Word: china
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...clumsy campaign by Chinese security officials to crack down on a small but vocal free speech movement that was encouraged inadvertently by Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping. A year ago, Deng declared: "If the masses feel some anger, we must let them express it." Since then, to the dismay of China's leadership, dissidents have pasted up posters on democracy wall bluntly attacking the authoritarianism of the regime. New underground magazines have sprung up; they contain detailed reports on the horrendous conditions in Chinese prisons as well as sharply worded demands for human rights...
...that he was morally prepared for arrest. Speaking for himself and the other editors of his magazine, Liu said, "We recognize that to achieve democracy, we will have to make some sacrifices-of blood, even of our lives. But we are ready to sacrifice for the sake of changing China." April Fifth Forum, which Liu had helped found, was named for the 1976 demonstration in Peking's Tiananmen Square when hundreds of people seeking to honor the late Premier Chou En-lai were arrested and beaten by police. More moderate than the editors of some other underground journals...
...transcript on democracy wall where it was read by thousands of people during the next three weeks. This limited access to the transcript was tolerated. But when it went on sale at 17? a copy the authorities evidently felt that they could not risk having it circulate throughout China. Wei, who had conducted his own defense at his trial, charged that China had scarcely changed since the ouster of the Gang of Four, led by Mao's widow Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch'ing). A former Red Guard who has become an impassioned proponent of democracy, Wei ridiculed...
Last week's arrests, like Wei's trial, were violations in spirit of the much touted restoration of the rule of law in China, which includes a guarantee of open trials where the accused's rights are to be fully respected. After the Forum editor was imprisoned, police claimed that it was a crime to sell a trial transcript without court authorization, even though Wei's trial had theoretically been open to everyone. In fact, it had been closed to his relatives, friends and to the foreign press; tickets had been distributed to factory workers...
...Peking government's violent response to a few hundred young activists may have been sparked by fear that their views are shared by millions of educated young people in China who have thus far only dared to dream or to whisper of their desires for freedom. Many of these educated youths seem to believe that for China to become a truly modern country with what Chairman Hua Guofeng has called "liveliness of mind," democratic rights are not a luxury but a necessity. In one of its issues, the April Fifth Forum asked: "Why have Chinese in China demonstrated...