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| The '''Chinese democracy movement''' ({{zh|s=中国民主运动|t=中國民主運動|p=Zhōngguó Mínzhǔyùndòng}}, abbreviated as Mínyùn ({{zh|s=民运|t=民運}})) refers to a series of loosely organized ] in the ] against the continued ] by the ]. One such movement began during the ] in 1978 and was taken up again in the ]. In the 1990s, Chinese democracy movements underwent a decline both within the PRC and overseas, and are fragmented and not considered by most analysts to be a serious threat to power to the ]. | |||
| ==History== | |||
| {{Unreferenced section|date=February 2009}} | |||
| {{See also|Democracy in China}} | |||
| The origin of the movement was in 1978, when the brief ] known as ] occurred after the ]. The founding document of the movement is considered to be the ] ] by ], who was sentenced to fifteen years in ] for authoring the document. In it, Wei argued that political liberalization and the empowering of the laboring masses was essential for modernization, that the Communist Party was controlled by reactionaries, and that the people must struggle to overthrow the reactionaries via a long and possibly bloody fight. | |||
| Throughout the 1980s, these ideas increased in popularity among college educated Chinese. In response to the growing ], the economic dislocation, and the sense that reforms in the ] and ] were leaving China behind, the ] erupted in 1989. These protests were put down by government troops on June 4, 1989. In response, a number of pro-] organizations were formed by overseas Chinese ], and there was considerable sympathy for the movement among Westerners, who formed the ] (CSN). | |||
| While the CSN was initially a go-to organization for U.S. mainstream news media (MSM) to cite, CSN and MSM parted company in a dispute over the casualty count from the June 4 massacre. MSM originally reported '''3,000 dead.''' On June 22, 1989, Agence France Press referred to "the Chinese army's assault on the demonstrators in and around Beijing's Tienanmen Square, an operation in which U.S. intelligence sources estimated ''3,000 people were killed.'' That casualty count, originally reported as above, was subsequently changed by the news media. CSN reported that it was the interest of China's propaganda minister to reduce the casualty count by an order of magnitude, resulting in later reports that "hundreds" were killed at Tiananmen Square. In November, 1989 CSN editor James W. Hawkins MD wrote, "It appears as if Mr. ]] has gotten his way and when we read reports on the AP wire we are told exactly what Mr. Mu wants us to read." | |||
| The rift between CSN and MSM plays into the history of the movement. The principle of ] was violated by the MSM, which changed its story.{{POV-statement|date=March 2010}} Meanwhile, the CSN held its estimate steady at 3,000, not violating estoppel and maintaining the credibility of consistency. In January, 2005 upon the death of ousted Communist Party chief '''],''' CSN raised its estimate to 3,001 dead in the Tiananmen crackdown. CSN proceeded to be critical of the MSM, and MSM proceeded to minimize, downplay, ignore, or underreport movement news and China's human rights abuse.{{POV-statement|date=March 2010}} | |||
| ==Current situation== | |||
| By the 1990s, the democracy movement seemed to be in decline, both within and outside China. This could be in part the result of the Chinese government tightening its control over its people's freedom of speech, thus giving the appearance of disinterest, or as a result of the overall economical and social reforms China has undertaken in recent years. The difficulties that the ] had in converting to democracy and ] was used to validate the PRC's official position that slow gradual reform was a wise policy. Structurally, democracy promotion organizations in the United States such as the ], the ] and the ] suffered from internal disputes and infighting. Much support was lost over the issue of ] trade status and China's entry into the ] which was popular both within and outside of China, but which were opposed by 79% of the American people (in a poll published by Business Week) and the overseas democracy movement. | |||
| Throughout the 1980s, these ideas increased in popularity among college educated Chinese. In response to the growing ], the economic dislocation, and the sense that reforms in the ] and ] were leaving China behind, the ] erupted in 1989. | |||
| ] is very strict, including in the ]. The new generation finds it difficult to obtain, or are unaware of, the truth regarding several important historical events which occurred before they were born. | |||
| A ] has begun to appear between older and younger students when people born after the ] began entering college campuses. These students perceived the older activists as more pro-American than pro-democracy, and thus they are far more supportive of the Communist Party. The younger students also tend to be more nationalistic. Internal disputes within the movement over such issues as China's ] status in US trade law crippled the movement; as did the perception by many within China that overseas ]s such as ] and ] were simply out of touch with the growing economic prosperity and decreasing political control within China. | |||
