Yang, Jian-li
Closing Statement at the Interethnic Leadership Conference
October 4, 2000
Dear Friends,
The First Interethnic Leadership Conference is about to adjourn.
These four days of meeting is a good process of educating each other. During these four historical days, delegates from various ethnic groups and regions made extensive exchanges, including some intensive debates. But debates are better than no debates. It is possible to have no debates only in CCP meetings. The four days of meeting has seen both friendly occasions and emotional conflicts. Such conflicts are not only allowed at such a meeting, but also expected. Just think about the animosity that has been there for hundreds or even a thousand of years among different nationalities and geographic regions, think about the separation, anger, hatred, misunderstanding and distrust that were created among us during half century of the communist rule, isn’t it just natural that our feelings are expressed emotionally when we get together?
The whole course of the meeting was video-taped. Mr. Zhang Weiguo suggested that not only we video-tape the meeting, but also we watch the video tapes of previous meetings and compare them during later meetings. This way we can monitor our own progress to see if we are making advances or not. I think this is a very good suggestion.
Mr.Sonam Dagpo from Tibet said just now that the goal of this meeting has been achieved. I agree with him. We listened whole-heartedly to each other, started to understand each others problems, and increased understanding of each other’s positions. This has at least raised the mutual respect for all the participating young leaders. We developed our personal friendship, and we opened up a new prospect for the dialogue between the nationalities and regions that are in conflict with each other, establishing a new model for further exchanges. More importantly, through such get-together and exchange, we boosted our support for each other in our common cause against the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party. In case when CCP uses military threat against Taiwan again, we will not only provide greater support for the democratic Taiwan, but also know better than before how to support them. We will not only have more sympathy for the ordeals suffered by our brothers and sisters in other nationalities, but also know better than before how to express our support for them. When CCP continues to restrict freedom of press and interfere with the rule of law in Hong Kong, we will not only support the democrats with greater effort, but also know how to support them. We have not only gained better understanding of the situation for the democratic forces in mainland China, but also understood better how to promote democratization in the mainland. In the last ten years, under very difficult and dangerous conditions, scholars like Mr. Wang Lixiong have been tirelessly studying and introducing the religion, culture, and history and current situation of the minority nationalities in China, and trying to reduce the hatred, misunderstanding and conflict among different nationalities. His heart is sincere. Suppose one day Mr. Wang Lixiong were to be persecuted by CCP, would any of us here remain indifferent?
A phenomenon at the meeting that is thought-provoking is that people who live in different areas or who are of different nationalities hold rather different views about unification and independence. Mr. Chen Jingci who is from Hong Kong just said that if he were living in Taiwan, he probably would be a Taiwanese separatist; if he were a Tibetan, he would probably be a Tibetan separatist. We have also seen that representatives from the mainland are all for China’s unification. This phenomenon itself indicates that none of us here holds the absolute truth. We are all young leaders of our own nationalities or geographic regions. History often demands leaders to make painful choices and difficult decisions. Chances are that all of us may have to make concessions at future historical moments. Nevertheless, we should all have this conviction: We will never concede to the inhuman and anti-civilization forces represented by the CCP.
Thank you all and have a nice trip home.