Chinese dissident Wu’er Kaixi told attendees at an OPC event
that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit with President Barack Obama signals support
for a brutal regime. In terms of human rights, brutality and oppression, he
said, China is at its lowest point since Mao Zedong’s rule during the Cultural
Revolution.
“This lending of legitimacy from the United States to Xi
Jinping is a very wrong message,” he said. “The Chinese government is at war
with its own people now.”
Wu’er made his comments at Club Quarters on Sept. 24, on the
eve of Xi’s visit with President Barack Obama, during at an OPC discussion
moderated by Barbara Demick, author and former Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times.
Wu’er was a student leader in
the Beijing protests of 1989, after which he was forced into exile. An ethnic
Uighur who has long campaigned against China’s human right abuses, he has
remained active in politics and is a candidate in Taiwan’s 2016 parliamentary
elections.
Demick asked Wu’er about Western optimism about reform in
China, including American journalists’ initial hope that Xi would bring democratic
change when he was appointed in 2012.
“It’s wishful thinking. We have such a strong wish that
China can be changed. But we need to know that it’s the system itself that put Xi Jinping there,” he said. “So
his first priority is to protect the integrity, the stronghold of the power of
the Chinese Communist Party. So he has to do that. And by doing that he needs
to oppress dissent in China. He needs to be a Communist tyrant.”
Wu’er, who now lives in Taiwan, said Taiwan should amend its
constitution to officially recognize the People’s Republic of China, breaking the
so-called “one China” policy. Taiwan’s government and mainland China both claim
to be the sole government of China.
He also called on the U.S. to link human rights to trade
deals and stop enforcing the standoff between Taiwan and mainland China.
“I just don’t see the logic for the State Department
following a 40-year-old, clearly, obviously obsolete China policy when it comes
to Taiwan,” he said. “It’s against the will of the Taiwanese people and it’s
against the principles of democracy.”
Despite Wu’er’s grim view of Beijing’s capacity for change,
he said activists should continue to fight and pressure democratic countries
like the U.S. to take a stand against oppression.
“The will of dissidents should inspire us today. I think tyranny
calls people to their will by people’s love of peace. But also, they should
know that the same love of peace from people will give birth to bravery that
will eventually defeat that tyranny.”
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