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China ‘going further backwards’ under Xi: veteran democracy activist
FORT WASHINGTON, United States, Dec 3, 2018 (AFP) – Exiled Chinese
dissident Wei Jingsheng has lived a good life in the United States for more
than 20 years.
But the man often called the father of his country’s modern democracy
movement still welcomes visitors the Chinese way — by offering them a
cigarette.
In a lengthy interview with AFP at his home in a Maryland suburb south of
the US capital, he lights one for himself — and starts unleashing harsh
criticism of the “one-party dictatorship” in power in Beijing.
It’s a familiar battle cry: for four decades, Wei has railed against state
oppression of the Chinese people’s democratic aspirations.
That battle cost him 18 years of his life, spent in a series of prison
cells. In 1997, after international pressure — including a plea from then US
president Bill Clinton — he was released, ostensibly on medical grounds, and
put on a plane to America.
Now 68, Wei is hooked on Gauloises — strong French cigarettes that are
hard to find in the US — but is otherwise in good shape. He runs his
namesake foundation from his home, battling for human rights in China.
On Wednesday, he will mark a landmark anniversary — on December 5, 1978,
he posted “The Fifth Modernization” on a wall in Beijing.
The essay said that Deng Xiaoping’s “Four Modernizations” did not go far
enough, and called for democracy to be a goal for China alongside the four
Deng cited: the development of industry, agriculture, science and technology,
and national defense.
Deng is considered the architect of China’s opening up to the world.
But Wei, whose essay landed him in prison, says that Deng gets too much
credit.
– Reforms only went ‘halfway’ –
“I should correct a popular saying, both inside China and internationally,
which claims that Deng Xiaoping is responsible for the opening-up and the
reform,” he said, speaking in Mandarin.
“This reform only went halfway, economically but not politically,” he
lamented.
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“Now, in the Xi Jinping era, politically it is even going further
backwards,” he added, referring to the ongoing offensive against rights
activists.
In the post-Mao era that began in the late 1970s, China’s opening-up was
prompted by a broad popular movement, supported not just by Deng but by other
senior Communist Party leaders.
In the end, Wei said, “communist China is a mix between a one-party
dictatorship and capitalism.”
“When they suppress the people, it’s more severe than anywhere else,” he
charged.
– Famous faces –
Sipping black tea from China’s southeastern Fujian province, Wei did not
hold back in his biting criticism of those who have followed Deng to the
heights of power in Beijing.
An electrician by trade — he once worked at the Beijing Zoo — Wei
accused former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin of exploiting cheap labor at home
and high prices in the West to reap huge profits that he shared with Western
creditors.
“During the Mao Zedong years, China was a poor socialist country. Now
China is a poor capitalist country. Overall, the average Chinese did not get
the benefit,” he said.
As for Xi, who has a clear path to staying in power longer than the
habitual 10 years, now that the ruling party plans to abolish term limits,
Wei did not mince words.
“Xi Jinping doesn’t just want to become emperor after 2023,” when his
first 10 years in office will end, he said, speaking Mandarin. “He wants to
be the emperor now.”
Wei, who repeatedly said that the Chinese government “never follows the
rules,” has gained traction in Washington’s political circles.
On the walls of his home, perched above a tributary of the Potomac River,
are huge photographs of him with former US presidents Bill Clinton and George
H.W. Bush.
But Wei, the winner of multiple human rights awards including the Sakharov
prize, said he doesn’t venture into the US capital too often anymore.
“The American government and European governments are concerned over my
safety,” he said, without further explanation.
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