Abstract
The repression of dissent and the arrest of a number of human rights activists in Peking last April was not unexpected. For one thing, this repression has confirmed the general belief that the authorities in China have no time for legality in any Western sense of the word. The idea that a citizen should be entitled to civil rights, held independently from the Communist Party and the State, is nearly always dismissed as a bourgeois absurdity. The Catch-22 logic of Mao's concept of the ‘contradictions among the people’ was manifested once again: the people do have a right to speak out freely, should fully air their views, hold serious debate on national issues, and write dazibaos (wall posters). But if they go too far, if they abuse that right, they are no longer allowed to exercise it. They become ‘reactionaries’.
The ‘movement for democratic freedoms and respect for human rights’ started in mid-November 1978 and lasted until April of this year, becoming known as the ‘Peking Spring’. As part of their campaign, the activists held public meetings and organised demonstrations in the streets of Peking, as well as in the provinces. Dazibaos were put up on the Democracy Wall at Xidan Square in the centre of Peking. Unofficial publications were sold in the streets.
Among the various publications to emerge from the movement were: The Fifth April Tribune, Today, Bulletin of References for the Masses, Tribune of the People, The Alliance for Human Rights, and Tansuo (‘Explorations’).
Among the unknown number of those arrested were two well-known leaders of the movement: Wei Jingsheng, 29, electrician, publisher and editor of Tansuo. He is also the author of ‘The Fifth Modernisation’ and ‘Qin Cheng No. 1’, which describes a prison for high-level cadres in the suburb of Peking. Also detained is Ren Wanding, 35, a worker, and one of the leaders of the Alliance for Human Rights in China. Both men have been condemned by the authorities as ‘counter-revolutionaries’, a charge that carries capital punishment.