Chinese civil rights attorney Gao Zhisheng was arrested in Shandong Province on August 15. This incident has drawn much attention from the outside world. The 41-year-old Gao has been oppressed by the Chinese communist authorities for writing open letters to the Chinese regime to appeal for persecuted Falun Gong practitioners, a topic the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is most scared of touching upon.
During the past nine months, Gao's situation has been a point of focus for the outside world, and it reveals the political situation in China. Why was Gao, who has been monitored by the CCP for a long time, arrested at this particular moment? Is it related to the fact that a captain of the China Eastern Airline, Yuan Sheng, appealed for asylum in the United States? Epoch Times reporter Tian Yu interviewed renowned human right activist Wei Jingsheng who is visiting Germany.
Reporter: Why do you think the CCP has arrested Gao Zhisheng at this particular time?
Wei Jingsheng: I think it has been the CCP's long-time desire to arrest people like Gao Zhisheng who dare to stand up and speak the truth. But why didn't they arrest him earlier? Perhaps an important fact is that [earlier] the international society paid a lot of attention to him. The CCP weighed its gain and loss [at that time] and thought the gain could not make up for the loss, since arresting Gao Zhisheng would have caused serious indignation.
Therefore, the CCP's strategy is not to arrest someone until the person is no longer a hot topic for the news media. The best moment is when the subject matter is neither too hot nor too cold. At that time, arresting Gao Zhisheng would create a more threatening effect. The CCP is very good at creating a horrifying atmosphere at a time of their choosing.
Reporter: Gao Zhisheng is very well-known internationally. Some people think that it is not a smart choice for the CCP to arrest Gao Zhisheng without causing any damage to its own reputation. What do you think made the CCP still do it?
Wei: I think the fundamental policy of Hu Jintao is to resume the policy of suppression of Mao's age. As everyone may still remember, Deng Xiaoping complained several times about how weak his subordinates were and often reminded them to be firm in handling both the economy and politics. So in actuality, the nature of the CCP is terrorism. If they relax even for a short period of time, they will feel insecure themselves.
I think Hu Jintao tends to choose to develop the economy while maintaining the terrorist nature of the CCP. International society's pressure is also painful for him, but he thinks suppressing problems inside is more important for his own security. So, the CCP has become harsher and harsher, not only arresting people who hold different opinions or defend civil rights, but also suppressing the left-wing inside the CCP itself.
Reporter: Regarding Gao Zhisheng's issue, what advice do you have for president Hu and premier Wen?
Wei : In fact, I don't have any advice for them, but since this is an opportunity I would like to say something. To be fair, Hu Jintao's policy is very stupid. If he could be a little wiser, he would probably seek a balance on the foreign affair issues; that is to say that if his policies would cause too much damage to foreign relations, he would soften up his internal policies; if his policies wouldn't have much impact on foreign relations, he would be harsher enforcing his internal policies.
If the CCP wants this kind of balance, even if you are a country with dictatorship or a communist country, this kind of balanced policy would be a little bit better than "sticking to the wrong path."
The external imbalance will also cause internal imbalance. I am warning Mr. Hu Jintao that his ignoring the external imbalance now, is very likely eventually going to result in internal disarray.
Reporter: On August 9, Yuan Sheng, a pilot for China Eastern Airline, fled China after his scheduled flight from Pudong airport. There have been many cases of people taking planes to the other countries to apply for asylum, but this was the first time in many years that a pilot fled. Yuan was forced to flee for asking someone to quit the CCP at Shanghai airport. What influence do you think this will have on China?
Wei: First of all, it is a reaction to a certain state of affairs. People might notice that whenever there are many cases of people fleeing to the other countries, including those people working in embassies, it is always a time when there is too much oppression in China and people can't take it anymore. Just after the 1989 student democracy movement was when the greatest number of asylum seekers occurred. During the Cultural Revolution, there were also a huge amount of people who fled China.
Now there has occurred another upsurge. Mr. Yuan's incident is a sign that suppression in China is beyond the limit of what people can stand.
Reporter: You said that Yuan's case is representative of a larger scale problem. He lives a very comfortable life in China with a monthly salary of 30,000 yuan (US$3,750). The issue of resigning from the CCP caused Yuan to flee. Some people say that there are 70 million Party members, so it would not care if only one person quit the CCP. Yet the CCP is very uptight about people who persuade other people to quit it. Does that mean that we have underestimated the CCP?
Wei: Actually a lot of people overestimate the CCP and think that it is strong when it is not, and its "strength" is really just a façade. It pretends to not care about people quitting the Party or even ignores the issue. In actuality, it does not dare to ignore the issue nor implement drastic measures because if it does, the influence of people resigning from the party will spread and more people will know the truth, which in turn could shake the army's morale. Therefore, the CCP is actually very concerned.
Reporter: Reporter: Do you think the CCP arrested Gao Zhisheng partly in an attempt to cover up the Yuan Sheng incident?
Wei: The CCP would sometimes hype up one incident to detract attention from another. Since the plane incident would cause quite a stir, it uses another hot issue to decrease media attention from the difficult topic. It uses this kind of trick very often.
For example, when I was visiting Taiwan for the first time in late 1998, the CCP suddenly set free a couple of political dissidents in order to decrease the influence of my visiting Taiwan. I think its specifically choosing this time to arrest Gao Zhisheng is also for similar reasons, since it can and could have arrested Gao at any time. The CCP sometimes does one thing for the purpose of reaching multiple goals.
Reporter: We have noticed that the CCP arrested Gao at the same time as it arrested Chen Guangchen's two lawyers. It seems that Gao is more connected to Chen's case than to him having written an open letter for Falun Gong. What is more attention-catching is that the authorities set both of Chen's lawyers free but are still detaining Gao. Could this be another deceptive trick?
Wei: Yes, I think this is a possibility. Since the CCP has a history of coupling incidents for its deceptive tricks, its skills and cleverness has improved. The CCP thinks it can get the same, if not better results, by grouping the issues together and handling each in a certain order and according to a specific timing.
Objectively, the method works, because the media are always pursuing current news. When the stories come one upon the other, it will sometimes result in the outcome planned and hoped for by the CCP, but we can do nothing about it.
Feeds