| ==Government response== | |||
| ], the government's first reaction to the democracy movement was an effort to focus on the personal behavior of individual dissidents and argue that they were tools of foreign powers. In the mid-1990s, the government began using more effective arguments which were influenced by ] and Western authors such as ]. The main argument was that China's main priority was ], and economic growth required political stability. The democracy movement was flawed because it promoted ]ism and ] which put the gains that China had made into jeopardy. In contrast to Wei's argument that democracy was essential to ], the government argued that economic growth must come before political liberalization, comparable to what happened in the ]. | |||
| With regard to ] engendered by the movement, the government has taken a three pronged approach. First, dissidents who are widely known in the West such as ], ], and ] are deported. Although Chinese ] does not contain any provisions for ] ]s, these deportations are conducted by giving the dissident a severe jail sentence and then granting medical ]. Second, the less well-known leaders of a dissident movement are identified and given severe jail sentences. Generally, the government targets a relatively small number of organizers who are crucial in coordinating a movement and who are then charged with endangering ] or revealing official secrets. Thirdly, the government attempts to address the grievances of possible supporters of the movement. This is intended to isolate the leadership of the movement, and prevent disconnected ]s from combining into a general organized protest that can threaten the Communist hold on power. | |||
| ===Chinese socialist democracy=== | |||
| Chinese ] leaders assert there are already elements of democracy; they dubbed the term "Chinese socialist democracy" for what they describe as a participatory representative government. | |||
| For example, in a November 23, 2002 interview, the Chinese ambassador to ], Liu Xiaoming, said: | |||
| <blockquote> | |||
| I think what we are practicing today is Chinese socialist democracy, which is represented by the National People's Congress and a broad participation of the Chinese people. In fact, in today's China, the political participation at the grassroots level is much higher than any western country you can name of. We have grassroots level democracy demonstrated by village election. The turnout is 99 percent, i.e. 99% of villagers participating in this political process to elect their village leaders, comparing with only less than 50% of participation in election process in many western countries.<ref>http://big5.fmprc.gov.cn/gate/big5/eg.china-embassy.org/eng/dsxx/cfyj/2002/t77035.htm</ref> | |||
| </blockquote> | |||
| ==Modern democracy activism== | |||
| Many pro-democracy supporters noted that China has successfully overcome much of the challenges to ] faced during the transition from a communist to a capitalist economy so there is no longer a need for prolonged political repression. They claim that pro-democracy forces would not necessarily stall economic growth after the transition, as the Communist Party states, and more importantly that the presence of democracy would help to check wasteful corruption and might achieve a more even distribution of wealth. {{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} Many believe that the Communist Party of China has no intention whatsoever of ever relinquishing power even if all their economic goals are ever achieved; it is said that China would have refused the WTO if the terms of entry were linked to a shift to a Western-style democracy. | |||
| Within China, most protest activity now is expressed in single-issue demonstrations, which are tolerated to a degree by the government. Some of the ideas of the movement have been incorporated in the Chinese liberal faction who tend to agree with ]s that stability is important, but argue that political liberalization is essential to maintain stability. In contrast to democracy movement activists, most members of the ] faction do not overtly call for the overthrow of the Communist Party nor do they deny the possibility of reform from within the Party. As a result, members of the liberal faction are generally enjoying more official tolerance than persons who identify themselves as members of the democracy movement. {{Citation needed|date=October 2007}} | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| * '']'' | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| *{{zh icon}} ; {{en icon}} | |||
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| ==References== | |||
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