Three Chinas and the Rest of the World
YANG Jianli
Speech at San Francisco Freedom Forum with Aung San Suu Kyi
Sept.28,2012
You may well be puzzled by the title. Why three Chinas? Am I talking about mainland China and Taiwan? No, that’s two, not three; Or the mainland China, Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau? No, that’s four, again not three. Actually I am talking about the mainland China itself. The truth is: Geographically there is only one entity of mainland China, but politically, economically, sociologically, and even sentimentally, it has largely broken into two societies. And we, the Chinese democrats, with the support and help from good people around the world like those at Human Rights Foundation, have tried to bring together these two severely separated Chinas and construct a society built upon universal values, that is the third China, a democratic China we working on.
Over the past 20 some years after Tiananmen Square, the CCP regime has established a two China structure, and one of the two Chinas, which I call China, Inc. is formed by government officials, red capitalists and co-opted business elite and cultural elite, through the marriage between power and capital, shares open to domestic and foreign capitalists and shares free to elite intellectuals.
Today, China Inc. is dazzling the entire world with its wealth, might and glory. It dominates the public discourse that outside observers believe that it represents China—the whole of China.
But the truth is there is another society named China, a society constituted of over a billion Chinese who are virtually slave-laborers working for China, Inc. I call this second China the under China.
There is an unprecedented wealth gap between the two Chinas, citizens of the under China, constantly subject to exploitation and persecution, are unable to enjoy basic benefits or constitutionally afforded civil and political rights. The two Chinas no longer speak a common political language and have no common political life.
To maintain the two-China structure, on top of the traditional lies and violence which every autocratic ruler uses, the CCP regime has developed new tactics. It is comprised in the shape of a dragon:
Here you go.
The body: sustaining economic growth at all costs to maintain the regime’s ruling legitimacy
Two wings: appeasing the elite with corruption and suppressing the powerless with rogue police
Two claws: purging citizen advocates like Liu Xiaobo and blocking public opinion.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has recently observed, “It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who have it.” The China we view today reflects her wisdom.
The CCP regime’s paranoid fear allows it to imprison and torture its best and brightest citizens. In considering this regime’s record, we need look no further than these individuals, groups, events, and policies: The Tiananmen Massacre, Tiananmen mothers, Charter 08,… Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia, Wang Bingzhang, Gao Zhisheng, Liu Xianbin, Chen Guangcheng, Ai Weiwei, … Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians… House Churches, Falun Gong, Forced Abortions, Forced Evictions, Forced Disappearances, Black Jails, …
And this is the same regime whose foreign policies and models of repression enable the morally and philosophically bankrupt regimes like that of North Korea, Iran, and Syria to suck the lives, freedoms, dignities and wealth from their people.
My earlier quote of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi about the fear of losing power was incomplete. Following what I quoted, she also said “(And)fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
This fear has not only worked in China but also gone beyond its borders. This regime, to use the words of a recent torture victim in China, is “spoiled” by the Western countries, particularly the US. The world history tells us that no country that treats its own people harshly can be relied on to treat another country’s people with compassion. This polarized two China structure also poses a direct and real threat to the peace and security of all people everywhere. Are the collective wills of the world’s great democracies so impotent that they cannot react? No I don’t think so.
Our confidence will be emboldened if we realize that the people of China, too, want human rights. This sentence sounds a bit awkward with 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.
For those who are skeptical, let me propose the following thought experiment for you to judge for yourselves.
Imagine that you visited China, taking with you a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Arbitrarily choose any citizens on the street. Show 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, you wouldn’t. You see, 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.
The people of China have long ago begun the search for dignity, justice, goodness, fairness, equality, freedom, and brotherhood. They have produced a few major pushes towards these goals in this generation. In the 1989 Tiananmen democracy movement, the Chinese people courageously stood up against government corruption that in the words of Charter08, has “corrupted human intercourse.” They stood up for democracy and freedom. The image of a lone man standing in front of a string of tanks has inspired the entire world, and our fallen brothers’ spirits have been one of the greatest sources of inspiration for continued struggle for these noble goals today in China.
We must envision the emergence of a new, democratic China represented by people who have the moral courage and vision to cross the border, trying to integrate the two societies based on justice and universal values. Thanks to their arduous work and enormous sacrifices, the concepts of human rights and democracy have prevailed in the minds of the Chinese general public.
To find a common ground to lay the foundation for a more integrated China, we must create a political language based on universal values that can bridge the gap between the two Chinas. And that is exactly what Charter 08 has been intent on accomplishing.
A breakthrough for a democratic change will surely come from the people. Change is unlikely to happen first from within the heavily entrenched CCP regime which values stability-above-all.
Despite the CCP’s best effort to impose strict control over the media, the Internet has allowed people to connect, to share information.
Following the release of Charter 08, grassroots support for the document was immediate and unprecedented, even though the CCP regime tried to block its spread. Those who signed the Charter with their real names came from diverse segments of society. Charter 08 is a banner which will continue to transform individual protests into a long-lasting movement that demands across-the- board, systematic change.
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Liu Xiaobo has had a remarkable impact on the hearts of the people of China. Over the past year the civil movement has become increasingly mature, skillful, and resilient as evidenced by three cases: Chen Guangcheng, Ai Weiwei, and the Wukan villagers. All took place amid a latest round of heavy handed crackdown on dissent after the Arab Spring.
With a clear direction of the political resistance movement, the people will grow to exert greater and greater pressure on the Communist regime. As non-governmental forces grow and civil protests escalate, the struggle for power among different factions within the communist regime will become more pronounced. Once external pressures reach a critical mass, rival factions within the CCP will have no choice but take the voices of the citizens seriously and seek their support to survive.
When a large-scale movement takes place again, as it did in 1989, we will need leaders to play the roles that Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa, and Aung San Suu Kyi played in the political changes of their respective countries. We will need a group of strong civil leaders that can disrupt the political order and establish themselves as the legitimate voice of the people in negotiations with the state. Liu Xiaobo, as a widely accepted leader both at home and abroad, will surely play a unique role in forming such a group, which was most needed but lacking in our 1989 Tiananmen movement.
No one can predict with precision when the moment of dramatic opening for change will come in China. Virtually every one of the sixty some peaceful transitions to democracy in the past few decades have come as a surprise to the US. One reason is that diplomats, academics, and policy makers generally do not pay attention to what is happening with students, workers, farmers—with the street level society and culture of the world’s not-free countries.
The people of China are obviously experiencing revolutionary change. Above all else we must maintain our faith in my compatriots that we can and will join the vast majority of the world’s peoples who now live in free or at least partly free countries. An opening for change could come in the next few months or it may take a few more years. Of course it will never come without collective efforts, including those from the international community. So we must persevere and keep the faith and be ready.
