MCLC: Wang Dan on Chen Guangcheng

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Wang Dan on Chen Guangcheng
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (5/4/12):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/opinion/mr-chen-welcome-to-america.html?p
agewanted=2

Mr. Chen, Welcome to America
By WANG DANArcadia, Calif.

WHEN I was younger I was arrested twice, and sentenced twice, because I
had been a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests and a
participant in China¹s civil rights movement. I was also released twice,
giving me two opportunities ‹ once in 1993 and again in 1998 ‹ to make a
choice between leaving China or remaining. The first time, I chose to
stay. The second time, I chose to leave for America.

I have never regretted making that second choice, and now I want to reach
out to Chen Guangcheng in Beijing and tell him he would not be making a
mistake by doing the same. In addition to saving his family enormous pain,
his leaving China now would not have to hamper his efforts to encourage
change back home. In my own experience, being an exile has only helped.

It was February 1993 when I was first released from prison. Less than a
week later, officials came to let me know I could leave China and study in
America. But I turned them down because I wanted to continue to fight for
democracy and human rights in China ‹ the same reasoning that American
diplomats initially heard this week from Mr. Chen, the blind human rights
advocate who evaded extralegal confinement and sought refuge at the United
States Embassy in Beijing.

I was 24 then. It was just four years after the Tiananmen massacre, and
the political environment in China was very hostile. But I felt I could
not forget those students and other citizens who had sacrificed their
lives for liberty on June 4, 1989. I knew that if I stayed I would very
likely be thrown into prison again. But I did not want to give up. I still
wanted to do something for my country, which I love deeply, and I wanted
to do it in China itself.

So I stayed. I criticized the government, contacted other democracy
activists, published protest petitions. And, as expected, I was arrested
again in 1995. After long interrogation, I was sentenced to 11 years in
prison.

Three years later, President Bill Clinton was about to visit China, and he
expressed hope that its officials might take some action toward improving
human rights. On April 17, 1998, officials from the Jinzhou prison in
Liaoning Province (where the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo is
presently imprisoned) asked me if I was willing to leave for America.

This time I said yes. The reason was simple: I did this for my family.
When I was imprisoned the first time, I was 20 years old. It was of course
a heavy burden for my family, but they supported me. They knew I was doing
the right thing, that I was making a sacrifice for our country. But they
paid a high price for their support. My mother was even jailed for 50 days.

When I was later put in the Jinzhou prison, my parents had to travel more
than 300 miles to visit me every month. The pain and hardship they endured
deeply saddened me. I knew that if I chose to stay in China, I would be
praised internationally; I thought I might even be awarded a Nobel Peace
Prize. But I decided that enough was enough. My family had suffered so
much, and it was time that I repaid them. So in April 1998, I chose to
leave. I arrived in America and became a graduate student at Harvard.

Today, Mr. Chen¹s story reminds me of my own. In recent years, his wife,
son and daughter have sacrificed their ability to lead normal lives as
they support his struggle. They have lived in fear every day. Now they may
have an opportunity to leave for the United States and lead a secure and
peaceful life.

I understand and respect the reasons he might hesitate to leave. Perhaps
he thinks that he would no longer be able to take part in China¹s struggle
for civil rights, or that his influence would diminish if he lived abroad.

But if he feels that way, he is too pessimistic.

I have been in exile for 14 years, and have learned that there are many
ways to exert influence in China from abroad. Although I very much would
like to return, I have no regrets about my time here. I¹ve studied at
Harvard, I teach at universities in Taiwan and the United States and I
continue to publish regularly about current events in China. My work
circulates and is read extensively in China via the Internet and social
media. I have tens of thousands of followers on Weibo, China¹s version of
Twitter.

The Internet and globalization have changed the very concept of exile.
They have eliminated the possibility of isolating Los Angeles (where I now
live) from Beijing (my hometown), and Shandong Province (where Mr. Chen is
from). My Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus followers number more than
80,000, and the vast majority of them are China activists in various parts
of the world. Is this so different from staying? If I were in China under
house arrest now, like Mr. Chen was for the past two years, I would have
had to depend on the Internet for contact with the outside world anyway.

Instead, I have been able to earn a Ph.D. It was difficult but worth the
effort. I learned a lot of history I wasn¹t taught in China and, more
important, I learned firsthand what it means to live in a democratic
society, to experience the American way of life, and to see America
struggling with its own problems. At the Harvard commencement after the
attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for example, a student speaker caused an uproar
with his plan to deliver a speech with the word ³jihad² in its title. The
university stood behind his right to speak the word, and the student
changed the title of the speech. Perhaps this did not surprise Americans,
but it made a deep impression on me.

If I can return to China one day to work for change, those experiences
will prove invaluable. Many of China¹s leaders in the last 100 years,
including Sun Yat-sen himself, spent time living, studying and working
overseas.

Finally, there are more than 30 million overseas Chinese, who have deep
and abiding ties to mainland China. While in exile, I¹ve been able to
interact freely with this community and, I hope, to have played a
bridge-building role. I have traveled extensively in the United States,
Europe, Australia, Taiwan. I¹ve taken part in more than 1,000 seminars,
debates and lectures.

My objective has been straightforward: to ensure that people do not forget
the Tiananmen democracy movement of 1989 and the military crackdown that
followed. I think I am having some success, because I get e-mail almost
every day from young people on the mainland who have crossed the Great
Firewall to log on to my Facebook page and ask me for details.
I¹ve come to believe that exile is not a liability but an asset.

Whether he comes to share that feeling or not, I hope that Chen Guangcheng
knows that although a country¹s democracy and human rights are of great
importance, so are a family¹s love and affection. If he stays in China he
could be a heroic figure. But nobody has the right to require that his
family pay the high price it would face. And if he chooses to leave now,
no one has good reason to criticize him. He will not be giving up the
fight. He may well be helping it more.
I also hope he knows that even if he leaves, all of us who are exiles will
one day return to China.

I look forward to seeing him in America.

Wang Dan <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wang-Dan/104006159634974> was a
leader of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests in 1989. This essay was
translated by Scott Savitt from the Chinese.