At a well-attended Foreign Affairs Symposium presentation on Tuesday night, two prominent student leaders from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests joined a leading economist in a panel that addressed the prospects for democracy in China.
Panelist Gregory Chow, an economist from Princeton University, expressed optimism about China's progress in democratization.
Fellow panelists Juntao Wang and Dan Wang, two leading activists at Tiananmen Square who were both jailed for their opposition to the Chinese government in the 1990s, examined China's failures to make political reforms along with economic progress.
The event was moderated by Anne Thurston, a professor of China studies at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, who introduced the speakers and gave some background on the Tiananmen Square massacre, during which a peaceful protest in Beijing was crushed by the Chinese army.
Chow, an economic advisor to high ranking leaders in the Taiwanese and Chinese government s, offered some hope for China's democratic future, as well as a glimpse into the Chinese government's current perspective.
According to Chow, the "premiere goal, according to the government, is to establish a democratic system."
While Chow pointed out that this supposed aim was at odds with some government actions, he added, "It will be interesting to follow this course. I expect it to be a slow process."
"As Chinese people have more economic power and are more educated, they will demand democracy," Chow said. "On the other side, as government officials are more informed, they will be more willing and able to adopt democratic systems. China might well turn out to be an innovator of democracy in the one-party system."
Chow also stressed the importance of the media in aiding the process of democratization.
"The media keeps the government abreast of public opinion," he said. "The Chinese government is finally becoming aware that the media reflects public opinion."
The next speaker, Dan Wang, a central figure in China's democracy movement, offered a less optimistic perspective on China's future.
He said that the Tiananmen Square incident seems "just like the day before yesterday," and that he wanted to focus on the future.
Wang was influential in the Tiananmen protests as a student at Beijing University and is famous for his presence on China's "21 Most Wanted Beijing Student Leaders" list for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests.
After the Tiananmen Square protest, Wang was intermittently imprisoned and endlessly harassed for his attempts to subvert the government. He was finally exiled to the United States in 1998, where he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in history at Harvard University.
He is still not allowed to return to his native China despite many attempts to obtain a visa.
Wang said, "There has been a rapid growth of the economy, but what is the cost of this development? There have been increasing social freedoms, but most ignore the setbacks of political freedom."
Wang, a past organizer of democracy salons at Beijing University, spoke of the regression in civil liberties in China.
"Authorities did not interfere with speakers in the democratic salons I organized," he said. "Today that is intolerable. Underneath the booming economy is a looming crisis. China is regressing politically, and I am not confident in its leaders."
The third and final speaker, Juntao Wang, was also an important leader in the democratic movement in China. In addition to Tiananmen Square, he also participated in the Beijing Democracy Wall Incident, which was the first formal protest of the People's Republic of China.
After 1989, Wang was jailed for 13 years until he was released for medical reasons and exiled to the United States. He has been active in the political reform movement in China since the age of 16, when he protested against the excesses of Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
He is now a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Columbia University.
Wang said, "Sooner or later China will democratize. Our generation must look forward and create something new. We need to use freedom and social justice to create ongoing prosperity and stability."
"Chinese have been searching for a democratic China for over a hundred years," Wang said.
Juntao Wang also expressed dissatisfaction with the Chinese government's perception of democratic government.
"The Chinese government confuses democracy with liberty," he said. "Democracy needs social and economic conditions. China is on the right track. We need a new vision to think of democratization."
He added, "The traditional view of democracy is that it is initiated by the people. In this vision, China is hopeless."
Wang said, "Only democracy can provide stability in the long run; 1989 was searching for a liberal democracy and, if standing on the right side of history, they will not fail again."
Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The News-Letter.