The following piece appeared in today's Badger Herald, one of
University of Wisconsin-Madison's two student newspapers.  Having read the
article himself, Dr. Weimin Shen, one of long-time activists of UW-Madison-
based CIU (Chinese Independent Union), asked to forward it to CCNL.  The
author so agrees.

Kangcong Zhang
University of Wisconsin-Madison

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KEEP PRESSURE ON CHINA
Recent crackdown demands forceful Western response

By Kangcong Zhang

    China was once again at the political spotlight over the weekend.  As it
is often the case, it got the world's attention not because it had done
something good or right.  Just the contrary -- it did so by rounding up its
most well-known political dissidents.
    Within a period of 72 hours beginning from last Wednesday night, China
detained eight political activists, including the country's most famous
dissident, Wei Jingsheng, who had served a 14-year prison term for his
pro-democracy activities before he was released last September.  Among the
others detained were Wang Dan, a student leader from the 1989 pro-democracy
movement who was also prisoned; Yuan Hongbing, a dissident law professor of
Beijing University; and Quan Yumin and Zhou Guoqiang, two prominent dissidents
known for supporting a peace charter calling for non-violent political reform.
Some of them, including Wei and Wang, were released after being held for 24
hours.  The others have not been so lucky and will have to wait until the
Western world generates greater pressure on the Chinese government.
    The Chinese government's latest crackdown caught the Western world,
especially the United States, by surprise.  Well, not that the crackdown itself
was so surprising.  What was surprising was the timing of the crackdown: it
took place while a State Department human rights envoy headed by Joan
Shattuck, assistant secretary for human rights was visiting China, and a week
before Secretary of State Warren Christopher was scheduled to arrive there for
talks on human rights issues.
    So, what did the Western world read off of all this?  And, more
importantly, how is the Western world going to react?
    Well, to the first question, at least one expert gives a pessimistic
answer.  Rubin Munro, Hong Kong representative of Asia Watch, a New York-
based human rights group, interpreted China's latest crackdown as a defiant
response to pressure to improve its human rights record coming from the
U. S.-led Western world.
    As to the second question, President Clinton's comment pretty much answers
it.  "I have done what I culd to make it clear that the United States does not
seek to isolate China economically or politically," he said, "and that we want
a constructive and strong relationship with them."
    Need any translation?  In plain English: there is very little the United
States can or is willing to do about it.
    Unfortunately, both Munro and the president are right.  Being one of United
Nations' five Security Council voting members, one of a dozen or so countries
possesssing nuclear capabilities, and an economic power on the rise, China
has every reason to consider itself an existence to reckon with.
    And nowadays, to reckon with China, the rest of the world (with Hong Kong
and its governor, Christ Patton, being a possible exemption) often has to play
by rules laid down by its opponent.
    It was not that long ago that Congress liked to think it had a way when it
came to dealing with China, banking on that China would cave in if the United
States threatened to revoke its Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status.  As
years passed by, both parties have learned the better of it -- neither party
wants China's MFN status stripped for reasons that billions of dollars' worth
in trade and hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake on either side.  In
real-life politics, conscience and morality take a back seat.
    As things stand now, it seems that the China-vs.-the-Western-world
confrontation on human rights issues will continue for some time to come.
Keep in mind that China has a tradition of respecting history (one of its rare
lapses, the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, only brought about catastrophic
outcomes), and things in China change only when the historical conditions that
necessitated or justifiied their existence become no more.
    Which means that China's human rights situation is unlikely to improve
substantially before its leaders responsible for the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre
fade away in history, and when that time comes, change has a chance.
    Which does not mean, however, that the Western world can not keep up its
pressure in hopes of bringing freedom to more of China's tens of thousands
political and religious prisoners.  In fact, such pressure does reap fruits
occasionally.  And when fruits are measured in terms of freedom of human
beings, any possible effort is worth taking.

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