Wang Dan (王丹), who once topped the Chinese government’s most wanted list of leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen democracy movement, remains fiercely proud of his role, despite years in jail and exile.
“We lost a lot but we gained a lot too ... I’m proud every time I think about it,” Wang said in an interview from Taiwan.
Twenty years on he has no regrets over the tumultuous period that transformed him from a college student to a counter-revolutionary.
Along with other student leaders like Chai Ling (柴玲) and Wu’er Kaixi (吾爾開希), Wang led six weeks of peaceful protests from makeshift tents on Tiananmen Square, turning the movement into the biggest threat ever to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule.
“We did not make sufficient preparation at the time,” Wang said of his eventual capture and nearly seven years of imprisonment.
In 1998 he was expelled to the US following an international campaign for his release.
He graduated with a doctorate in history from Harvard University last year and currently is a senior associate member of Oxford University, where he continues his fight to bring democracy to China.
A photo of Wang in Tiananmen Square epitomizes youth in revolt. Microphone in hand, long floppy hair brushed away from big, round glasses, Wang thoughtfully harangues the crowd with a tense look on his face. At the time he was 20 years old.
“We are going to take back the powers of democracy and freedom from the hands of that gang of old men who have grabbed those powers away from us,” Wang said in his first speech at the end of April 1989.
“What was the most memorable for me was the demonstration on April 27,” Wang said in an interview conducted 20 years later.
“There were banners everywhere. This was the first unauthorized political demonstration in the People’s Republic of China ... the Chinese people had begun to speak with their own voice,” he said.
An editorial in the People’s Daily a day earlier triggered the protest after it called the initial days of unrest “a well planned plot ... to throw the country into turmoil” and “reject the Communist Party and the socialist system.”
Defying police orders, more than 50,000 Beijing students walked from the university district to Tiananmen Square in an orderly and peaceful march that elicited wide support from the local population.
There was a sense of euphoria, as students felt victory could be within reach.
“There were indeed many differences in opinion among students, but obviously that was not the cause for the massacre,” Wang said.
“It was the differences in opinion among the Chinese Communist Party leadership. As long as the government insisted on suppression, it would not have mattered what strategy or tactics the students adopted, the result would be the same,” Wang said.
Wang said that China’s leaders today “are a lot more conservative” than leaders in 1989 like Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦) and Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), the two top party leaders who were ousted in 1987 and 1989 respectively for being too soft on student protests.
“Today’s leaders no longer have any will to change the way the Chinese Communist Party governs,” Wang said.
“Of course we are facing more difficulties than in 1989,” he said. “Economic development has distracted people’s attention and the international environment has changed.”
This has not prevented Wang from maintaining contact with many of the veterans of the 1989 movement, including those in China.
“The government has less and less control over the people, a civil society is emerging with the help of the Internet,” he said.
And what has he himself learned from the history-changing events 20 years ago?
“I learned to be patient in waiting, being optimistic while facing the difficulties,” Wang said.
“I am optimistic on returning to China. I think it will come soon,” he said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS