Democratic China

Remember that Bloody Sunday in Beijing

2006-06-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

On June 4, 1989, Chinese government ordered a bloody crakedown on a massive and unarmed demonstration in Beijing, China. The demonstration was one of many against the corruption in that Communist system and for more democracy in China. Up to now , there are no exact numbers of victims reported officially. It is not clear who ordered the killings on Bloody Sunday within the Chinese authority, ( not the house arrested ZHAO ZHI YANG for sure) .

In China , the authority pretends to forget this "incident", actually to prevent the truth of what happened that day from coming out. What we can do outside the iron curtained China is to remember and remind the world what day is today.

We need to set up an independent 'inquiry' to collect all the evidence to the contrary declared by the authority , army and peaceful citizens. A simple truth , instead of "Liar, Liar and Liar" is the best to remember those who lost their lives 17 years ago, including innocent soldiers.

The conclusion is already made by every one with his/her judgment. But more internet revelations of photographic evidence, evidence of eyewitnesses, medical evidence and army messages on that day would be helpful to the future historical inquiry. That will be part of history.

I think this is the least we can do for an ordinary day in an ordinary country.

A tale of Two Hu Jintao

2006-04-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

Chinese Party secretary general Hu jintao is visiting the White House. I remember everyone applying for US entry permit needs to answer whether he/she is a communist member. The US homeland security people could refuse these people entry into US. How could Hu Jintao visit US easily? He is " the president of China", a state visit.

Recently I read famous novel " A tale of two cities". It is a interesting novel by Charles Dickens.
His words could also be described as current China " It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way . . ."

How are we look at China, from which aspect? That is the current situation faced by Hu Jintao, handpicked as the fourth generational leader. Hu has double job titles: Chinese Communist Party Chairman and Chinese President, He has also two set of values : a communist dictator without any promise to open up freedom for ordinary Chinese people. He ordered tibet military crack down in 1989. He ordered to block internet free access. and many more.

But these four days' visit, he has a role play to show the world as Chinese president , he cares the people. Behind Hu's smiling face lies a new strategy of wooing the American people and the business community. Unfortunately He is a poor actor. He can only read preprinted statement in which he used empty word to mention peace, human right improvement and trade. Even these statement has not been live broadcast to Chinese people in China.

When Hu is in China, he spends his time and effort to poor area, and eating with poor farmers in rural countryside. Here Hu is proud to have a diner with the richest man on earth, claiming they are friends. All of these visits are only" free political shows" to different audiences.

From the very title of A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens signals that this is a novel about duality.
Everything occasionally related together. When we look at Hu jintao, we need to watch he does and what he has done for Chinese people. We can not judge him by watching his role play in one or other plot.

How long could this Communist China survive?

2006-04-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

I run into my friend's Chinese Version Blog: at www.boxun.com/hero/WANRUNNAN , Mr Wan Run Nan posts a challenging question by asking how this regime survived so long. I guess this question puzzled most us for long time. After 1989 Tiananmen cracking down, the regime showed the world its brutal nature and cruelty. Now Mr. HU and his ruling party have learned the lesson. They do not mention any thing " Communist" instead of telling " three representaion" or " eight glory/shamful things". They allow ordianry people to earn more money in so called " economic reform" ( maybe we could discuss this one seperately); meanwhile ruling corrupted group stealling national treasure at much high speed and with huge amount. The regime is readily to supress any organized protests or opposition. I think that is the obvious reason for FLG case, ( Unfortunately, I do not believe FLG and no time to study it now).
My understanding for the international community, we need to pinpoint the issue and promote a long term stable and sustainable developping Democratic China. But we see that most outside Politician and Business people eager to go to China and have lunch with Mr. HU, hoping millions dollar of contract into their pocket. Sad reality.

US president's state of union address on democracy

2006-01-31T23:04:00.000-08:00

Today US president G.W.Bush's state of union address has clearly expressed the concerns of international trend toward Democracy. " Dictatorships shelter terrorists, and feed resentment and radicalism, and seek weapons of mass destruction. Democracies replace resentment with hope, respect the rights of their citizens and their neighbors, and join the fight against terror."
He did not mention any thing about China. Is China in his 122 list of Democratic countries now? I do not know. This address is layout policies for the future of American in terms of their international and domestic issues. The mojor thing is terrorist and war in middle east.
I understand that China is something special. Chinese is joining the forces against terror outside of China, meanwhile Chinese authority does not respect the rights of our dear chinese people. Maybe we need the the third classification between Dictatorship and Democracy.
Let us hope that China is moving from Dictatorship ( Mao era) toward Democracy in long term future. I wish it could be Chinese New Dog Year's resolution. Unfortunately I can not see Mr. HU is moving this direction. No freedom of expression for Chinese this year, newspaper is shutting down, google needs to restrain, farmers could not protest for their loved land, even no Oscar nominated best movies: " Brokenback Mountain and Memoir of a Geisha" .

Hu can talk with Whom?

2006-01-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

US President George W. Bush has told public that his personal relations with Hu Jiantao are warm and to be able to hold private talk .
It is good for US president to have such a confidence and feelings.
Unfortunately, ordinary Chinese people can not have this feeling toward Mr. Hu Jingtao. What we listern to Mr. Hu, who is always reading his pre-printed speaks. We never see Hu's true feelings. Mr. Hu jintao is merely an actor in communist showcase. Hu could smile to foreigners and taiwanese. But we could see his orders to shut down Newspapers , who pushes "Freedom of Press". Hu could never smile to Dalai Lama or Hongkong democratic legistatives, although he consider those are his citizens. I do not think he could hold private talks with his political bureau members, those people are not really sure his supporters or opponents, because China is not soppose to have different views offically within the Party.
What a life Hu has? His feelings is always hiden behind curtains. Just like China, all foreigners see the showdown of "good things", if they go further to countryside and live there longer with Chinese salarie and little medical coverage, they then could understand better China, a big difference between poor ordinary Chinese and rich ones tied with corrupted Chinese communist elite power group.
Hu is always showing outside a smiling face, nice.

Special Political show case of Chinese Community

2005-12-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

Special Political Show Case for Chinese community
Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Party won a majority of local election, a barometer for the 2008 presidential campaign. It supports the President Bush s remark on Chinese democracy. China has to grant more political freedom to its 1.3 billion people and hold up rival Taiwan as an example of a Chinese society that has successfully moved from repression to democracy.
In remarks made on his China trip, Bush said, "Modern Taiwan is free and democratic and prosperous. By embracing freedom at all levels, Taiwan has delivered prosperity to its people and created a free and democratic Chinese society."
President Bush’s remark is not welcomed by Chinese authority, even many Chinese people, It is no doubt that Taiwan has its own problems since it began to allow more freedom. One typical show case is that fighting often occurred in their congress. Taiwan has also serious corruptions and power abuse.
But this election demonstrates that what general election can do. This is a strong message to the government that people are not satisfied with Chen Shui bian’s presidency. DPP’s corruption charges are as serious as old KMT’s cases too. Typical ones related to the hiring of Thai workers for the construction of a Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. subway causes falling of confidence of Taiwan people with DPP. When government restricts economic development, especially the Taiwan Strait trading, Taiwanese business community has no choice of quitting the island and moving to the mainland China. At the same time they could vote to express their discontents.

Imaging these typical political show‘s impact on the mainland China, we could see the Democracy is working in Chinese community. In China, communist authority could control and suppress temporarily the discontents of its people by using machine gun and tanks, but they can not really put off their desires for freedom. One day, if general election is held in China, Communist leaders, as Hu or whoever, will see people’s no confident vote as Chen Shui bien did yesterday.

Unfortunately, China has no Democracy because Chinese leaders thinks their 1.3 billion citizens are not qualified to independently express their opinion over Communist’ 50 years governance. People will remember these: Coal mine explosion, poisoned water in major city and big corruption cases within Communist party top leaders.

