June 13, 2012. The American Enterprise Institute hosted a forum at its DC headquarters office on the topic “From Glasnost to the Arab Spring: The Moral Foundation of Anti-Authoritarian Revolutions.” Leading activists from China, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, and the U.S. participated in the forum, which stressed the values of morality and dignity in the quest for freedom against corrupt and authoritarian governments.
Dr Leon Aron of the A.E.I., a noted Russia expert, opened the event by welcoming the panelists and the audience, inviting all present to absorb the day’s program, to ask questions, to reflect and to act, to become involved and thus to make a positive impact for change in humanitarian movements throughout the world. He presented his book, Roads to the Temple, which focused on the Russian democracy movement 1987- 1991.
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The Chinese People Want Human Rights
Dr Yang addressed the audience with a direct and simple imperative:
“The first order of truth about China is that the people of China, too, want human rights. This sentence sounds a bit awkward when I use the word “too”. I put it there because the truth – that the people of China want human rights – has not only been suppressed by the Chinese communist regime but is all too often overlooked by the world community.”
“All too often overlooked by the world community.” Yang certainly has a point. How many people outside of Chinese dissident circles knew of Liu Xiaobo before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010? (Uh, can you pronounce that name for me again?) Or of the Chinese Charter 08? (click here). Who had heard of CHEN Guangcheng before his daring escape became international news? Or how about the Jasmine Revolution? [Stop. FYI – We are all familiar with the Arab Spring. The JasmineRevolution was its Chinese counterpart. It began in February 2011, as a series of nonviolent walking protests in communities throughout China, which people took part in to show their support for democratic change. In response, the Chinese government over-reacted with its characteristic heavy- handedness by jailing organizers, censoring the Internet, searching homes, seizing property, and generally harassing anyone who might be deemed sympathetic to the cause or, in their view, ‘suspect.’ Unstop.] These examples are all very significant events in the chronology of the Chinese democracy movement, yet they garner very little attention from the international community unless a drama unfolds that hits close to home.
So Yang’s point is well taken. Yes, the Communist Chinese regime does its serious level best to keep the voices of democracy and dissent under strict control. Yet we here in the West make the Party’s job easier when we fail to fully appreciate that the Chinese people value fairness and justice == and despise corruption == just as much as anyone. Please do not ever forget the image of that lone man standing up to a string of tanks in Tiananmen Square in1989, waving his arms at them as if to say ‘Go away! Leave my city!’ With that image in mind, please consider the following from Yang Jianli’s remarks at the AEI:
Imagine that you visited China, taking with you a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Arbitrarily choose any Chinese citizens on the street. Show them the document, asking them with the language they understand whether they want the rights listed there. What would you expect them to say? Would you for a second believe they would say “No, I do not want these rights”? Of course not. You understand the Chinese people through understanding yourselves: Nobody wants to be a slave. In this regard, the Chinese people are no different than other people in the world. The thirst for freedom and dignity is indeed universal.
Universal, indeed. Beam me up, Scotty, I’m getting tunnel vision down here.
By Laura Butera
Washington, D.C.