TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/032690/0326007.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 5.6 KB | 124 lines

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                                                            WORLD, Page 30

CHINA

From Out of the Depths


A leading dissident emerges briefly to recount how to survive
--  and organize -- amid repression


    In the ten months since the Tiananmen crackdown, competing
antigovernment  groups have multiplied and even thrived beyond
the borders of China,  where some exiles have adopted the
trappings of Western celebrity  activism. In China itself,
however, organized resistance was believed  to be almost
nonexistent -- until this month.

    TIME has learned that three weeks ago, Zhai Weimin, the
sixth most  wanted individual on Beijing's list of
"counterrevolutionaries,"  emerged briefly from hiding to make
some startling claims: a core  of activists had not only eluded
the dragnet but, last February,  had formed a nationwide
underground movement, electing officers and  holding their first
congress right under the noses of the government  in the
capital.

    Together with the better-known Wu'er Kaixi, Zhai was one of
the students  who engaged in a heated televised "dialogue" with
conservative Premier  Li Peng in the days just prior to the
Tiananmen crackdown. At his  reappearance, Zhai claimed to be
spokesman for a new group called  the Cooperative Committee of
the China Democratic Salvation Front.  Said he: "We founded the
organization to show our sense of duty to  our people and to
emulate the spirit of those who died in June."  Composed of more
than 60 fugitives, the organization has elected  a chairman, a
vice chairman and four members of a standing committee.

    The fledgling movement does not advocate the dismantling of
either  socialism or the Communist Party. But it has adopted a
manifesto  demanding that China end the one-party system, reform
the economy,  permit freedom of speech, release political
prisoners and "liberate  the mind and completely eradicate
feudal vestiges" -- a reference  to lifetime official tenures,
nepotism and corruption in the regime.

    The fact that activists have survived not only in Beijing
but also  in the countryside testifies to continuing public
support for the  officially proscribed protesters of Tiananmen
Square. Zhai's own  survival depended on the kindness of
strangers. From the square he  fled to an agricultural
cooperative outside Beijing. "The party secretary  of the farm
gave me refuge in his home," Zhai recalled. Eventually,  with
the help of other strangers, Zhai escaped deeper into the
provinces,  where he has been busy organizing. "Local people
help us," he said.  "I even managed to get an ID card only
issued to provincial cadres,  but with a fake name."

    He admitted, however, that the committee has little active
support  in the army and would find it hard to mount large
protests. But,  he added, "we've got to make some gestures.
We'll try to do something  without jeopardizing our ability to
operate in the future." Independent  of Zhai's group, overseas
dissidents are trying to organize low-intensity  protests in
China. The New York City-based Chinese Alliance for Democracy
is secretly passing the word in Beijing for citizens to take
group  walks through Tiananmen Square this April.

    Overall, the diaspora has had a disastrous effect on the
dissidents'  already fragile unity. Zhai's group has been unable
to establish  firm contacts with overseas organizations. Other
survivors of the  June 4 massacre have reacted coolly to the
committee's overtures.  Old acrimonies also persist. Zhai was
openly critical of two of the  more famous activists in the
pro-democracy movement: Wu'er Kaixi,  vice president of the
Paris-based Federation for a Democratic China,  and Chai Ling,
whose whereabouts are still unknown.

    Of the woman called the Pasionara of Tiananmen, Zhai said,
"Chai  Ling was never a member of the [autonomous student
union's] standing  committee. She was appointed head of the
Tiananmen general command,  but she was too emotional to be a
good leader." As for Wu'er Kaixi,  said Zhai, "he is often too
impulsive. That is why we expelled him  as our chairman [during
the occupation of the square] last May."  Wu'er Kaixi, he added,
"has the prestige abroad, but I think whatever  he says
represents only his personal views."

    In fact, Wu'er Kaixi seems to be the emigre most seduced by
the glitter  of the West. The poster boy of the
movement-in-exile, he dropped  out of Harvard University two
weeks ago to launch the S.S. Goddess  of Democracy in La
Rochelle, France, during a colorful press-packed  ceremony. The
ship is scheduled to linger in international waters off  China
by late April, and he will join it to transmit antigovernment
messages to the People's Republic. The federation is also
involved in  a charity recording of John Lennon's Imagine,
featuring such pop  artists as U2 and South Africa's Johnny
Clegg, with sales to benefit  the movement.

    In China, Zhai and company have no such resources; it took
the committee  three months to bring off its secret congress in
Beijing. Working  against the government remains extremely
risky. But, says Zhai, "I'm  ready to give everything. All these
months, I've received food and  clothing from people for free,
so I'm willing to serve as the group's  spokesman and do other
things, regardless of cost." The closing paragraph  of the
committee's manifesto reads, "We realize that our actions
involve great danger, and that they could even lead to the
ultimate  sacrifice. But we know that ours is a great cause."
So far, despite  the powers wielded by the state, the cause has
survived.


By Howard G. Chua-Eoan.