By Wei Jingsheng

On January 17, 2005, Mr. Zhao ZiYang departed this world at an age of 85 years old. The Chinese Communists are so nervous about his departure that they dispatched massive numbers of military, police and plain-clothed police to the "sensitive areas" such as Zhao's residence and Tiananmen Square. Zhao's departure also piqued the interest of many who want to see the end of the Chinese Communists' rule. Many asked: Will this death lead to a massive scale of protest, as did the deaths of ZHOU EnLai and HU YaoBang? Or put in this way, why are there no massive protests yet, do not you Chinese like to condemn the living in the name of the dead people?

We Chinese have to admit that within our culture and tradition, we indeed have this character that is somehow close to cowardice. When people want to say something yet do not dare, they will take a detoured way of expression such as "borrowing the corpses to catch the spirits", "Pointing at the mulberry trees to condemn the Chinese Scholartrees" and "throwing the sand into the shadows". In comparison to either a complete silence and or a loud explosion, there seems to be more choices for us, something in the middle that does not make us the complete coward, nor lose our gentlemen's courtesy. Who knows, maybe that is an advantage? The most noticeable characteristic of these middle-road approaches is that there is room for both forward and backward options. Yet the pre-condition for such a middle approach is that people will still consider retreating one step backward for the hope of a peaceful resolution. Otherwise, there is only the resolution of stepping forward without any courtesy offered.

April 5 is the Chinese Memorial Day. Twenty-eight years ago on the Chinese Memorial Day after Zhou EnLai's death, the famous April 5 Movement developed on Tiananmen Square when people used his death as an excuse to gather together. At that time people has not thought of abolishing the Communist system; instead their slogans were to get rid of some people inside the Party, while supporting others. Specifically they wanted to get rid of the successors of Mao ZeDong lead by Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, and supported Deng XiaoPing's faction that seemed to be against Mao. That time, the mainstream opinion of the Chinese was: the Communist system is good, but not Mao's policy. If we could get rid of Mao's policy, everything will turn out all right. The Chinese still held their great hope to the Communist Party. To claim that these people who participated in the April 5 Movement are "anti- revolutionaries" is indeed a wrongful verdict. So after Deng XiaoPing and Hu YaoBang came to power, it was a natural and intelligent move that fits the Communism Party's rules for them to over-rule the verdict. There was not much dissidence within the Communist Party for that over-rule.

In 1989, a big fight broke out in a meeting between Hu YaoBang and the conservatives within the Chinese Communist Party. The result was it triggered Hu's heart attack during the meeting and he died in the hospital shortly after. At that time, the democracy movement was developing rapidly, with the people's sympathy to this brave leader who dared to not just speak up but also to take action. The movement moved forward. The main slogans of the 1989 democracy movement were still not of anti-communism, but the request to exchange the one-party dictatorship for democracy, human rights and freedom. This desire was fundamentally different from that of 1976's April 5 movement. Judging by the standard of the Chinese Communists, this was truly "anti- revolutionary". This move was not just against some faction within the Communist Party, but against the whole system of Communism. Thus, it was impossible for the Chinese Communists to "over-rule" the 1989 democracy movement. However, the initial designers of this movement still planned their strategy to be similar to 1976's mode. They took the approach of choosing Zhao ZiYang against Deng XiaoPing in an effort of to change the course of the Chinese Communist Party. Their goal was reform, rather than changing the system completely. The development of the movement shifted off the designers' target, because the mainstream ideology of the Chinese was not to be satisfied just simply at the level of reform. Most people think that the one-party dictator system needs to be abolished for the Western style democracy.

The first movement 28 years ago was smashed by the sticks held by "the militant workers", so the second movement 16 years ago mobilized people of almost the whole society. However, this time, the military came in with tanks to kill the unarmed citizens. What was smashed was not just the confidence of the few, but also the little hope the whole society had left for the Chinese Communists. Without that hope, most people will not bother to waste their lives. Without hope, there is no middle ground of the formalities of "preferring George as a way to be against Tom", and "Borrowing the corpse to catch the spirits". This is the real reason that people's reaction is so calm after Zhao ZiYang's death today.

This cold reaction is not a good sign to the Chinese Communist Party because it reflects that the mainstream thought of our Chinese has only two extremes to take: one is to suffer through the shame and keep the silence, the other is not to be afraid of take risks anymore.

In reality, various forms and various scaled protests in which people took action "without fear of risk" has been the main manner the Chinese people have opposed the dictatorship of Chinese Communism in the last a few years. The suppression ability of any government is limited, even with modern equipment and high technology. Under these circumstances, it is indeed stupid enough for the Communist Party to decide to abolish the "appeal to the higher-up system" which has been acting as the minimum buffer zone in the past. This action is just like digging one's tomb for oneself. The fact that they do not even dare to use the reputation of Zhao ZiYang to cheat on the Chinese people now reflects the weak and cowardly character of the Communist Party. They will not survive when the big wind comes and the big waves hit.

From the Wei Jingsheng Foundation, WeiJingSheng.org.

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Published by the China Support Network (CSN). Begun as the American response group in 1989, CSN represents Americans who are "on the side" of the students in Tiananmen Square -- standing for democratic reform, human rights, and freedom in China. For dissident news; to support a stronger China policy; or get more information, see http://www.chinasupport.net.