The Executive Committee of the Free China Movement strongly supports the courageous action of Mr. Xu Wenli of Beijing — the open call by 56 Chinese dissidents for President Clinton to meet representatives of the Chinese opposition.
As spokespersons for the Free China Movement, we believe this is an excellent opportunity for Mr. Clinton to express his support for the Chinese people’s struggle for democracy and freedom. We believe that the President of the United States, the exemplar of world justice and human rights, must prove by concrete action that he has not betrayed the founding principles of this great nation for short-term American economic interests.
The joint open letter of the 56 opposition figures is the largest pro-democracy action inside China in the nine years since the same Chinese Communist government bloodily suppressed the nonviolent democracy movement in 1989. Most of the 56 are former political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.
It is reported that President Clinton has decided not to meet any dissidents from within China, on the grounds that such a meeting would anger the Chinese Communist leaders and thus be counterproductive. If Mr. Clinton has truly made this decision on such reasoning, we must tell him: if he continues a policy of appeasement toward the Chinese Communists in the hope that they will change from within, the result will be exactly the opposite. Leaving aside what Hitler did under Chamberlain’s appeasement, one need only look at how China’s human rights situation has changed this year, after Western countries decided to replace “confrontation” with “dialogue” toward the Chinese Communists. Has it improved? No! Without substantive external pressure, the Chinese Communists persecute dissidents even more brazenly. Do not fear angering the Chinese Communists, and do not place hope in the Communists themselves. Could a meeting between Mr. Clinton and dissidents from within China harm the Chinese democracy movement? The movement is now so weak that there is little left to harm. On the contrary, such a meeting would greatly strengthen the position of China’s dissidents and inspire the Chinese people’s struggle for democracy and freedom.
The Free China Movement will call the attention of the international community to this: no Chinese dissident who peacefully strives for basic human rights should be persecuted any longer. If the Chinese Communists continue to suppress dissidents, we will make clear to them that they are closing the door to dialogue with the oppressed masses of laid-off workers, citizens, and farmers, and to the peaceful resolution of problems. During President Clinton’s visit to China, if any dissident is detained or arrested by the Chinese Communists, the Free China Movement will stage a hunger-strike demonstration in front of the White House and the Chinese Embassy.
We call on President Clinton to listen to the voice of the Chinese people, and to demonstrate his pursuit of the moral principles of peace, freedom, democracy, and justice.
We remind President Clinton that in 1993 you said: “Our hopes, our hearts, our hands are with the builders of democracy and freedom on every continent. Their cause is our cause.”
We also ask President Clinton not to forget what he said on October 1, 1992: “Today we must ask ourselves: what has the President’s China policy actually achieved? China’s leaders still sell missiles and nuclear technology to Middle Eastern dictators who threaten us and our friends. They still arrest and imprison democracy movement leaders. They restrict American access to their markets, while our trade deficit with China will reach 15 billion dollars this year.”
President Clinton, when you walk the blood-red carpet of Tiananmen Square and shake hands with the butchers, can you really turn your back on the thousands of Chinese political prisoners and prisoners of conscience?
Please meet with representatives of dissidents from within and outside China.
Statement No. 622 carries the same text with the following additions, shown in the Chinese original in parentheses:
(At the same time, we ask President Clinton to note that the American people have not forgotten your famous words from your 1992 presidential campaign speeches: that you would not tolerate “tyranny from Baghdad to Beijing.”)
— Shengde Lian, Wang Xizhe, Joel Segal, spokespersons of the Free China Movement
Provenance
- English translation of the recovered Chinese statement; Chinese master: WP21888 (cleaned and published first, per the EN-first sequence for Chinese originals).
- Source mirror file and Wayback capture are documented on the Chinese master.