Fearful of jasmine revolution

By Frank Ching

The ongoing political crackdown in China, whose most prominent victim so far is the artist Ai Weiwei, followed calls on the Internet for a “jasmine revolution,” similar to the protests that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt.

These anonymous calls urge those who wish to see political reform to simply stroll in busy commercial areas of Beijing, Shanghai and other cities on Sunday afternoons.

The foreign media has reported on the lack of overt demonstrations on these occasions. A stroll down the Wangfujing shopping area of Beijing on Sunday showed no signs of any protests, but nonetheless the police were out in force, with many police cars, uniformed officers and, no doubt, others in plain clothes near McDonald’s restaurant and probably inside.

Chinese security officials have evidently made use of these occasions to identify potential troublemakers.

Recently, it was disclosed that a 21-year-old man had been administratively sentenced to two years in a labor camp for participating in “an illegal assembly and demonstration” in Wangfujing on Feb. 20.

The man, Wei Qiang, had taken photographs of the crowds outside McDonald’s and posted them on the Internet. He said he had refused to leave despite police admonitions to disperse.

It isn’t known how many other people have been picked up. But apparently, while foreign journalists were unable to identify protesters, Chinese police have been able to do so.

In addition, the security authorities have detained or simply “disappeared” dozens of human rights lawyers, activists and bloggers, allegedly in contravention of legal procedures.

The Chinese government is obviously determined to prevent the type of protests that erupted in the Middle East from occurring in China by preemptively arresting those who might take part in such demonstrations.

China’s obsession with preventing any outbreak of protests may appear odd, given that the country bears little resemblance to the Middle East. After all, China’s economy has been the wonder of the world for the last several decades, with gleaming skyscrapers now dotting its cities and millions of its citizens having been lifted from poverty.

But from the standpoint of Chinese leaders, the comparison of the Chinese government to dictators in the Middle East brings back memories that it would rather have the world forget, namely, the military crackdown of 1989, when the Communist Party sent tanks against unarmed students.

Thus, when U.S. President Barack Obama warned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak not to use force against his own people, leaders in Beijing undoubtedly remembered what happened 22 years ago.

Using force against their own people was precisely what the Communist Party did in China, after weeks of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and in dozens of cities around the country.

By contrast, on June 4, 1989, the day of the crackdown in China, Poland held parliamentary elections where the independent Solidarity trade union scored a major victory. By September, a non-Communist government was in office.

Other governments in Eastern Europe also fell, mostly without bloodshed, as ruling communist parties bowed to the will of the people.

But in China, the Communist Party stood firm, refusing to budge. Today, it feels vindicated as China has continued to press ahead economically while banning Western-style democracy.

The current focus of world attention is Libya, where Colonel Moammar Gadhafi is refusing to step down despite calls for him to end his 42-year rule ― longer than that of any other world leader.

Obama has said that “when a leader’s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving.”

And what has been Gadhafi’s response?

In a long defiant speech, he praised what the Chinese government did in 1989. “People in front of tanks were crushed,” he recalled. “The unity of China was more important than those people in Tiananmen Square.”

He went on: “It’s not a joke. I will do whatever it takes to make sure part of the country isn’t taken away.”

So current dictators justify killing their own people by invoking what the Chinese communists did in 1989.

That may be why China’s leaders are fearful of a jasmine revolution. They remember what happened in 1989 and, desperate to prevent another uprising, however unlikely, they are rounding up anyone who may take part in such a revolution.

E-mail the writer at Frank.ching@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: FrankChing1.