An extraordinary document, Charter 08, was released yesterday. It is a sweeping call for liberal political change in China, signed by more than 300 prominent activists and intellectuals. Its last two paragraphs capture the spirit of the document:
China, as a major nation of the world, as one of
five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and as a
member of the UN Council on Human Rights, should be contributing to
peace for humankind and progress toward human rights. Unfortunately, we
stand today as the only country among the major nations that remains
mired in authoritarian politics. Our political system continues to
produce human rights disasters and social crises, thereby not only
constricting China’s own development but also limiting the progress of
all of human civilization. This must change, truly it must. The
democratization of Chinese politics can be put off no longer.
Accordingly, we dare to put civic spirit into practice by announcing
Charter 08. We hope that our fellow citizens who feel a similar sense
of crisis, responsibility, and mission, whether they are inside the
government or not, and regardless of their social status, will set
aside small differences to embrace the broad goals of this citizens’
movement. Together we can work for major changes in Chinese society and
for the rapid establishment of a free, democratic, and constitutional
country. We can bring to reality the goals and ideals that our people
have incessantly been seeking for more than a hundred years, and can
bring a brilliant new chapter to Chinese civilization.
Nationalists will no doubt argue that the signers of this document are somehow unpatriotic or have "sold out" to the West – a charge that has long been brought against Chinese reformers, going at least as far back as 1898. Of course, that is not true. This document, and its signers, are exemplars of the Mencian-Confucian tradition of Chinese politics: they are willing to stand up to power and call for progress toward Humanity in China and the world.
Of course, the Legalist-Communist powers that be will do everything they can to squelch this movement and cling to office. The arrests have already begun. But the mere existence of the document itself demonstrates the ultimate folly of authoritarianism: tyranny always creates an internally-generated demand for democracy, a demand articulated by those who experience that tyranny first hand. Democracy is not an externally imposed idea, it is the aspiration of many Chinese people looking for a life better than what they have experienced in their own lives in China.
UPDATE: The China Beat has background here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Wang Xizhe, co-author of the famous Li-Yi-Zhe poster (scroll down to section "legal and political rights") way back in 1974, and early supporter of the China Democratic Party in the 1990's, offers a leftist critique of Charter 08 (hat tip: Roland). Although I disagree with him in certain ways, I think he makes a good point that political change in China will not come about in the way it did in the USSR or Easter Europe.
The Useless Tree 
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