Wang Juntao was sentenced by the Chinese Communist Party to 13 years in prison for motivating and planning the student movement in Beijing in June 1989. He was the vice executive of Economic Weekly, a newspaper in China, and had a reputation as a student leader from the time he was in Peking University. Wang had already started to work for democratic changes in China as far back as 1976, and was jailed at the age of 17. Students from the democratic movement at Peking University had asked him to be their adviser.
After four and half years in prison Wang was released on the request of President Bill Clinton, he moved to the United States where he was given asylum and later finished his Masters degree and his doctorate. Today he is a cochairman of the National committee of the Democratic Party of China, an opposition movement to the communist regime. The Democratic Party of China currently has 200 activists jailed in China.
Wang says that the situation in China is only getting worse. According to Wang, If you asked him 10 years ago, he would have have said that at least people enjoyed some freedom, but not today.
According to statistics published by the Chinese government in 2005, there are more than 85,000 violent conflicts every year in China, he says. “On average every five minutes there is a violent conflict.”
“All groups of Chinese feel they are insecure now, because there is no rule of law,” says Wang. Farmers lose their lands, employees lose their job opportunities, and businessmen are also worried that things are not stable, he explains. Even government officials feel threatened, since the Chinese government can arrest any official without any legal procedure.
While 8 percent of Chinese people enjoy economic improvement, 92 percent are discontent and not satisfied with the current situation, says Wang.
Why foreigners don’t know
Wang explains that it is not easy for foreigners to learn about the adversity of the Chinese people and the human rights violations in China.
“For foreigners, you have no chance to contact farmers and workers, the common people,” he says. He says that although most Chinese people feel that their situation is unfair, they still don’t want to tell foreigners, fearing even worse treatment from the regime.
Since Wang was a famous figure during the June ‘89 movement, an American journalist asked to interview him when he was in jail.
“We know you love your motherland, although we have some dispute,” the authorities told him, and asked him to say only positive things to the journalist. Wang refused, saying “telling the truth can help our motherland to improve,” so the authorities canceled the interview.
Wang explains that many Chinese people are reluctant to talk about their adversities in China with outsiders out of love of their motherland and their will to protect China and its reputation.