A strong China for World peace

2005-11-02T20:46:00.000-08:00

A recent Chinese Communist party secretary Hu's visits to Viet Nam and North Korea shows he cares about regional political issues. According to China Daily " Hu's visits sent a clear message that Beijing is committed to regional peace, stability and prosperity."

Hu shows a 'long term traditional friendship" with his communist little brothers. In realty China has sent troops to both these countries for different wars. Many Chinese sacrified in 1950's for North Korea. What is happening now. Maybe it is not worthwhile for us. North Korean people suffered more than Chinese people. Even now they still live under strong dictatorship. Hu should tell them to open up the country instead of talking "friendship". In 1970' Sino-Viet Nan war was even worse for their leaders' personal ideological diffrences toward" communist". If three countries abandoned the communist system , it would be long term regional peace for us.

Hu talked about his experience for "stability" by developing economy only. This is only a short term stability to cover up or delay the political changes at the expense of Chinese human right. Now a even corrupted system with deep difference between poor and rich in China can not have a sustainable growth and long term stability. North Korea's communist regim has nothing open to the world. No one from outside can tell how stable the country is. wher are the foundation to build up long term stability there.

Only thing is businss for prosperity left. " Hu offered specific proposals for the development of trade and political relations with Viet Nam and the DPRK, and signed deals on bilateral economic-technical co-operation with the two countries." Hu is making a deal with North Korea to push him returning to 6 Party round table talk. and get a gift ready for President Bush's China vist, hoping big business with US market. (The importance attached here)
With Viet Nan, this is oil that interests HU. China's biggest offshore oil and gas producer, China National Offshore Oil Corp, signed an agreement with a Vietnamese oil firm to jointly explore oil and gas in the Beibu Bay. "The deal - clinched on the principle of "putting aside disputes and jointly developing resources" - has been hailed as a good example of solving cross-border disputes in the South China Sea area. "

As long as they make no efforts to open up their political reform and improve their concerns for their own people's rights, there would never be a long term stability.

Long Live Chairman Mao and Commnunist Party

2005-10-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Chinese government issued a" White paper" to explain its political democracy.
The tedious paper is about what democracy means in terms of official Chinese political ideology, and how democracy with "Chinese characteristics" is practised.
It goes to great lengths to explain the country's constitutional identity as "people's democratic dictatorship," an invention of the late Chairman Mao Zedong.
The government has demonstrated a firm determination to pursue a course of its own, distinct from the Western pattern. It states clearly only Communist party will be in power to dictator all eight other small ones. It emphasies that Communist party is the people's choice in history and will stay on and on.
What a pity. Ameicans should learn from us. They elected G.Washington more than 200 years ago. That was American people's historic choice. Why they should design general elections to peacefully transfer power from from one party to another.
When we were in China, first English word we learnt is " Long Live Chairman Mao" Unfortunately he died anyway. Now Let us pray for Communist party. "Long Live Commnunist Party" That is the key point in this white paper.

A Patriotism reflection on Chinese National Day

2005-10-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

The definition of Pariotism is clearly stated that "Patriotism denotes positive attitudes by a person to their own homeland, its culture, its members, and to its interests. The word is derived from the Latin patria, fatherland, which has a much broader meaning than a geographical territory.

It has nothing related to the homeland's party or the party's corrupted system, and/or a particular leader.

You can hardly meet an American patriot who is blindly loving current president and his ruling party or obeying whatever government propoganda. However in our homeland, it is considered the non-Patriot, who do not love ruling party, and do not follow the ruling party's policy and express their independent views.

There are distinctions betwwen its members and rulers' interest....

Hong Kong Lawmakers' trip to China

2005-09-28T08:10:00.000-07:00

A recent Hong Kong lawmakers' trip to Mainland China has been reported as "win-win" situation. During the visit, Democrats' demands for a swift transition to full democracy and on calls for the Chinese government to apologize for the brutal 1989 crushing of the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement. But Communist Party Secretary reacted angrily and refused to talk about this topic. The exchange between Zhang and the democrats was officially to focus on non-sensitive economic issues.

