The road to Chinese democracy has been a long and frustrating one. The China Support Network has traveled that road with everyone else in this cause, and is now marking its 17th anniversary. Ordinary people recoiled in horror when Communist China's PLA army used live ammunition and a military assault to reclaim Tiananmen Square from unarmed demonstrators and the common people of Beijing. The hand of evil was revealed in full color on television screens around the world.
The Tiananmen massacre was unacceptable from the first drop of blood to the last drop of blood. Ordinary Americans may have expected to see strong anti-communism coming from the White House; Ronald Reagan had only left office four months before the massacre. Americans were accustomed to his staunch anti-communist views, and as a nation we were united against a nuclear-armed, communist superpower—the Soviet Union.
It would be natural to think that Communist China revealed itself to be the next "evil empire." ("Evil empire" was Ronald Reagan's name for the Soviet Union.) And indeed, it did reveal itself that way, and it is indeed the evil empire of today. But, the road to Chinese democracy has been a long and frustrating one because the U.S. White House followed a different approach—appeasement—with Communist China. Why is there such a double standard? Were Soviet Communists "the bad communists" and were Chinese Communists somehow "the good communists"? A careful answer would say that yes, the Soviet Communists were bad, but that Chinese Communists are also bad. They are not "the good communists."
In truth, the double standard is rank, expedient hypocrisy, and intellectually indefensible. The Bush administration of today's White House argues AGAINST trade with Cuba, because "it strengthens the regime." The same logic, if applied to China, would have us curtailing our spending spree—all that importing that happens under the banner of "free trade." However, the United States has persistently had its "twin deficits," a federal budget deficit and a trade deficit, and the political will for reigning in these deficits has persistently been absent. Did I mention that the road to Chinese democracy has been a long and frustrating one?
At Tiananmen Square, Chinese dissidents were met by a Chinese atrocity. American policy made no serious attempt to hold the Chinese communists accountable. Then, the American news media further made matters worse by making Chinese atrocities, and Chinese dissidents, invisible to ordinary viewers of American news. The evil empire was seemingly given a free pass, and could commit atrocities without being questioned. America's media still has not atoned to the Chinese democracy movement for its "genocidal correctness."
But not all change depends on American policy or the stance of the mainstream media. At this time in 2001, the China Support Network vowed to Chinese dissidents, "we will strengthen, we will push, and we will prevail."
I have to thank the people at The Epoch Times, who put together the twin campaigns of "jiuping" and "tuidang." Jiuping refers to the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. Each resembles a chapter of a book, exploring the nasty aspects of the history and nature of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. In late 2004, they were published by The Epoch Times, and became widely circulated inside China. Many Chinese people had never before read such a sweeping, uncensored view of Communist wrong-doing. The regime became unmasked, and exposed, as the evil empire that it is.
Tuidang refers to the act of resigning—quitting from the CCP. A special Tuidang (Quit the CCP) web site was opened to collect statements of resignation from former Communist Party members. When the jiuping were circulated, so too were urgings for people to quit the party. Over 10 million Chinese Communists have renounced their membership in this way since late 2004.
Some normal Americans have not gotten the news, because of the faulty "genocidal correctness" of U.S. news media. But Chinese know well that these are the days of the jiuping and tuidang campaigns. They represent turning points for China, and in their nature, these are powerful and history-making things.
Americans have a holiday called Thanksgiving, when the idea is to sit with family and to count one's blessings. For example, one may have food, health, new family members, or perhaps work and money matters to be thankful for. The Chinese democracy movement has been through some thin times. Even today, there are people suffering persecution in prisons, labor camps, and elsewhere. When one is separated from family and being tortured, there is not much for which to be thankful. However, outside the prisons, the Chinese democracy movement has an increasing number of blessings to count.
We can be thankful: That Donald Rumsfeld moved the Pentagon into a new "hedging" strategy about Communist China. That President Bush recently met with Chinese dissidents including Yu Jie, a famous writer of this cause. That in Canada, the Liberals lost and the Conservatives won—because that means that Canada is getting a stronger policy vis-a-vis Communist China. That in Germany, Angela Merkel came to power. She is the new German Chancellor who is leading Europe to a new and stronger policy vis-a-vis Communist China. That Edward McMillan-Scott recently made his daring visit to Beijing. He is a Vice President of the European Parliament, and in Beijing he met with the persecuted and called for more resignations from the CCP.
This is a new and stiffer China policy, coming to be followed in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. We have pushed for that for years, and now we begin to see from the democratic nations that change is possible. Change is happening. And these changes will increase the pressure against the regime in China—these are precursors to change in China.
For my part, I have seen changes in the Chinese democracy movement and CSN. A few years back, my "strengthen, push, prevail" speech was given to an audience of two or three dozen people. In the time since then, I have seen the audience grow, first to hundreds, and then to thousands of people. We have been strengthening. We have been pushing. That means that two points are behind us, and that future speeches can focus on the "prevail" part of the program.
The road to Chinese democracy has been a long and frustrating one. But now we have blessings to count. That means we have better things to talk about than our thin times and frustrations such as genocidal correctness on the part of others. Because politicians are moving on this issue, I expect that means that the news media will likewise adjust its footing on this issue. We can look beyond that, to an historic occasion for the Chinese nation—we will prevail. We will change China.
John P. Kusumi is a former independent U.S. presidential candidate. He formed the China Support Network with fellow Americans in 1989 to respond to the tragedy of China's Tiananmen Square massacre. In his spare time, he authors a book manuscript, Genocidal Correctness, to record U.S. news media treatment of the Chinese democracy and human rights movements.
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