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In mid-February China issued an analysis of its own human rights record that was a classic study in Communist follies. The same day the Chinese government issued the report -- which claimed among other things that Chinese citizens enjoy a level of democracy and freedom unprecedented in world history -- the Chinese government sentenced pro-democracy activist Liu Shizu to six years in jail for trying to set up branches of the outlawed China Democracy Party. Apparently the constitutional guarantees of the right to free association and free speech, which the human rights report extolled, have yet to be communicated to China's judiciary.
China today faces much the same problem that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev faced. Freedom works -- open and democratic societies are flourishing. Dictatorships also work to a large extent -- North Korea is proof that, if a government is willing to take the necessary measures, dictatorships can survive even the most severe privations.
But the middle road does not work. Trying to make people half free inevitably leads to demands for further freedom from the populace alongside demands for more curtailing of freedom from elites (especially military elites). Gorbachev reached a point where he had only two options -- go forward with freedom or turn back to hardline repression. He chose the former and the rest is history. China's leaders have put themselves on the same collision course.
China has seen its economy take off with a loosening of official restrictions, but at the same time its leaders have been shocked by the way individuals have used their newfound freedom. One of the most disturbing trends has been a rise in religious involvement by many Chinese, including significant numbers of government officials.
The most publicized such movement is the Falun Gong. Not quite a religion, Falun Gong combines mediation, slow-motion exercises, and an eclectic set of views drawn from Buddhism, Taoism and Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi.
The group became very popular in the late 1990s with even the Chinese government conceding it has at least 2 million members and Falun Gong officials claiming up to 100 million members.
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The week before China published its report praising its human rights record, the government arrested 500 Falun Gong adherents in Beijing just prior to the start of the Lunar New Year.
What certainly makes Chinese leaders fearful is the emergence of any movement that is not completely dependent on the Communist Party. Since the Communists came to power in China they have paid special attention to religious institutions, generally permitting such institutions provided they are subservient to the state. This is what motivates much of China's interaction with Tibetan Buddhism for example. China suffered an embarrassing loss in January when it was revealed that the 14-year-old Karampa fled Tibet and made a harrowing 8 day trek to India. The Karampa is the third most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhists believe that their highest religious leaders are reincarnated and when one dies his successor is identified by divination. The Chinese government has intervened in this process and attempted to force Tibetans Buddhists to select leaders it thinks it can groom into pro-Chinese religious figures, thereby keeping Tibetan Buddhism under state control. So far, China has had little success doing so in Tibet.
Its success in controlling Roman Catholicism is also modest. In 1951 China forced the Catholic Church under the state and only recognizes Christians who belong to denominations approved by the state. Still, China has never been able to completely get rid of a parallel independent structure maintained by Catholics who continue to have allegiance to the Vatican.
In between suppressing the Falun Gong and seeing the Karmapa slip through its fingers, the Chinese government sent about 150 police to arrest Archbishop John Yang Shudao in mid-February. Shudao has spent much of his life in and out of Chinese prisons for, among other things, refusing to denounce the Pope and has long been part of the independent Catholic Church in China that the government has tried to destroy.
Unfortunately China is at odds with its own policies. The openness and relaxation of state repression that fueled its economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s is precisely what has led to the explosion in religious expression in China. The government will find it impossible to suppress the one withoutalso suppressing the other.
Whatever the merits of its religious message, the Falun Gong certainly knows how to flex its muscle. Complaining of harassment from the state and media, it organized a 10,000-person protest in Tianamen Square in April of 1999 in which protesters surrounded the main Communist Party headquarters. In July the Chinese government responded by banning Falun Gong and beginning a round-up of its most important members. According to the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China, more than 5,000 Falun Gong members have been sent to labor camps without trial and another 300 have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years.
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