If "open minded" leaders want to change, they should talk with Mainland Chinese. The issue of 1989 crackdown should be allowed to discuss in public. They should talk with those families who lost their son or daughter as student or army official. Those family suffered the most, comparing with some Hongkong Lawmakers, who were simply refused to visit China. Today American Senators have to meet with An American Antiwar Mother who lost her son in the war.

The Chinese leadership hopes to show the central government's goodwill.. But in reality, they are trying to minimize the negative impact of their "conservative reform package" for Hong Kong expected to made public.

We need more than a pragmatic image. We need to have direct results from policy changes , which could benefit millions of Chinese people in long term.

I can still use Skype here

2005-09-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

I have had my Skype account for a long time. It was recommended to me by my friends in China. Skype , an internet calling service, is free for its users. But now, China Telecom (CHA) is looking into ways to block this service, trying to prevent users from logging on to Skype and controlling online data volume so anyone making a call over China Telcom's broadband service will be disconnected.
It is not fair for my friends in China, who can not enjoy this free service as I do now. I doubt that SBC or AT&T can do what their Chinese counter part did.
Why? why? why?
China has a so called Socialism Market Economy. There is no fair competition. Government intervention is present in many parts of Chinese daily life. When state enterprises feel like they are being chanllenged by others, they use their monopoly power to kill them. Luckily, they can not use tanks and machine gun to do this. When Deng xiaoping and his power group felt chanllenged by peaceful student demostrations, they easilly used brute force.
Poor me, I always remember these forgotten things in China.

Yahoo internet, "freedom of expression" in China

2005-09-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

Freedom of expression in China

There is nothing wrong with Yahoo having to give away the Chinese reporter's private information to the Chinese Government.
First of all, the problem is that the Chinese government gave Yahoo a "legal order". This journalist did not violate anything, because communist leaders have a clear "constitution" to protect its citizens' freedom of expression, but they use the term "state secrets" to go against anyone they do not like. If "who is commander-in-chief", "whether the state controls and monitors internet activities" and "if Jiang zheming is retiring" are China's top classified information, what kind of freedom of expression do Chinese people have?
Secondly, Chinese people are assuming that foreigners will help to protect their freedom. It is wrong. Their rights cannot be protected and granted by foreigners. Even Bill Clinton had to shut up about this journalist's case at the internet summit in China. He wants to get paid for his show over there and nothing else. How could you expect a foreign businessman to protect you? They care more about China's marketshare and "green papers".
The only thing we have to fight for our rights and freedoms is to push through this "information wall", asking Mr. HU to tear down this Wall or to push it down ourselves.
We, Chinese people, have long way to go before we can enjoy the real freedom of expression.

Who elected HU

2005-09-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

In the News, the leaders of China and Canada pledged Friday to double their trade and investment by the end of this decade and work to improve human rights in the Asian giant long condemned for persecuting its political opponent.
Comment: trade is more important issue for Canadian PM. It is understandable that he wants to have economic benefits for all Canadians. He is elected by its people.
But Who elected HU?
Only communist old leader Deng Xiao Ping hand picked HU as fourth generation leader to counter balance the power of his predecessor Jiang.
Canadian PM said" "Even though we noted ... significant signs of progress, I clearly indicated that Canadians remain concerned with the human rights situation in China," ... "I spoke in support of greater freedom of expression, association, religion." He could simply point out freedom of choice.
Chinese people deserve the right to choose its leader.

My hope for China

2005-09-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

I am an ordinary Chinese person, who left the country in 1987. I am hoping the country will improve its human right for all the Chinese people, not just for a handful of corrupted Communist offcials and their rich families.
Basically, I do not think that a copy of another country's political system will be the solution for China, but I do hope that the Chinese people can enjoy the freedoms of having a government governed by the people and leaders elected fairly by the people. In the current Chinese system, Communists say they are serving the people whole heartedly, but they are actually only serving themselves, the elite power group, whole heartedly.