China Talks: the Right Choice

Authoritarian governments and sects the world over are alike in insisting that their version of truth represents the only reality. It follows that anyone who offers a different version either suffers from delusions or is bent on overthrowing the established order.

China’s approach to its independent political thinkers is to routinely sentence them to long prison terms under harsh conditions. The latest prominent victim of Beijing’s approach to justice is Wang Dan, a courageous former student leader who this week was sentenced to 11 years for “plotting to subvert the government.”

Wang’s alleged subversion chiefly took the form of associating with other Chinese who sought greater tolerance for dissenting views and trying to raise money abroad to support dissidents who have become unemployable. Wang is no novice at challenging authority. He was a leader of the 1989 movement that culminated in the bloody repression at Tiananmen Square. For that act of courage he was imprisoned for nearly four years. Rearrested last year, he was held incommunicado for 17 months before being charged with the capital offense of subversion.

The United States has expressed its dissatisfaction with Wang’s trial and punishment. But Secretary of State Warren Christopher still plans to go ahead with a visit to Beijing later this month and President Clinton intends to confer with China’s President Jiang Zemin at a meeting of Pacific nations in Manila about the same time. However great the moral revulsion evoked by the punishment meted out to Wang and other activists, the decision to go through with these talks is the right one. The U.S.-China agenda, including such issues as trade, weapons exports and security in Asia, demands close attention. The political uncertainty that hovers over China as it awaits the contest for supreme power that will follow the death of Deng Xiaoping adds even greater urgency to the need to keep high-level channels of communication open. The time is inevitably coming when China’s rush toward modernization will force its leaders to lift the barriers on open discussion and dissent. Wang Dan is one of many political martyrs who is helping to bring that day closer.