Editor's note: the following is the VOA introduction of its "Pro and Con" talk show by Ning Xin on June 2 , 2017, featuring its invited guests: Ciping HUANG, Yaxue CAO, Henry LI, and Wei ZHANG.
VOA Pro and Con Program: Witnesses of the 1989 Democracy Movement: How the June 4 Massacre Changed My Life
June 3, 2017, 00:17
-- VOA Ning Xin
Washington - The consequences of the June 4 Massacre are not just limited to the direct pain caused by the Massacre. For China, the impact of the June 4 Massacre has continued to this day penetrating all aspects of Chinese society. For individuals, the June 4 Massacre has also directly or indirectly affected the choices of many people's lives. After 28 years of precipitation, how do the then hot-blooded youths review their past lives and thoughts? We ask several invited guests to share with us as to how the June 4 Massacre has changed their life trajectories.
Now let us have these guests share their memories.
The four guests are: the chief editor of the online magazine China Change Yaxue Cao; Washington pension fund auditor Henry Li, IFCSS council member and the executive director of the Wei Jingsheng Foundation Ciping Huang; and financial consultant and legal advisor from Beijing Zhang Wei.
Ciping Huang said that she already had a full time job in the United States at the time of the June 4 Massacre. At that time, she had already achieved her American dream since childhood, and looked forward to becoming a US citizen. However, she never became an American citizen (because she wants to work for the Chinese people). She said the 1986 student movement (the preface of the 1989 democracy movement) started from her university - USTC (University of Science and Technology of China). USTC was located far away from the emperor with a liberal culture. Initially, she only wanted to read "books of the Saints" and study physics to become the Madame Curie of China. However after the 1986 student movement in China, Ciping Huang realized that the backwardness of China is not due to its science and technology, but due to ideological and political backwardness. Especially after her class leader, the most "revolutionary" and also the only son of his parents, Hao (Zhijing) was gunned down and killed in Beijing, she was really shocked and determined to change China.
Speaking of today's young people, Ciping Huang thinks that the demands and goals of 1989 democracy movement are not only still meaningful, but are even closer now. In the 1980's, people were "rebels while kneeling on the ground", because they believed in the possibility of reform within the Communist system. But now many people have seen the essence that if the system does not change, tragedy will occur. We see a silence of the Chinese people only because the suppression carried out by the Chinese government and its effort to muffle the people is severe, including the blockade of Facebook and Twitter, and strict control of WeChat. But this is not a true silence. Everyone is longing for democracy and freedom. Now China's social contradictions and the gap between rich and poor are event larger than they were in 1989 time. In recent years, the number of people attending our June 4 commemoration events is growing more and more. Ciping Huang thinks the opportunity for China's reform has arrived.
Yaxue Cao said that she was not politically sensitive at the time of the June 4th Massacre. However, after 28 years, facing China's unprecedented strong national machinery that suppressing individual rights, she has begun to feel that as she is living in the United States and enjoying her freedom, she should put this freedom to use. In particular, when she sees the likes of strugglers such as Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng she is moved and feels the need to do something, to use her freedom, to speak for them. They have been doing what they can, such as translating the demand for democracy and freedom from Chinese into English, to break the language barrier, to open up the news channel, so that the Western world see more clearly the situation in China.
Yaxue Cao said that many young people are misguided when they see life is getting better and Chinese national status rising. However, we should not ignore that freedom is like air and water -- if once enjoyed but now blocked, then there will be a rebound. The Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party thinks that the Internet is a battlefield, is the ShangGanLing (where the Chinese army fought against Americans during the Korean War), thus is determined to censor and isolate the public opinion with a high wall. However, when we have the flow and propagation of information, this situation will change.
Henry Li said that June 4 did change his life. He remembers that about five years after the June 4 Massacre, he and a Tsinghua schoolmate went out together. Without intention they drove into the Wanan Cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing, instead of Xiangshan, their intended destination. As they visited the celebrities' tombs such as Li Dazhao and Lu Shuxiang, they reached the end of the cemetery when they saw the photo on a tomb of their schoolmate Duan Changlong. They were so overcome that they went to pick up wildflowers for the tomb. As they were leaving, they saw another tomb that reads: "(this person) born in this time of this year, died in the morning of June 4, 1989, taking away the joy of the whole family." They went back to university, faced each other and drank a lot of alcohol, then burst into tears. Since then, he feels that he must continue his living for the deceased students and friends.
Henry Li said that the reality of China today is that the CCP has been very harsh in its suppression. In the last more than 20 years, it has struck whenever there were organizations, including the Democratic Party, the underground churches and the rights defending lawyers. However, the high-pressure situation will not last long -- once it is loose, it will have a crack opening. As Ms. Yaxue Cao said, the conscience of protecting the rights is the same as the air; after one breathed, it cannot be interrupted, of which we should have confidence. Although the Chinese economy has grown a lot in these years, what needs to be clarified is that this development is based on high pollution, high-energy consumption, and low human rights. The resulting grievances will make it hard to return to where it was.
Wei Zhang said that when he was studying in Germany in 2010, he met a couple of 20-some year old lovers; one of them said she was very sad when she learned about the June 4 Massacre. He thinks that as long as people understand the truth and spread the truth, the warning will be generated and spread.
For more exciting content, please watch the full version of "Pro and Con" on June 2, 2017.
