News: 张林：赵紫阳是一个朴实的人: Zhang Lin: Zhao Ziyang was a Sincere Man

During
a recent interview, well-known Chinese pro-democracy activist Zhang Lin
expressed his sadness over the recent death of former General Secretary
Zhao Ziyang. He remembered Zhao as a sincere man and a unique Chinese
leader who truly cared about the people.

Zhang has been involved in
pro-democracy activities since 1986, when he established several
underground pro-democracy organizations. During the student
pro-democracy movement in 1989, he started several student
organizations and worker organizations in Anhui, such as the Anhui
Branch of Future Society. He was arrested on June 8, 1986, and after
his release in 1991, he continued to devote himself to the
pro-democracy movement in China. He was arrested again in May 1995.
After being released from a forced labor camp in 1998, he went to the
United States to take part in overseas pro-democracy activities. At the
end of October 1998, he secretly returned to China, but was arrested
for the third time by the authorities two days after his arrival. He
was then sentenced to three years in a forced labor camp until the end
of 2001.

In the interview, Zhang praised Zhao as an upright
Communist Party member who was very different from his comrades. Zhang
said that many of his friends had hoped that Zhao might regain his
freedom one day. “We used to believe that he could survive to see
democracy in China. It is a pity that he passed away so early. It is an
enormous loss and we were deeply saddened to hear of his death.”

Zhao
and former General Secretary Hu Yaobang were both well-respected
Chinese leaders, but they both ended up in wretched circumstances.
Zhang said he believed that such tragedy was inevitable. “The
reactionary and autocratic forces Zhao and Hu faced were too powerful,”
he said. “After realizing that the CCP was ridiculous and absurd, they
tried their utmost to turn the situation around and lead China towards
the path of democracy. They failed, however, due to the fierce
opposition from the conservative reactionary forces of the CCP.”

Zhang
said that he thought that unlike most CCP members, who he considers to
be cruel and extremely selfish materialists, Zhao was a considerate and
sincere politician who was truly concerned about others.

Zhang
used the example of the starvation suffered by Chinese people during
Mao’s rule. Instead of focusing his energy on promotion of Marxism and
Leninism, Zhao concentrated on providing farmers with more grain to
feed the people in the worst-hit provinces as well as those in adjacent
provinces. As a result, there was a popular saying, “If you want to eat
grain, you need to go to Zhao Ziyang.” Zhang continued: “Zhao was in
tears when he spoke to the pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square
during the June 4th incident. This really showed that Zhao was
concerned about others.”

When asked how the Chinese communist
regime would react to another pro-democracy movement like the one in
1989, Zhang said, “Chinese society has undergone tremendous changes.
Though China still sustains its autocratic political system
superficially, the entire society has actually been disintegrated. Each
single person, each ethnic group and population in different areas have
their own ways of thinking. It would be very difficult for the Chinese
regime to launch a crackdown like the one that took place 15 years ago.
Currently, soldiers and policemen are very corrupt, and government
officials, including leaders of the CCP at various levels, are inclined
to change their position with the situation. Therefore, it is hard to
say whether a pro-democracy movement or a massive protest similar to
the June 4th incident would happen again. But even if it happened, the
likelihood of a crackdown similar to the June 4th incident would be
very low.”

He gave an example. “Look at the massive protests
staged by farmers in Sichuan last year. The authorities gave in to the
public and did not consider them ‘counter- revolutionary rioters.’ If
this had happened in the past, it would definitely have been regarded
as a counter-revolutionary uprising and would have immediately resulted
in a massive crackdown. Nowadays, the number of protesters might be
more than 70,000, 100,000 or even more. As a result, it would be
difficult to launch a massive crackdown. If they did, it would very
likely provoke even more violent resistance.

At the end of the
interview, Zhang expressed his disappointment with the performance of
the new CCP leadership. He said that initially, many people still had
some hope for the new Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao leadership. However, that
little hope quickly vanished. Furthermore, he believes that the CCP has
no future, and that it is time for party members to individually make
their own choices for their future.