Abstract
The Chinese authorities are cracking down hard on the popular New Citizens’ Movement, even though, as
When lawyer Sui Muqing announced through his Sina Weibo account that he planned to take to the streets with a placard to protest against the treatment of one of his clients, web users in China rallied behind him and the story became a trending topic on the micro-blogging website.
The Guangzhou lawyer was moved to protest against police, who had violated the rights of his client, detained dissident Guo Feixiong, and refused to allow him access to a lawyer.
State police secretly detained Guo on 8 August 2013 for his activism and especially because of his support for southern China’s New Citizens’ Movement.
His crime, they said, was disturbing public order. Despite a legal requirement to contact his family within 24 hours, the police did not do so until 17 August. And although there are no restrictions on access to a lawyer for those arrested for ordinary offences such as disturbing public order, the police continue to refuse to allow Sui to see his client.
After five failed attempts to see Guo and a court’s refusal to allow him to bring a case against the police, Sui, having exhausted legal channels, found himself with no option but to risk arrest by announcing plans for a public protest on 6 October.
This case is just one small part of the tragic and drawn-out suppression of the New Citizens’ Movement. More than 30 members of the movement have been detained since the crackdown began in March this year. The detainees include initiator of the movement, Xu Zhiyong, and Wang Gongquan, well known in China as the founder of private equity firm CDH Investments. The scale and severity of the attacks on these people far outstrip those taken against participants in the Charter 08 movement. Back then only Liu Xiaobo was arrested.
The Chinese government clearly regards the New Citizens’ Movement as a major threat that needs to be struck hard regardless of any damage caused to the image of the new administration.
The question is why, when the New Citizens’ Movement is in fact entirely moderate. It aims to do nothing more than win for the people those rights already guaranteed in the constitution. For the movement’s supporters, China’s biggest political challenge is that, without those rights, there is no way to constrain authority, which therefore stands unopposed and without regard for law or morality. Those rights must be won if civil society is to strengthen and there is to be reform and peaceful change in the country.
Above: Protester wears a mask depicting Xu Zhiyong, founder of the New Citizens’ Movement, Chinese National Day
Credit: PH Yang/Demotix/Press Association Images
The measured and peaceful approach of the New Citizens’ Movement sits well with the public, and this has allowed it to grow. Its mealtime gatherings were already attracting thousands at the start of the year. Its campaign on equality in education received support from tens of thousands of students and parents. The movement represents a breakthrough for China’s civil society, not just because of its size, but more importantly because it has reached the mainstream and earned backing from many prominent figures. The debate it sparked on equality in education forced the Ministry of Education to change the rules so the teenage children of migrant workers no longer had to travel back to their home villages to take the university entrance examination. Such change is a rare event indeed.
The New Citizens’ Movement’s strategy is to focus on rights as a solution to practical issues, all within a framework of democracy and the rule of law, to encourage greater public participation and align with mainstream society and opinion. The strategy has proved successful, and that success has brought disaster.
If the authorities did not regard constitutional government as a foe, if they accepted the constitution as the consensus of both government and the people and were willing to move towards its implementation, then, even if they did not welcome the New Citizens’ Movement’s success, at least they might tolerate it. For the aims of the movement are to advance the constitution: Wang Gongquan, one of its founders, described what the movement was doing as “constructive opposition”.
But the authorities have decided against tolerance. In March those opposed to the constitution rose up and their attacks became stronger and were given the status of a “public opinion struggle”, a propaganda war for ideological dominance. The hardliners could not ignore the sudden growth of the New Citizens’ Movement, which they inevitably regarded as an “enemy of the state”. So alongside taking action against the intellectuals and the internet, they also moved decisively against the New Citizens’ Movement. Arrest warrants were issued and one by one advocates of the movement, Guo Feixiong, Xu Zhiyong and Wang Gongquan, landed in jail.
This is a disaster not just for the movement, but for the nation. It sets us in China more firmly on a path away from constitutional government and a modern society. And Guo Feixiong’s experiences may be the bloodiest of the whole affair. He has been tortured in prison in the past, and we cannot be sure he has not been tortured in prison again, which may be why the police are so determined to keep him from his lawyer. What will his fate be? What will the fate of Xu and Wang and all the detainees be? The answers will show us which direction China is to take.
Translated by Roddy Flagg