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Editorial: China syndrome Democracy is a crime to an insecure dictatorship Thursday, December 24, 1998
What is "subversion" in China? It is simply what much of the rest of the world takes for granted, a basic right enshrined in international agreements: the act of forming an opposition political party.
In the Chinese version of the dictatorship of the proletariat, democratic behavior is seen not as a sign of social vitality and confidence but as a threat to state security. Those who question their rulers must be treated as criminals.
That is the lesson reinforced this week by the severe punishments handed out to three founding members of the China Democracy Party. Xu Wenli, a courageous man who has already spent 12 years in prison for his beliefs, was sentenced to another 13 years; Qin Yongmin was given 12 years; and Wang Youcai got 11 years after trials that lasted only a few hours.
Just six months after President Clinton visited Beijing and called for democratic reforms, the Chinese government has given its brutal answer.
It insists that the crackdown is an internal matter, although this stance is at odds with its signing of the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October. After the verdicts, Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin made it clear in a speech that China will continue to clamp down on dissent throughout next year.
What a contrast China unwittingly draws with the "rebel" state of Taiwan across the strait. Early in December, the ruling Kuomintang Party gained more power in its country's legislature and took the mayor's post in Taipei, but only as the result of a fresh and exuberant democratic process.
The leaders of Communist China may not care for foreign opinions, but their shameful behavior declares before the world what sort of government they preside over - one so insecure, despite all its power, that it cannot compete with the ideas of a few brave people.
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