Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 22:34:02 -0500 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: READING TIANANMEN TEA LEAVES To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
READING TIANANMEN TEA LEAVES
Until the spirit of "glasnost" sweeps Beijing, it will be impossible to fathom precisely the meaning of THE TIANANMEN PAPERS -- a recently published collection of memos, purportedly written by various Chinese leaders, leading to the decision to use force against the protesters in Tiananmen Square in June 989. Although the memos appear to be genuine, lingering doubts will remain about the memos' authenticity, selectivity and accuracy until corroborating accounts come forward.
That said, one of the book's claims merits special attention. The decision to crush the protests was made partly because the protesters had so many supporters among the Chinese bureaucracy. If true, then China's days as a totalitarian holdout may be shorter -- or at least more interesting -- than anyone expected.
Amnesty International this week reports of a rise in torture in China -- by judges, prosecutors, village and party leaders, police, tax and fine collectors -- against political dissidents, criminal defendants and their lawyers, tax evaders, and people accused of violating China's one-child policy. What is remarkable is not that a rise in torture comes at a time when Beijing is hoping to woo the International Olympic Committee, but that the incidents of torture are reported and criticized in government-conrolled newspapers. (Getting the government to bring its sadistic functionaries to justice, Amnesty points out, is another matter entirely.)
The image of a guilt-ridden, schizophrenic Leviathan -- one that reports on its own worsening sins -- is one we seldom associate with Politburos or Central Committees. Nor should we. Upon close inspection, Leviathan is not a monolith but a commons for warring bureaucrats: the bureaucrats who see the spiritual Falun Gong movement as a threat to state-worship vs. the bureaucrats who see "consumerism" as an affront to communist "idealism" vs. the bureaucrats who see free speech as a threat to their economic monopoly.
It is far from clear that bureaucratic turf-wars will result in the government's loosening its grip on the Chinese people. But a bureaucracy divided can be defeated. And the recent revelations suggest that disgruntled bureaucrats may indeed take the lead in an anti-government backlash.
For a history of political oppression in China, see "Autocratic Ghosts and Chinese Hunger," by Bryan Caplan (THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW, Winter 2000), at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-6-1.html.
For a first-hand account of repression in China, see the Independent Policy Forum transcript, "Tiananmen Square: Ten Years Later" with historian Timothy Brook, Danxuan Yi (co-founder, Guangzhou Patriotic Student Federation), and Jing Chang (General Secretary, Tiananmen Generation Association), at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-6-2.htl.
Also see "A Chinese Word to Remember: Laogai" by Harry Wu, at http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-6-3.html.
For Amnesty International's report, "China: Extensive use of torture -- from police to tax collectors to birth control officials," see http://www.independent.org/tii/lighthouse/LHLink3-6-4.html.
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