In the Name of Justice: Striving for the Rule of Law in China

11. A Plea for Genuine Political Progress in China

Deutsche Welle: Professor He, you jokingly complained at the beginning of your speech earlier that the organizer inviting you to Germany did not tell you beforehand that the program’s main subject is Tibet. So let’s start our interview with this issue. Do you agree that the West’s strong reaction to the issue of China’s presence in Tibet is due to the media’s biased reporting? He Weifang: I think the West’s recent strong reaction is the culmination of the interaction between China and the West in the past several years. Since the middle of the 1980s, China has been a popular topic in the West, which had expectations for a new political openness, economic growth, and democracy . In spite of the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, the West still had hope for the future of China. But in recent years, with China’s rapid economic development and the Chinese government flaunting its achievements, as well as the media hype about China’s rise as a world power and its increasing presence in third-world countries, the West’s attitude toward China gradually shifted from general praise and enthusiastic embrace to suspicion. Tibet only triggered the expression of this changed sentiment in the West. 216 chapter eleven A Plea for Genuine Political Progress in China Editor’s note: The original Chinese version of this chapter is based on the author’s interview with Deutsche Welle reporter Zhang Danhong (张丹红) in Bonn on April 8, 2008 (www.dwworld .de/dw/article/0,,3263153,00.html). The title was added by the editor. The interview was given after He’s lecture on China’s prospect for democracy and constitutionalism as part of the “Meeting China Week” in Bonn, April 2008, which was organized by the Federal Political Education Center and the Bonn Association of Chinese Studies. 12-2290-9 ch11_Yu 10/22/12 10:35 AM Page 216 a plea for genuine political progress 217 Deutsche Welle: China has become increasingly unpopular among Western countries, as shown by the disruptions of the Olympic torch relay in London and Paris. As a Chinese, do you feel hurt when you see the video images of those scenes? He Weifang: I think it is normal for a major event to provoke some protest, especially in Western countries. The Iraq War, launched in 2003, still inspires protest in the United States today. Other antigovernment protests are also commonly seen. So I think the disruption of the Olympic torch relay has two aspects: one is the overinterpretation by the media, and the other is the Tibet issue. I think China has the responsibility to handle the Tibet issue properly. In this regard, several questions must be answered: first, how to have friendlier and more active communication with the Dalai Lama; second , how to approach the prospect of a truly autonomous Tibet; third, how to effectively protect Tibet’s cultural and religious tradition; and fourth, how to harmonize the relationship between Tibetans and Han Chinese. Westerners are very concerned about the assimilation of Tibetan culture into mainstream Chinese culture. However, just as no state or province in any Western country would be allowed to ban inhabitation by people of other ethnic groups on the pretext of preserving their local culture, it is impossible to exclude Han Chinese in Tibet. So the advocacy of a higher degree of harmonious coexistence is more practical. The Tibetan culture should be preserved, for sure, but it has to be achieved in the spirit of a republic, where different ethnic groups coexist harmoniously rather than being separated from each other. At this point in time, I think China should be more open and give more freedom of the press to Western journalists. Restriction of freedom of the press after the Tibet incident only fuels suspicion from foreign countries. Deutsche Welle: China promised to give full freedom to journalists during the Olympic Games when it applied to host them in 2001. After the Tibet incident, do you think the promise will be honored? He Weifang: It is not much of a problem in other regions outside Tibet. I have frequent contacts with foreign journalists in Beijing. They say the press environment is much freer now, and they don’t need to obtain the approval of the Foreign Affairs Office for traveling to other regions, as in the past. Now the only exception is Tibet. I am a little worried whether the Tibet issue will become a hindrance to...